Ajaya a Group 2-winning son of Invincible Spirit

AJAYA (GB) - 2013 bay colt

The early stallion sons of Invincible Spirit (by Green Desert) include the Group 1 sires Lawman and I Am Invincible and also 2016 leading freshman sire Mayson, and that augurs well for the future prospects of the younger representatives of the Irish National Stud's flag bearer. New Rathbarry Stud recruit Ajaya is one of them.​

He was among the leading sprint juveniles of 2015, rated 117 by Timeform and winner of the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes at York, beating subsequent mile star Ribchester by one and a quarter lengths. That victory came a month after he failed by just a head to beat Gutaifan in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte and a month before he finished fourth to Shalaa in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.

Ajaya ran only twice as a three-year-old, finishing unplaced behind Quiet Reflection in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes and behind Take Cover in the Group 2 King George Stakes, which was disappointing given the promise he showed as a juvenile.

The first foal of his dam, Ajaya is out of Nessina (by Hennessy), who is an unraced daughter of the Grade 1-placed Grade 2 Dahlia Handicap scorer Didina (by Nashwan). That mare is the dam of two stakes winners and the better of that pair was Tantina (by Distant View), a pattern-placed dual stakes winner in England.

She won the Listed Oak Tree Stakes and the Listed Sceptre Stakes, she was third in the Group 3 Supreme Stakes, and she has done even better at stud as she is the dam of Cityscape (by Selkirk) and Bated Breath (by Dansili) and grandam of the Grade 1-placed Grade 3 scorer Suffused (by Champs Elysees).

Cityscape won the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes, was placed in a string of Group 1 contests, and will have his first runners in 2017. Bated Breath won the Group 2 Temple Stakes, he was runner-up in the Group 1 July Cup, Group 1 King's Stand Stakes and Group 1 Sprint Cup, and he was among the leading freshman sires of 2016.

Didicoy (by Danzig), who is the third dam of Ajaya, was a speedy blacktype-placed triple winner, she was out of the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes winner and Group 1 Phoenix Stakes runner-up Monroe (by Sir Ivor), and that made her a half-sister to the Group 1 star and juvenile champion Xaar (by Zafonic). Her sisters' descendants include the US Grade 1 stars Close Hatches (by First Defense) and Senure (by Nureyev).

This is, of course, the famous Best In Show (by Traffic Judge) family from which leading sires such as El Gran Senor and Redoute's Choice have emerged. Their relationship to Ajaya is remote, and it is his high-class juvenile form combined with being an Invincible Spirit relation to Bated Breath that is likely to attract a considerable amount of attention to him in his early years at stud. He is inbred 3x4 to Danzig (by Northern Dancer).

AJAYA (GB) – b.2013 – Invincible Spirit – Nessina, 2 wins inc Gimcrack Stakes (Gr2), 2nd Prix Robert Papin (Gr2). Sire in Ireland. First foals in 2018.