Advertise First Foals Selling Themselves

[Wandering Eyes]

With seven of his eight foals offered at Goffs November last week sold, Advertise emerged as the leading British-based first-season sire by average at €39,285, with a top price of €98,000. It is an admittedly small sample size, and Advertise was edged out for the overall lead by his Irish counterparts Ten Sovereigns (Ire), Phoenix of Spain (Ire) and Waldgeist (GB), but some well-pedigreed offerings at Tattersalls this week, just down the road from where Advertise is enshrined at the National Stud, mean that the popular three-time Group 1-winning sprinter will have every chance to shine.

“I think come December sales it could be fireworks for them,” said Tim Lane, stud director of the National Stud. “Many agents and breeders that I've spoken to either have them or have seen them, and have said how smart they are, and that small mares are breeding good sized-horses.”

The latter fact wouldn't come as any great surprise to anyone who has laid eyes on Advertise who, at a leggy and strong 16.1 hands, hardly appears an obvious early doors sprinter. But he was just that, breaking his maiden at first asking in May of his 2-year-old campaign in 2018 for trainer Martyn Meade before finishing second to Calyx (GB) in the G2 Coventry S. four weeks later. Advertise stayed on the go throughout the summer, taking Newmarket's G2 July S. by two lengths four weeks after his Ascot outing, and traveling to The Curragh to collect the G1 Phoenix S. a month after that. After a short holiday, he was second to 2-year-old champion Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the G1 Dewhurst S., taking the lead prematurely before ceding that to that rival, with future Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) behind them in third.

Pitched in at a mile in the G1 2000 Guineas in his 3-year-old bow, Advertise was finished well out, eventually beating four home with Frankie Dettori insisting he never traveled. So his ability to stay the trip could be somewhat inconclusive, but nonetheless after that Classic tilt Advertise returned to the sprint trips his pedigree suggested he should excel at. Advertise shook off that Guineas blip six weeks later with a powerful score over the likes of Hello Youmzain (Fr) (Kodiac {GB}) and Ten Sovereigns in the G1 Commonwealth Cup, and found only Ten Sovereigns too tough three weeks later in the G1 July Cup. Traveling abroad for the second time, Advertise picked off the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest over 6 1/2 furlongs with the likes of Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and One Master (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in his wake. Given his chance over the heavy ground in Ascot's G1 British Champions Sprint S., Advertise proved flat in the testing conditions but retired with no lustre lost and a shade over £904,358 in the bank.

With the very best colts so often scooped up by the powerhouse studs to stand, it is no small feat the National Stud was able to secure Advertise, a fact that is not lost on Lane.

“Winning three Group 1s and doing what he did as a 2-year-old, second in the Dewhurst–I was amazed we actually got him to stand, because horses like him don't come around very often,” he said. “He's bulletproof. He's an amazing horse to cover mares with. He never has a bad day, and he'd cover 10 in a day if you asked him to, not that we would. He's such a lovely horse to have around the place.”

“We've been very, very lucky–he's been very well supported by great breeders and in my eyes he stands a great chance,” Lane added. “I've seen an awful lot of his foals and I think the greatest quality of any stallion is that they stamp their stock, and he certainly has. Most of his offspring have his head, and they've got great physique, a bit of size, great action. You always hold your breath a bit when you have a first-season stallion and his foals land, but he really has stamped them and it's very exciting.”

Across his first two books Advertise has covered 260 mares at an advertised fee of £25,000. The desire in the marketplace for the package he offers-quality, early speed that trained on-would have been amplified with last week's loss of his broodmare sire Pivotal. Like Advertise, Pivotal was a six-furlong Group 1 winner at three who retired after his 3-year-old campaign. He has remarkably sired Group 1 winners across a wide spectrum of trips that have proven tough as teak, often still at their best at upwards of six or seven years of age. Like Pivotal, Advertise was bred by Cheveley Park Stud and, as is policy with their colts, sold as a yearling, fetching £60,000 at Goffs UK's Premier Yearling Sale from Dermot Farrington. He is one of three Group 1 winners for the quality Oasis Dream (GB) son Showcasing (GB), in addition to last summer's standout G1 Sussex S. scorer Mohaather (GB) and fellow Commonwealth Cup winner Quiet Reflection (GB), who also took the G1 Sprint Cup S.

Advertise has 15 foals set to be offered at Park Paddocks this week, and they include a half-brother to two stakes horses from the family of champion and sire Peintre Celebre (lot 506); a filly out of the stakes-winning Indignant (GB) (Gold Away {Ire}) (lot 538), whose first three foals are all winners; a half-brother to Listed Bosra Sham Fillies' S. winner Alwasmiya (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) (lot 733); a half-brother to the Listed Scarborough S. scorer Global Applause (GB) (Mayson {GB}) (lot 747); a colt out of the G3 Nell Gwyn S. third Squash (GB) (Pastoral Pursuits {GB}) (lot 1029), whose first foal is a winner; and a half-brother to GIII Wilshire S. winner Simply Breathless (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) (lot 1044).

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