Monday 20 November 2023
2023 has been another successful year for horses out of mares bred and sold by the Aga Khan Studs.
On the flat, Big Rock provided a thrilling finish to the season with a facile victory in the Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day at Ascot, having been second in the Prix du Jockey Club earlier in the year, and Gold Trip backed up his 2022 Gr.1 Melbourne Cup success by winning the Gr.1 Turnbull Stakes. Other star performers included Shantisara - already a Grade 1 winner in the USA – who won the Gr.2 Hillsborough Stakes before selling for $1.3 million at the Fasig Tipton November Sale; Arrest, a Group 3 winner who finished second in the Gr.1 St Leger; and further Group winners Indestructible, Interpretation and Protagonist.
Over the jumps meanwhile, Jigme capped a productive season by winning the Gr.1 Prix Cambacérès, Caribean Boy won the Gr.2 Silver Trophy Handicap Chase, and Kitty’s Light won the Scottish Grand National.
Relations to the aforementioned Big Rock and Jigme – whose dams sold at the Goffs November Sale in 2019 and 2018 respectively - are included among this year’s draft of 16 homebred fillies and mares.
Two three-year-olds - lot 1359, HASIYNA, and lot 1270, HAZALAYA - count Big Rock among the illustrious names in their pedigrees, as well as the Champion Three-Year-Old Harzand and dual Group 1 winner Emily Upjohn.
Lot 1194 SUWAYRA, a four-year-old daughter of SIYOUNI in foal to Sea The Moon for her first cover, is out of a Group-placed half-sister to Jigme and Gr.3 winner Sinawann, from the family of another Champion in Sinndar.
Another highlight is Lot 1269 EZIVA, a winner this autumn who hails from the famed ‘E’ family of Ebaziya. Her young dam Eziyra was a Group 2 winner and Classic-placed, and has produced two winners from her first two foals, the other being two-year-old Ezeliya, victorious on debut at Cork in September.
Mares in the draft include three who have already produced blacktype horses - BALANSIYA, dam of two winners including Stakes-placed Baraniya; KATIOLA, dam of four winners including Group performer Katiba; and LIDIYANA, dam of four winners including Listed winning Likala. Vadaiyma meanwhile is another dam of winners, whose half-sister Vaderana produced none other than Champion Three-Year-Old VADENI.
