Cover image courtesy of Darley
With his daughter Photograph racing away to an impressive victory at Sandown on Wednesday, it is timely to take a look at Blue Point's first Australian crop.
Whilst he is yet to be represented by an Australian bred stakes winner, five have been stakes placed including the G1 J.J Atkins third placegetter Bosustow whilst another three are metropolitan winners.
Blue Point | Standing at Darley
His eight winners place Blue Point in sixth position in the leading first season sire chart by earnings and fourth by number of wins.
Which Darley sees as an encouraging start.
“For us he is not really 'under the radar,’” Alastair Pulford said, happy with the reception that the handsome bay is receiving as he heads into his fifth season at Darley's Victorian base at Northwood Park.
Plenty of support
“Whilst he is not yet full, there is still plenty of support coming for him,” he said, noting that those who have Blue Points in their stable are happy with what they are showing.
“The people we've been talking to are telling us they like what they are seeing from his progeny and they are maintaining the faith.”
“And people have been aiming high with them; they have mainly been competing in stakes races and at metropolitan level so they are obviously showing a lot at home.”
“The people we've been talking to are telling us they like what they are seeing from his (Blue Point) progeny and they are maintaining the faith.” - Alastair Pulford
That talent is now becoming evident on the track with Blue Point “ending the season with a flourish.”
Photograph is one of seven winners for Blue Point since the start of June and she looks the goods with her Sandown success coming on the back of a runaway maiden victory at Scone.
Bosustow easily won his maiden at Doomben before his Group 1 third whilst Blue Stratum, who as a debut G3 Maribyrnong Plate second in the spring resumed with a dominant two length maiden win at Pakenham a couple of weeks ago.
A Blue Point double
He was part of a Blue Point double at that track that day, the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman trained Kirk also recording a smart maiden win.
Blue Renegade and Interest Point provided their sire with Caulfield and Sandown quinellas in June whilst in Perth Lano created a good impression saluting at his Belmont debut.
All most encouraging signs said Pulford who noted that whilst Blue Point was able to record a feature win; the G2 Gimcrack S. at two, he was actually at his best as an older horse.
Blue Point | Image courtesy of Godolphin
“His trainer Charlie Appleby told us that from his first gallop Blue Point showed that he was very good but he was still mentally immature and it was really only as a four and five year-old that he was really on top of his game.”
With that in mind it is ‘onwards and upwards’ for Blue Point whose record in the northern hemisphere is certainly most encouraging.
“He has the best three-year-old miler in Rosallion (Ire),” said Pulford, that triple Group 1 winner (from just seven starts/five wins) being one of Blue Point's seven stakes winners from his first European crop.
High expectations
“I think that his great start in the northern hemisphere coupled with his outstanding sales results in Australia mean that expectations were exceptionally high for him,” Pulford said.
“Coupled with the fact that he was standing alongside Too Darn Hot (GB) who hit the ground running.
Too Darn Hot (GB) | Standing at Darley
“But they just take that little bit of time as he did and the expectations are that they are going to train on, he is not going to be one of those one hit wonder type stallions.
“We've always had a lot of faith in him,” Pulford continued, describing Blue Point as “a brilliant horse who everyone just wants to love!
Alastair Pulford | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“History tells us that not all great stallions hit top form straight away,” Pulford said, pointing to one of Darley's great shuttling success stories in Street Cry (Ire) as an example.
“He sired virtually nothing in his first crop whilst his first crop in America included Zenyatta (USA), Street Boss (USA) and Street Sense (USA).”
“We've always had a lot of faith in him (Blue Point)... a brilliant horse who everyone just wants to love!” - Alastair Pulford
“And his second Australian crop he had Shocking and Whobegotyou.”
As it happens, Photograph is out of a Street Cry (Ire) mare, noting that Shamardal's G1 Irish Oaks winning grandam Helen Street (GB) (Troy {GB}) is Street Cry's dam.
Just a matter of time
“So we think it is just a matter of time for Blue Point in Australia," Pulford said, pointing out that not all high class sprinters get early types - “just because a horse is fast does not mean he is precocious, they are different things.”
And Blue Point was certainly fast, winning 11 of his 20 starts with four of his successes coming at Group 1 level.
The first and only horse to win three of Royal Ascot's Group 1 sprinting victories, he also travelled; in early 2019 winning three in a row in Dubai including the G1 Al Quoz Sprint, a race in which the Australian Group 1 winners Viddora (I Am Invincible) and Brave Smash (Jpn) were fourth and eighth.
He made his debut at Nottingham in June 2016, showing pace and racing greenly whilst still proving too strong for the odds-on favourite Tafaakhor (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}). He took a lot out of that experience with his next win in a novice event at Doncaster a sign of things to come, Blue Point with James McDonald aboard winning by a stunning 11 lengths.
“We were delighted with his win,” Charlie Appleby said on the day, “we have always liked him, he could not have been more impressive.”
Beaten, but only just by the talented Mehmas (Ire) as favourite in the G2 Richmond S. at his next outing, Blue Point bounced back with a three length win in the G2 Gimcrack S.
Natural speed
In doing so he impressed his rider William Buick who said “that was a very, very good performance. He has so much natural speed.”
Close up in the placings in Group 1 company at his next couple of starts, Blue Point was back all the stronger a three, recording a first up win in the G3 Pavilion S. at Ascot, easily holding off a challenge from Harry Angel (Ire).
A Group 1 third and fourth followed that run before another smart performance (despite not relishing the soft conditions) in the G3 Bengough S. at Ascot before a Dubai second at Group 2 level and his first time out of the first four when unplaced in the G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize in Hong Kong.
Charlie Appleby
He bounced back from his first international sojourn to win the first of his two G1 King's Stand S. before going out a bit too hard in the G1 July Cup. A G1 Nunthorpe S. third ensued before his three wins in a row at Meydan.
William Buick was all smiles after the G1 Al Quoz, telling the media that “it is great at the age of five he is showing everyone how good he is. He has always shown us so much speed, I remember riding him as a two-year-old; I'd never ridden a faster horse before a debut and he has developed into a top class sprinter now.”
Blue Point would make it five wins in a row by winning his last two, his second King's Stand as well as the G1 Diamond Jubilee S.
By star stallion Shamardal
Blue Point is one of the 173 stakes winners and 29 Group 1 winners for his sire Shamardal (USA) who earned the titles of European Champion 2YO and 3YO Colt.
Shamardal (USA) | Image courtesy of Darley
A horse who did a great job in Australia with the big race winners Santa Ana Lane, Able Friend, Captain Sonador, Delectation, Faint Perfume and Maybe Discreet bred locally, Shamardal is a proven sire of sires with 15 of his sons siring stakes winners. Five of those have been represented by Group 1 horses including the high class stallion Lope de Vega (Ire).
A half-brother to the G2 Railway S. winner Formosina (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}), Blue Point is out of the placed Scarlett Rose (GB) (Royal Applause {GB}) whose tough and talented half-brother Tumbleweed Ridge (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) won ten races; half of those at Group 3 level.
