Tuesday

Baaeed is not only the best horse to have competed on turf since Frankel, but also the culmination of 40 years of judicious breeding by his late breeder Hamdan Al Maktoum.

Naturally, then, Sheikh Hamdan’s successors who are now nurturing the bloodlines he so carefully developed have picked out some choice racecourse performers and producers with which to support the horse as he starts his new career at Nunnery Stud this year.

Among those Shadwell mares are top-level scorers Eshaada, a British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes victress by Muhaarar who will be having her maiden cover, and Nazeef, a Falmouth and Sun Chariot Stakes winner by Invincible Spirit who is in foal to Frankel.

The mating between Baaeed and Eshaada involves some intriguing duplications of deeply influential female ancestors, at a respectful distance of course, with both Baaeed’s sire Sea The Stars and Eshaada herself descended in the distaff line from Allegretta, and both Baaeed’s dam Aghareed and Eshaada’s damsire Nayef descended in the same way from Sheikh Hamdan’s wonderful blue hen mare Height Of Fashion.

The Baaeed-Eshaada foal will also be inbred 4×4 on paper to Green Desert, paternal grandsire of both Sea The Stars and Muhaarar, and their pedigree will also feature multiple strains of Mr Prospector.

The match with Nazeef – who produced her first foal, a filly by Baaeed’s studmate Mohaather last February – will result in a little closer inbreeding to Green Desert. Her sire Invincible Spirit is by the former Nunnery Stud-based breed-shaper, making it a 4×3 pattern.

Among the other Shadwell-owned high-class racemares being sent to Baaeed are Enbihaar, a five-time Group 2 winner by Redoute’s Choice in foal to Mohaather, and Tantheem, a three-time Group 3 scorer by Teofilo carrying to Oasis Dream.

The mating with Tantheem will create a foal with another pedigree for students of breeding to sink their teeth into, as it features a 4×3 repetition of Urban Sea, dam of both Sea The Stars and Galileo, sire of Teofilo.

Another Teofilo mare among Baaeed’s debut book is Adool, a Listed winner from the Fall Aspen dynasty. She has already clicked with Sea The Stars to produce the highly touted Antarah, who created a big impression when running away with a Newcastle novice stakes on his sole start in November 2021 but didn’t run at three last year due to a setback.

Baaeed will also cover Asheerah, a Listed-placed daughter of Shamardal who sparked with Sea The Stars’ sire Cape Cross to produce Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Awtaad, and that mare’s Listed-placed Lawman daughter Aneen. Asheerah is in foal to Frankel, while Aneen is pregnant to Mohaather.

Speaking of Mohaather, the top-class miler by Showcasing continues to have a number of high-profile mares set aside for him as he enters his third season at Nunnery Stud.

Most eye-catchingly of all, he will cover the outstanding racemare Taghrooda, another success story for Shadwell by Sea The Stars. The 12-year-old, whose two runners to date Almighwar and Israr are both highly rated winners, has a Kingman two-year-old filly and a Lope De Vega yearling colt, but was not placed in foal last year due to a late delivery in 2021.

Mohaather, whose most in-demand first foals sold for 110,000gns, €95,000, 90,000gns, 80,000gns etc last year, will also receive Al Raahba, an unraced Frankel half-sister to Baaeed who is in foal to Sea The Stars; Altaayshah, an unraced Dark Angel full-sister to crack sprinter Battaash who is in foal to Pinatubo; and Hameem, a Listed-placed Teofilo half-sister to Group 2 winner Tres Blue who is in foal to Lope De Vega.

Last year’s impressive Haydock Sprint Cup winner Minzaal, by the increasingly popular commercial option Mehmas, is also being backed by Shadwell as he commences covering duty at the operation’s Derrinstown Stud.

The pick of the home mares being sent to him is Tajaanus, a Group 3 winner by Arcano out of a daughter of 1,000 Guineas scorer Natagora, and in foal to Too Darn Hot.

Baaeed’s dam Aghareed, whose affinity with Sea The Stars has been underlined by her also producing Coronation Cup winner Hukum to him, is unsurprisingly back in foal to the world champion and has a repeat date with him on the cards this year. A first filly from the mating, to continue the line in the Shadwell broodmare band one day, is the prize being pursued.

Aghareed, a 14-year-old by Kingmambo, will be accompanied on the trip to Gilltown Stud by her unraced Intello daughter Zaghaareed, who will visit Sea The Stars for her first cover.

Shadwell has also earmarked for Sea The Stars its exciting mares Khayzaraan, a winning Kingman half-sister to Tantheem who is in foal to Lope De Vega; Maqsad, a five-length Pretty Polly Stakes winner by Siyouni also carrying to Lope De Vega; and Zeyaadah, a Group 3-winning and Group 1-placed daughter of Tamayuz in foal to Dubawi.

Among the Shadwell mares on their way to Dalham Hall Stud for a tryst with newly crowned British and Irish champion sire Dubawi are Mehnah, a Listed-winning Frankel half-sister to Awtaad who has just retired to paddocks, and Tawkeel, a five-length Prix Saint-Alary winner by Teofilo who is in foal to Sea The Stars.

Frankel will meanwhile cover Prix de Pomone winner Raabihah, who is bred on the same Sea The Stars-Kingmambo cross as Baaeed and is carrying a Dubawi foal, as well as maiden mare Zanbaq, a Listed-winning daughter of Oasis Dream from the fine family of Puissance De Lune, Rizeena and Zabeel Prince.

Shadwell might have been streamlined since the death of Sheikh Hamdan, but with Baaeed and Minzaal sure to be popular with breeders in their first seasons at stud and beyond, the likes of Mohaather and Tasleet rising through the ranks and that strong concentration of blue-chip broodmare talent at its disposal, it has a bright future ahead.