Epaulette has been making a great impression with his first crop of runners and on Sunday, 19 November he reached a new milestone when La Grande Assente became his 21st individual winner.
Making all in the ten-furlong maiden at Pisa, La Grande Assente was hard pressed close to home but battled well to maintain her advantage at the line, winning by a short head.
La Grande Assente was bred in the UK by Ritchie Fiddes and becomes the second winner out of Grand Slam Maria (Anabaa). The dam is herself a half-sister to two Black Type performers and is from the family of Royal Lodge Stakes winner Gairloch.
Also on Sunday, Epaulette added a new Black Type performer to his record when his winning daughter Field Of Roses was third in the Listed Criterium Femminile in Rome.
Epaulette stands at Kildangan Stud at a fee of €7,000 Oct 1, Special Live Foal.
Exceed And Excel has a live contender for next month’s G1 Hong Kong Sprint in the form of Mr Stunning, who took his second Group contest in less than a month on Sunday, running out the impressive winner of the G2 Jockey Club Sprint at Sha Tin.
In what turned out to be a strangely run contest, Mr Stunning demonstrated a nimble turn of foot when the field slowed dramatically and despite having to come four wide around the final turn, put the race to bed in a matter of strides once entering the home straight. He now looks like the one to beat in the hugely valuable Hong Kong Sprint, over the same course and distance on Sunday, 10 December.
Exceed And Excel also sired a new juvenile Stakes winner at the weekend, when his son Al Hasa landed the Listed Welcome Stakes by an astounding six lengths at Riccarton, New Zealand.
Al Hasa is one of 38 Black Type performers in 2017 for Exceed And Excel, also sire this year of G2-winning juveniles James Garfield and Threading.
Exceed And Excel stands at Kildangan Stud at a fee of €50,000 Oct 1, Special Live Foal.
The newest addition to the European roster of Darley stallions is Barney Roy, who broke the course record by almost two seconds when landing the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes at this year’s Royal Ascot.
A superb miler who won the Greenham on his three-year-old debut before finishing second in the 2,000 Guineas despite taking a false step coming into the Dip, Barney Roy was involved in one of the finishes of the season in the G1 Eclipse, finishing just a nose behind Ulysses. His time was fast enough to have won 129 of the previous runnings of the race.
Barney Roy’s fee has been set at £10,000 Oct 1, Special Live Foal.
