Van Beethoven yet another of note for Scat Daddy

VAN BEETHOVEN (CAN) - 2016 bay colt

The final crop of Ashford Stud's outstanding but now deceased stallion Scat Daddy (by Johannesburg) yielded two juvenile pattern winners last weekend, both of them over six furlongs at the Curragh and both trained by Aidan O'Brien for Coolmore partners.

The filly So Perfect landed the Group 3 Grangecon Stud Stakes on Sunday, and the previous afternoon it was the turn of Van Beethoven, who beat Marie's Diamond by half a length in the Group 2 GAIN Railway Stakes.

The mid-February-born colt was bred in Ontario, in Canada, by the Ballycroy Training Centre, and this was his second win from five starts. His maiden success came on his second outing, he then chased home Fairyland in the Listed Marble Hill Stakes at the Curragh before finishing fourth to Soldier's Call in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes over five furlongs at Royal Ascot.

Van Beethoven wins the Gain Railway Stakes at the Curragh #RTEracing pic.twitter.com/riGRihFnoc

— RTÉ Racing (@RTEracing) June 30, 2018

Van Beethoven is the second foal out of eight-and-a-half-furlong dirt winner My Sister Sandy (by Montbrook), a half-sister to US stakes winner See Tobe (by Concerto), who stays 12 furlongs, and full-sister to Exotic Bloom, a Grade 3-placed mile listed winner who hit the Grade 1 target at stud with her first foal.

That star is Stopchargingmaria (by Tale Of The Cat), a $47,000 Keeneland September Sale yearling who made $220,000 at the OBS March Select breeze-up sale, joined the Todd Pletcher stable, and notched up a seven-figure earnings total.

Her eight graded wins feature a neck defeat of Stellar Wind in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland, a three-quarter-length score in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga, and a five-length drubbing of Unbridled Forever in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at that same venue.

The first and last-named of those events are over nine furlongs, with the Alabama being over 10, the farthest she was asked to try. She was a dual Grade 1-placed, nine-furlong Grade 2 scorer as a juvenile and only finished out of the first three four times in an 18-race career.

Melegant (by Kris S), the grandam of Van Beethoven, won once from a dozen starts and she is a half-sister to listed scorer Lady Tabitha (by Lyphard), the grandam of a Grade 1-placed, Grade 3-winning sprinter in Brazil.

Her dam, Abidjan (by Sir Ivor), a listed-winning daughter of stakes-winning miler Flag Waver (by Hoist The Flag), was a half-sister to the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes third Bunting (by Private Account), the mare who gave us Grade 2 Illinois Derby winner and Grade 1 Belmont Stakes runner-up Vision And Verse (by Storm Cat).

Van Beethoven's pattern success did not give the feel of being potentially top-class form, Timeform raised him to 102 for this performance, and improvement is required if he is to win the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes and/or Group 1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes, both of which appear in his list of entries.

But this is an Aidan O'Brien-trained colt who is bred to be a miler next year, so progress is not only possible but likely and it could be that what he has achieved so far is a bonus. Time will tell.