Shirocco arrived to Glenview Stud with burgeoning reputation courtesy of the early exploits of his star mare Annie Power, and the fruits of those early successes would now seem to be coming to fruition, as with his first crop sired at the Co. Cork stud now only turning five in 2020, he has made a dramatic rise through the ranks.
The successes, both in the pointing fields and subsequently in the sales ring in 2019 of Unbreakable Bond, It Sure Is and Silver Hallmark, a trio from that first Glenview Stud crop for the German bred stallion, gave an indication of what was to follow this season.
In the shortened 2019/20 season, Shirocco can lay claim to have siring the most six-figure pointers alongside the late Jeremy, with the pair responsible for four point-to-pointers that went on to be sold for over £100,000 in the sales ring.
Chief among his headline grabbing sellers throughout the 2019/20 campaign was another of his female off-spring, with Donnchadh Doyle’s Shirocco’s Dream, a mares’ maiden winner at Borris House in March, achieving the highest price for a point-to-point mare in the sales ring during the season when she was snapped up by leading Bloodstock Agents Peter and Ross Doyle for trainer Colin Tizzard.
That proved to be one of two big successes for Shirocco at the Cheltenham Festival Sale, as on the same evening, Mick Goff’s Patroculus, who had only been beaten by a length on his debut in a four-year-old maiden at Ballycahane.
Those big prices had followed the earlier successes in the sales ring for Shirocco in the autumn when Aidan Fitzgerald’s Queens Brook was sold for £160,000 after winning her four-year-old mares’ maiden at Dromahane in November, and she has since gone on to win a Gowran Park Bumper and earn notable black type when finishing third in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival, just four months after her initial points success.
Es Perfecto, Colm Murphy’s Tattersalls Farm winner, completes the six-figure quartet for Shirocco this season, after he was knocked down to Highflyer Bloodstock and Alan King for £170,000 in December.
His success proving to be one of eight between the flags this season for the off-spring of Shirocco, with half of them coming in the ultra-competitive four-year-old maiden division.
The aforementioned success of Es Perfecto and Queens Brook, being supplemented by Velvit Elvis and Lady Shirocco, with perhaps one of his most notable successes coming in the five-year-old age group, with Largy Debut.
He made a winning debut at Oldtown in February, scarcely coming out of second gear to win a five-year-old geldings’ maiden by 13 lengths, with his handler Stuart Crawford not disguising the high esteem that he holds the Shirocco gelding, stating: “He’s a beautiful horse. He’s the best that we have ever had – that’s all you need to know!”
Unsurprisingly he was quickly snapped up and was bought privately by leading owner Chris Jones.
The eight winners between the flags for Shirocco this season came courtesy of:
QUEENS BROOK
Handler: Aidan Fitzgerald
Handler: Aidan Fitzgerald
ES PERFECTO
Handler: Colm Murphy
LADY SHIROCCO
Handler: Turlough O’Connor
TANGO THEATRE
Handler: Warren Ewing
LARGY DEBUT
Handler: Stuart Crawford
VELVIT ELVIS
Handler: Colin Bowe
SHIROCCO’S DREAM
Handler: Donnchadh Doyle
HIDDEN COMMANDER
Handler: Ellen Doyle
