Charming Thought a Group 1 winning Oasis Dream son

CHARMING THOUGHT (GB) - 2012 bay colt

Sons of Oasis Dream (by Green Desert) are proving to be very popular at stud and a growing number of them are siring stakes and pattern winners from their early runners. His younger representatives include Charming Thought, who beat Ivawood by a nose in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes on soft ground at Newmarket as a juvenile. He will stand at Dalham Hall Stud.​

This was his third win from four starts that season, following success over the same trip on good ground at Lingfield and on fast ground at Leicester, but although his pedigree suggested that he could have been a potential classic contender, a setback kept him off the track until June of his four-year-old season.

Timeform rated him 118p at two, but he was not the same force when he eventually returned to action. He finished fourth in a six-furlong Salisbury listed contest, was only beaten by four lengths when out of the frame behind The Tin Man in the Group 3 Hackwood Stakes at Newbury and was then unplaced in a seven-furlong Group 3 contest at York.

Charming Thought's 625,000gns yearling price tag says plenty about his looks and, as you would expect of an Oasis Dream, he comes from a notably successful family. He is the first foal out of the pattern-placed stakes winner Annabelle's Charm (by Indian Ridge), who was best from eight to 10 furlongs, and his unraced grandam, Kylemore (by Sadler's Wells), is a full-sister to two Group 1 winners.

Aristotle won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy and Ballingarry, who won both the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes and Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud, was placed in the Group 1 Irish Derby, Group 1 Derby Italiano and Group 1 Irish St Leger.

Their half-brother Starborough (by Soviet Star) – who has sired stakes winners - won the Group 1 St James's Palace Stakes and Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, thereby making their Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes-winning dam Flamenco Wave (by Desert Wine) one of those remarkable mares with at least three top-level winners to her name.

They also have three half-sisters of note. Spanish Falls (by Belmez) won the Group 3 Prix du Royaumont and was third in the Group 2 Prix de Mallaret, Sanchez (by Wolfhound) is the grandam of the pattern-winning sprinter Waady (by Approve), and Leaping Water (by Sure Blade) is responsible for both the Grade 1-placed Grade 2 scorer Grammarian (by Definite Article) and the tragically ill-fated champion St Nicholas Abbey (by Montjeu).

He was the top juvenile of 2009, when he won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy, and he went on to add the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf, Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, and three editions of the Group 1 Coronation Cup. He was placed in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes, Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf and in two runnings of the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and would have been a popular stallion.

There will likely be some who view Charming Thought as a potential source of speedy juveniles, given that he is a Middle Park Stakes-winning son of Oasis Dream, but his pedigree is that of a miler who could have stayed 10 furlongs and so we should not be surprised if most of his best offspring show their talent in that range.

​CHARMING THOUGHT (GB) – b.2012 – Oasis Dream – Annabelle's Charm, 3 wins inc Middle Park Stakes (Gr1). Sire in England. First foals in 2018.