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00:00In 2022, New Bay's tally of Group 1 winners grew, as did his popularity in the sales ring.
00:10There is no denying that he has always had his supporters and fans, but it seems now
00:14that the young sire is moving into elite stallion territory. As his son, Bayside Boy, joins
00:20him at Ballion Instead, John O'Connor talks us through the attraction of each stallion.
00:26He's made a big impact so far. Last year really was an exceptional year for him to get three
00:32Group 1 winners in Ireland and England from less than 90 runners. We know that that statistically
00:39is not an easy thing to do and he's done it and he's got a lot of other nice horses to
00:43back those up. So he's well on the way. He's now covering really exceptional books of mares
00:51for the last couple of years and we know that both from his own race record and his pedigree,
00:58he should really be able to handle that uptick in the quality of mares, classic E-type mares.
01:04He can handle mares across a broad spectrum. He's had some very fast horses. He's got some
01:07good middle distance horses. I think the future is very, very secure for him.
01:13I suppose for any stallion, the Group 1 winners are the ones that make the real difference.
01:21A horse of the quality of Bay Bridge obviously makes a big difference and he was ably backed
01:26up last year by Bayside Boy. So when both of those won Group 1 races on the same day at Ascot,
01:33that was a big day for him. But he also has an exceptional filly in Saffron Beach who sold so
01:39well at December sales and deservedly so. I think there are loads of other very nice horses to back
01:44them up. So I'm looking forward to what they can do for this year. I mean, we're in general,
01:49we're relatively conservative with stud fees and we'd like horses to gradually increase so that,
01:55you know, you don't get a sudden shock. But with this guy for the last couple of years,
02:01we've been so overbooked. You know, last year we picked a fee. I got it wrong. He was well
02:08overbooked. He doesn't need huge numbers to be a top and a very successful stallion. So
02:14effectively it's the marketer is deciding he's overbooked again this year at his new fee. So
02:19maybe I've got it wrong again, but I'm happy to get it wrong like that. I think we'll take it nice
02:24and steady. Let the horse build into whatever fee he ultimately ends up at. So Bayside Boy was bred
02:32here, as you know, and he's out of a mare that we like a lot called Alava, who's been, you know,
02:38very successful mare even before we got her. And he was a smashing yearling. We took him to New
02:46Market and that excellent judge Richard Ryan, who buys for Team Valley, he identified him and he
02:56came to us. He was up and down looking at him quite a bit as he does. And he then said, look,
03:02I really like this horse. You would stay involved. It would help me to get there if you want to do
03:08it. And we said, look, we really like the horse. So we'd be happy to stay involved in the horse.
03:13He proved that he wouldn't first time out. He had the highest time for rating for a debutant
03:18of the year in his first start. So we knew he was well on the way. And he then went on and won the
03:24champagne stakes, you know, in a very good edition of the champagne stakes, a group two race at
03:29Doncaster. And then he went on to run this year as a three year old. And he had a bit of a quiet
03:34spring, a bit of a non-event in the French 2000 guineas in the Poul de Sey, just was drawn so far
03:39wide. He never got a chance to get involved in it. And then he just gradually built back into
03:44form. So then he went and won the Queen Elizabeth and gave us a bit of a dilemma. Should we keep him
03:49in training? Should he go to stud? The deciding factor really was the fact that we've already
03:55referred to about New Bay. His fee is climbing. So the people who helped us to start New Bay,
04:02some of their mares, you know, will now not be wanting to go to the stallion at that fee. So we
04:07thought this is probably the right thing for us to do. We can go back to the people who started
04:12off New Bay with a son of New Bay standing at a relatively similar starting fee. So that's
04:17really the motivation behind him coming to stud this year. He's always been an exceptional mover
04:23and I think that's what caught people's attention so much at the sales. He's a very free moving,
04:26correct horse, you know, a rich bay, no white on him. He's caught people's attention from the time
04:33he was a yearling. Now he's coming back to look like that. He's letting down into a lovely stallion
04:37and breeders are, you know, we're really pleased that breeders like him. We've done the same as
04:44we've did with New Bay. We've formed a nice syndicate for him and excellent judges have
04:49taken shares in him. So he's well set up to start off well as a stallion.