3 minute read

Freshman sire Helmet posted his first stakes winner when the impressive two-year-old Archives won the Listed Hamden Stakes at Doomben on Saturday.

The John O’Shea-trained Archives (Helmet x Preserves by Canny Lad) is the second southern hemisphere-bred winner by the triple G1 winning son of Exceed And Excel.

Helmet has made an electric start to his stud career in Europe with four first crop winners already in the UK including a stakes placed filly.

Tarnhelm was his first Australian winner at Dalby in Queensland on April 30.

A Darley homebred, Archives is the ninth winner produced by G1 VRC Sires' Produce Stakes heroine Preserve, a Canny Lad half-sister to G1 winner and sire Denman.

Archives is a three-parts brother to dual G3 winner Safeguard (Exceed And Excel) and a half-brother to the G2-placed Medaglia d'Oro filly Shaumari.

Safeguard will stand his first season at stud in WA this season.

Helmet, a G1 winner of the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes and G1 Champagne Stakes at two and the G1 Caulfield Guineas at three, will be standing in Victoria this spring alongside his paternal half-brother Kuroshio.

Out of the unraced Singspiel mare Accessories, Helmet is an older brother to G2 winner Pearls and half-brother to dual G1 winner and fellow Darley stallion Epaulette.

Pectin, a half-sister to Archives by Commands, is in foal to Animal Kingdom and is catalogued for the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale next month.

* DARLEY also celebrated another success for another of their first season stallions Sepoy on Saturday when his filly Chipanda won at Rosehil to become the fourth winner for the former champion 2YO.

Chipanda (Sepoy x Lobola by Anabaa) was having her third career start, having fnished third in the G3 Widden Stakes earlier in the season.

Her dam Lobola has also produced the stakes winners Handfast and Rusambo and foaled a Sepoy brother to Chipanda last spring.

Chipanda is the fourth winner for Sepoy, joining the stakes-placed winner She’s Positive and Giroux in Australia and his recent first European winner Kilmah.

• FIRST season sire Foxwedge posted his second northern hemisphere winner and first in America when Star Empire recorded an easy debut win at Belmont Park for trainer Wesley Ward.

G1 winner Foxwedge, a son of Fastnet Rock, was raced by the late Edmund Bateman and his wife Belinda and Star Empire races in their colours.

The colt is one of three northern hemisphere-bred offspring by Foxwedge bought for the Batemans by agents James Harron and Hubie De Burgh at the 2014 Tattersalls December Foal Sale to be trained in the US by Ward.

Star Empire cost 40,000gns and he is now in line to return to England to race at Royal Ascot. He is from the unraced Empire Maker mare Celestial Empire, a half-sister to four winners from the family of G1 winners Golden Ticket, Telling and Well Chosen.

Foxwedge has sired seven winners in total, three in Australia, two in New Zealand and one each in the UK and the US.

Foxwedge stands at Newgate Farm in Australia and shuttled to Whitsbury Manor Stud in the UK for three seasons until taking a break this year.

• I AM INVINCIBLE was represented by his 12th stakes winner in his first two crops when his 2YO filly I Am A Star won the G3 National Stakes at Morphettville.

I Am A Star (I Am Invincible x Star Band by Dixieland Band) was first sold for $12,000 at the 2014 NZB National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed at Karaka when offered by Rich Hill Stud.

She then went for $40,000 as a yearling when purchased by James Harron Bloodstock and has already won over $122,000 in prizemoney for owner Matthew Sandblom with two wins on the board from just three starts.

Sandblom also races her stakes-placed full sister Band On The Run.

I Am a Star is the third winner for Star Band, a half-sister to G3 winner Common World from the family of Australian G1 winner Pear Tart.