Bearstone Stud, ‘The Source Of Speed’, Bolstered by Arrival of Aesterius

[Wandering Eyes]

It feels like just yesterday that the bloodstock world was lauding the record-breaking achievement of Mehmas in 2024, the year that he sired no fewer than 70 individual two-year-old winners in Europe, smashing the previous record tally of 61 which belonged to his neighbour at Tally-Ho Stud, Kodiac.

Time waits for no one in this game, however, and so it is that we now head into the 2026 breeding season with three of those 70 having already found themselves a place at stud. They include Ballyhane's new recruit Magnum Force, winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, and G1 National Stakes scorer Scorthy Champ, whose arrival at Barton Stud marks its return as a stallion operation after two decades.

Completing the trio of newcomers for Mehmas is Aesterius at Terry and Margaret Holdcroft's Bearstone Stud, an ever-present name in the business of standing stallions since the G3 Greenlands Stakes hero Puissance arrived at the Market Drayton farm back in 1991. He went on to be crowned the leading first-season sire in Britain in 1994, a feat which the Bearstone team later repeated with his son, Mind Games, in 2000, Firebreak in 2009 and Indesatchel in 2010.

Certainly, if Aesterius is to emulate his sire and prove himself as a reliable producer of precocious juveniles, then he could hardly be in a better place to launch that career than 'the source of speed', as the Bearstone slogan goes.

“All of our stallions have been sort of speed horses,” stud manager Mark Pennell says of a modus operandi which sees Aesterius joined at Bearstone by the former champion sprinter Dream Ahead and the Royal Ascot-winning juvenile Washington DC. “That is what we base our results on and every year we have around 60 winners off the stud, which proves that we're breeding good two-year-olds and fast two-year-olds. Hopefully, he [Aesterius] will do the same for us.”

 

 

Aesterius himself compiled a race record at two that immediately marked him out as a high achiever, even among his sire's eight stakes-winning juveniles in Europe that year.

In a seven-race campaign for Archie Watson and Wathnan Racing, Aesterius won four times over the minimum trip, as well as chasing home the subsequent Group 1 winner Big Mojo (Mohaather) in the G3 Molecomb Stakes. He followed that near miss at Goodwood with a first Group success in the G3 Prix d'Arenberg at Deauville, before turning the tables on Big Mojo, with Magnum Force back in third, when enjoying his career highlight in the G2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster.

His first career triumph, meanwhile, by nearly three lengths in a Bath novice, came less than five weeks after his blockbuster performance at the Goffs UK Doncaster Breeze-up Sale, the first opportunity for him to showcase the raw talent that he will be tasked with trying to pass on to his progeny.

“He went to the breeze-up sales and he was one of the top lots that year at £380,000, which was a good price,” Pennell recalls. “He'd obviously breezed well and had potential – and he proved that once he hit the track.

“He was a great two-year-old. He won the Flying Childers, he was second in the Molecomb and he won the Group 3 in France, so he was very precocious and proved his worth.”

He adds, “It [the Flying Childers] has produced some very good stallions over the years, the likes of Ardad and A'Ali, very speedy horses who turned out to be decent sires. There's a good chance that they're going to put that speed into their stock so, fingers crossed, that will work out once again.”

Of course, in any mating the characteristics of the mare being covered are just as important, if not more, when it comes to what you might expect of the resulting foal. In this regard, you can rest assured that the Bearstone broodmare band will be doing their own bit to steer things in the desired direction.

“He'll be getting some of our top-class, speedy mares,” Pennell reveals. “He'll be getting around 25 of our mares, all very speedy mares and some of our best mares. We'll be promoting him ourselves and hoping to get him off to a good start.”

For any stallion that good start is essential, especially in the current climate where so many are written off before they've had the chance to prove themselves. Nor is there the luxury of resting on your laurels with an established sire such as Dream Ahead, who is responsible for four top-level winners in Europe, including Bearstone's homebred champion Glass Slippers, but has struggled to sustain the support he received in his first season at the farm in 2022.

Washington DC, meanwhile, made the breakthrough as a Group 1 sire in 2025 when his American Affair won the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot, but he too has found himself lacking in outside support in recent years.

“It's become very difficult and it's getting harder and harder,” Pennell says of the challenge of standing stallions as a small independent stud. “When I came into the industry, first-season sires were limited to 40 or 60 mares. Now, they're covering over 200. So, on a stud based in the Midlands like us, it's always been difficult, and it's getting harder and harder. You've got the proven sires who are going to soak up the majority of the mares, so you're just hoping that the smaller commercial breeders will push on and use the stallion [Aesterius] and get good results from him.”

Compared to last year, when only three specifically Flat stallions – Bradsell, Isaac Shelby and Vandeek – joined the ranks in Britain, stallion masters can perhaps count themselves unlucky to be launching a sire in 2026 given the apparent abundance of fresh new options.

Similarly spoilt for choice are the small breeders who rowed in behind Mehmas in the early days, even if his fee of €70,000 is no longer within their budget. Instead, they can get their fix from one of his eight stallion sons at stud in Europe, with the aforementioned trio being joined by Supremacy at Yeomanstown, Caturra at Overbury, Minzaal at Derrinstown, Persian Force at Tally-Ho and Lusail at Haras de Bouqetot.

Too much of a good thing or the beginning of a dynasty for a stallion whose own first crop yielded 55 individual juvenile winners back in 2020? Only time will tell but, at £6,500, Pennell is confident that Aesterius offers exceptional value, whilst possessing all of the attributes required to follow in the footsteps of some of his predecessors at the stud as an immediate hit.

“It certainly played a big part,” Pennell says of Mehmas' impressive record and the way in which that influenced the decision to bring Aesterius to Bearstone. “We were at the sales and [Wathnan's racing adviser] Richard Brown approached us and asked us if we'd be interested. We went over to see him and, as soon as we saw him, we knew he was the right article. He's a very classy-looking horse and a great walker.

“Obviously, Mehmas has done amazing things and produced some really top-class horses. Aesterius is one of the most exciting of his produce, so it's nice to have some of that blood in England and we've set a competitive price with him for commercial breeders.

“We feel that he's very good value for money. He's by the sire of the moment, and he's going to get some perfect mares for him from us, so he should have every chance of being a good first-season sire.”

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