The National Stud are delighted to welcome the regally bred MUTASAABEQ to their roster from 2024. The 6yr son of Invincible Spirit was a consistent miler over the course of his racing career and won three Group 2’s over this specialist distance. His dam Ghanaati remains the fastest ever winner of the 1000 Guineas and the family trace back to bloodstock luminaries including Nashwan, Deep Impact and Baaeed to name but a few. He will stand for £6,500 in his first season and is already impressing breeders.

 In 2024 Stradivarius’ hugely anticipated first foals will arrive, he covered a full book in 2023 and so we expect him to have 100 foals on the ground. If they possess a hint of his good looks and athletic physique they will be extremely popular at the foal sales next year and beyond.

 Time Test returns from New Zealand in early January with his second biggest crop to date set to hit racetracks in 2024. It is a hugely important year for him and we are excited to see the momentum build for the season ahead. Rajasinge continues to bring exceptional value to breeders with a steady stream of winners over the past two years. The future is certainly looking bright for Lope y Fernandez whose first foals sold for 2.5 times his covering fee. His first crop will be yearlings in 2024 and he continues to be well supported by leading breeders in the UK and Ireland.

Read on to find out more about the  Stallions that you could be seeing on a guided tour of the National Stud this season.

MUTASAABEQ

Mutasaabeq represents the best of breeding and, importantly for his new role at the National Stud, both his sire and his maternal family have a rich heritage of producing successful stallions.

His father Invincible Spirit has delivered around 150 black-type winners in his long career, and some of his sons have proved to be potent at stud themselves – not least I Am Invincible, a multiple champion sire in Australia, and Kingman, who has quickly established himself as a major force in Europe.

This year’s Group 1-winning sprinters Regional and Shaquille are by other sons of Invincible Spirit who have stood in Britain.

Invincible Spirit’s half-brother Kodiac is also one of Europe’s leading sires, supplying among others the elite sprinters Campanelle, Fairyland, Hello Youmzain and Tiggy Wiggy.

Mutasaabeq was bred by Shadwell out of the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s outstanding 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes heroine Ghanaati, by Giant’s Causeway – the breed-shaping sire of Shamardal and, notably, the damsire of Kentucky stallion sensation Gun Runner.

Ghanaati is a half-sister to Champion Stakes runner-up Mawatheeq and Oaks third Rumoush and to the dam of this season’s Tattersalls Stakes winner and Dewhurst runner-up Alyanaabi. She is out of the dual Listed winner Sarayir, a daughter of Mr Prospector and Sheikh Hamdan’s wonderful blue hen mare Height Of Fashion.

Fillies’ Mile and Princess of Wales’s Stakes winner Height Of Fashion is best remembered for her top-class sons Nashwan, Unfuwain and Nayef, all of whom sired multiple winners at the highest level. She is also the ancestress of Baaeed, officially rated the best horse to have raced in Europe since Frankel and now an exciting young sire, and his dual Group 1-winning full-brother Hukum.

Furthermore, Height Of Fashion was a three-parts sister to Burghclere, whose Group 1-winning daughter Wind In Her Hair became the dam of Japan’s exceptionally gifted champion and epoch-defining sire Deep Impact. There are few better stallion-making families in the stud book.

There is also compelling evidence of quality in Mutasaabeq’s more recent pedigree, as every one of Ghanaati’s other six progeny to have raced also won, including the highly rated Afaak and Wafy.

LOPE Y FERNANDEZ
Physique, pedigree and performance

Lope Y Fernandez was judged to be the European champion three-year-old sprinter thanks to finishing a close second to Pinatubo in the Prix Jean Prat and third behind Space Blues in the Prix Maurice de Gheest. But he also displayed tremendous versatility that year, running third in both the Irish 2,000 Guineas and Breeders’ Cup Mile.

He was also a precocious horse who won the Round Tower Stakes and achieved podium finishes in the Chesham Stakes and Vintage Stakes at two, and he trained on at four to win the Heritage Stakes by five and a half lengths and to run second to Palace Pier in the Queen Anne Stakes.

Lope Y Fernandez is by the internationally renowned sire Lope De Vega, whose son Phoenix Of Spain has made a promising start with his debut two-year-olds, and his Listed-placed dam Black Dahlia – by the highly influential Dansili – was a classy and tough individual who also produced Vintage Stakes winner Dark Vision at stud.

