Over the last 10 days we have seen a number of 1000 & 2000 Guineas trials in the UK, IRE and FRA and I was delighted to see Isaac Shelby win the Greenham Stakes Gr.3 having purchased his dam Kentucky Belle for just 4,500gns.
Kentucky Belle was purchased at the Tattersalls February sale in 2019 when in-foal to Raven’s Pass. On discussion with her owner Elaine Chivers we sent her to Night Of Thunder (when he was considerably cheaper than his current €100,000 fee) and the resulting progeny was a Night Of Thunder colt who we sold as a yearling for £92,000. That colt was Isaac Shelby who went on to win on debut and then win the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at 2 years. Having not handled Newmarket in the Dewhurst he reappeared in the Greenham Stakes Gr.3 at Newbury which he won in convincing style by 3 lengths from Charyn. Isaac Shelby will now head for the French 2000 Guineas Gr.1 for which he is one of the leading contenders.
Since Isaac Shelby, Kentucky Belle has an Al Kazeem 2yo who is in training with Owen Burrows – this is bred on a similar cross to Isaac Shelby and then she has a Sergei Prokofiev filly foal and is in-foal to Pinatubo.