Belardo's Sire Lope De Vega Making his Mark in Australia

Six Group One-winners when your oldest crop are just five-year-olds is the mark of a serious stallion and with two Group One winners so far in the Melbourne spring, Lope De Vega (Ire) (Shamardal) is certainly making his presence felt.

Vega Magic (Aus) (Lope De Vega) picked up in the spring where he left off in the winter landing the Listed Regal Roller stakes at his first start this preparation en route to a dominant performance in the Memsie Stakes, the first Group One of the season. Having already notched his first Group One success in the SAJC Goodwood Stakes in May, Vega Magic’s Memsie victory secured him a start in the inaugural running of The Everest to be contested at Randwick on the 14th of October.

Sunday racing at Caulfield saw another star emerge for Lope De Vega with Santa Ana Lane (Aus) (Lope De Vega) breaking through for his maiden Group One victory in the Sir Rupert Clark Stakes over 1400m. Having finished two lengths from Vega Magic in the Goodwood in May, Santa Ana Lane was lining up for just his second attempt at a Group One and came away with the spoils to become his sire’s third Group One winner in the space of a month with two-year-old filly Capla Temptress (Ire) (Lope De Vega) winning the Woodbine Natalma Stakes in the middle of September.

Standing just three seasons in Australia, Lope De Vega’s largest crop was his first with just 83 foals and with just 223 foals on the ground in Australia, he’s left eight stakes performers to date. However, a look at Lope De Vega’s worldwide stats shows why he commands a fee of €50,000 at Ireland’s Ballylinch Stud with a 63% winners to runners ratio, a total of 53 stakes performers and a stakes performers to runners ratio of 14%.

2017 sees Haunui Farm standing Lope De Vega’s first Group One winner, Belardo (Ire). A member of his first Northern Hemisphere crop, Belardo won the Group One Dewhurst Stakes at two, was Group One performer at three and was an impressive winner of the Group One Lockinge Stakes at four. He retired with a Timeform Rating of 126 and is one of a plethora of new stallions available to New Zealand breeders.

Belardo represents a sire line that is proven in Australasia. His grandsire, Shamardal has a 10% stakes winners to runners ratio from his southern hemisphere crops with five Group One winners to his credit whilst worldwide, he has an 11% stakes winners to runners ratio and a total of 18 Group One winners.

Belardo stands at Haunui Farm in 2017 for a fee of $12,000 + GST.