His first crop of foals received rave reviews from breeders. They include half-sisters to Group 1 winners Awelmarduk, Crackerjack King and Jakkalberry and to Group 1-placed filly Baileys Jubilee, as well as half-brothers to this season’s Rockingham Stakes scorer Purosangue, smart miler Dubai Poet and popular handicapper Ropey Guest.

Lope Y Fernandez offers a great chance for commercial breeders in Britain and beyond to access the Lope De Vega sire-line at an affordable fee.

TIME TEST
A consistent source of winners in both hemispheres

Time Test was top-class on the track, as a dual Group 2 winner who was multiple Group 1-placed, and he is brilliantly well bred, being by leading sire of sires Dubawi out of Criterium de Saint-Cloud heroine Passage Of Time, a Dansili half-sister to Falmouth Stakes winner Timepiece from the family of champion Twice Over.

So it was no surprise that he made such a fine start to his stallion career, recording a phenomenal 9% strike-rate of black-type winners to runners in his first crop of two-year-olds. His best performers in Europe are Pattern winners Crypto Force, Rocchigiani and Romantic Time, as well as Group 1-placed Sunset Shiraz.

Time Test has also got off to a good start from limited numbers so far in New Zealand, having already been represented by Listed-winning two-year-old Leedox and at least five other stakes performers.

The handsome bay has consequently been in strong demand from breeders in recent seasons, and has covered 530 mares in the past four years. He therefore has numerous well bred runners in the pipeline.

The 127 foals he has on the ground were the result of his 2022 book of mares containing a superb 19% stakes winners. The blueblooded crop contains a half-sister to Ascot Gold Cup hero Courage Mon Ami and a half-brother to Cocked Hat Stakes winners Michelangelo and Private Secretary, as well as a colt out of multiple US Grade 1 winner Ventura.

The future looks bright for Time Test.

RAJASINGHE
Precocity and pace at exceptionally good value

Rajasinghe was one of the best two-year-old sprinters of his generation, taking the scalps of subsequent multiple Group 1 winners Romanised and US Navy Flag when scorching to victory in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot in record time.

He also has a precocious pedigree, being by Royal Ascot sensation and successful sire of sires Choisir out of National Stakes third Bunditten, making him a half-brother to another speedy juvenile in Kurland.

He was therefore expected to get his fair share of winners when his first two-year-olds hit the track in 2022, but no one could have predicted that he would manage an exceptional 80% strike-rate, with the useful Waiting All Night and Spioradalta among the tally.

His small second crop has yielded more winners, including the smart Cross The Tracks and Two Tribes, as well as a number of placed horses who are surely winners in waiting.

Rajasinghe’s bright start led to a steep upturn in custom from breeders in 2023, with six black-type performers among the 42 mares he covered.

He represents excellent value for breeders looking to use a sire who delivers an extraordinarily high ratio of fast, early runners.

STRADIVARIUS
The horse who has it all

Stradivarius established himself as one of the most popular racehorses of recent times, winning 20 races over seven seasons from the ages of two to eight. His record of 18 Group successes is unmatched in the history of the Pattern and his roll of honour is headed by three Gold Cups and four Goodwood Cups.

His trademark was outstanding acceleration, and on several occasions he finished his races in a faster time than other Group winners over shorter distances on the same card. For example, when he won the Goodwood Cup in 2020 he ran the final four furlongs in a quicker time than Space Blues when he won the Lennox Stakes over seven furlongs.

Stradivarius was a straightforward soul with a determined will to win and never raced on medication or missed an engagement through injury or ill health – a remarkable feat considering he ran so often, and on all sorts of going at such a wide range of tracks.

The beautifully bred son of Sea The Stars, who has wowed visitors to the National Stud with his stunning physique, swaggering walk and magnetic personality, covered 120 mares in his first season, a high proportion of whom were stakes performers in their own careers.

Highlights of the book included Gretchen, the Group 2-winning dam of high-class colts Gregory and Lionel, Janey Muddles, the winning dam of Grade 1 runner-up Awesometank, and multiple top-level winner Ventura.

Public tours of the National Stud operate every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from February through to October. Adults £16.50, Child £5. In addition, private tours can be arranged on a date and time of your choosing for just a one off fee of £50 in addition to the price per person. Click here to find out more.