With the first two-year-old race of the season now less than two months away, there is plenty of chat surrounding this year’s first-season sires and one who has already attracted plenty of attention is Blue Point.
He’s favourite to be this year’s leading freshman and when you consider that no fewer than 91 of his first crop are already with their trainers, many of whom are at the elite level, it is easy to see why.
Among those to be preparing Blue Points for their racecourse debuts is of course his own trainer, Charlie Appleby, who oversaw each of his 11 victories. Blue Point was an exceptional juvenile who landed the G2 Gimcrack Stakes by three lengths, going on to become a history-making three-time Royal Ascot G1 sprint winner.
Charlie Appleby is one of 11 European trainers that handled two or more juvenile Group winners last year and to have a Blue Point this season.
They include Richard Hannon, Andrew Balding, Charlie Johnston, Archie Watson, Karl Burke, and Andreas Wohler, all of whom have multiple Blue Points, plus Coolmore.
Other high-class trainers to have his runners are: Andre Fabre, George Boughey, the Crisfords, Ger Lyons, the Gosdens, Clive Cox, Jean-Claude Rouget, Sir Michael Stoute and Saeed bin Suroor, Roger Varian, Richard Fahey and William Haggas.
Blue Point’s yearling average of €112,000 last year was the highest of any freshman, with a top price of €420,000.
Blue Point stands at Kildangan Stud at a fee of €35,000, Oct 1 SLF. If you are interested in sending a mare to him this year, contact the nominations team.
