COLORSPIN DIES AGE 29

Colorspin (GB)
(Images : Meon Valley Stud)

COLORSPIN (GB)
High Top (IRE) - Reprocolor (GB)

The Bloodhorse.com reports that Colorspin, a major producer for Meon Valley Stud in England, has died mid-August at age 29. The KwaZulu-Natal connection with this great mare is in sire Mullins Bay (GB); Colorspin is a half-sister to his dam, Bella Colora.

Bred in France by Meon Valley, Colorspin (High Top - Reprocolor, by Jimmy Reppin) was a two-time stakes winner, with her biggest score coming in the 1986 Gilltown Stud Irish Oaks (Ire-I) for Helena Springfield Ltd.

Colorspin produced a remarkable number of foals, 16, of which Opera House, Kayf Tara, and Zee Zee Top were Group I winners.

“She leaves an outstanding legacy, and we have lots more to look forward to with Zee Zee Top and her daughter Izzi Top,” Meon Valley owner Mark Weinfeld told the Racing Post. “Her son Kayf Tara has established himself as a leading National Hunt sire, and Opera House has also been a success at stud.”

Opera House, by Sadler’s Wells, was a European champion as well as a champion in England, Ireland, and France. His major win came in the 1993 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (Eng-I). Opera House contested the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Turf (Gr. IT), finishing sixth.

Kayf Tara, a long-distance specialist, also was a European champion and one in England and France. A full brother to Opera House, Kayf Tara won the Ascot Gold Cup (Eng-I) and the same race again when it was run as the Gold Cup.

Zee Zee Top, by Zafonic, scored her major win in the Prix de l’Opera Casino Barriere d’Enghien Les Bains (Fr-I). Izzi Top, by Pivotal, also was group I winner, capturing the Barclays Bank Ireland Pretty Polly Stakes in Ireland July 1.

Mullins Bay was the best racing son of sire of sires Machiavellian in the world in 2006, and earned a Timeform Rating of 121. A 525,000 guineas yearling, he raced in the UK and UAE, achieving 3 wins over distances of 1800-2000m from 3 to 4 years old. He had 14 starts and took home 12 cheques, including a Gr 3 win at 3 years old, and placing in Group and Listed races seven times. He is a half-brother to three Bold Black Type horses, Alkaadhem, Stage Craft and Hyabella.

Mullins Bay stands at Champion breeders’ Summerhill Stud, he is by Machiavellian out of Bella Colora by Bellypha. He has had two winners and 10 places coming from his first crop to race at the track - his two winners being Croke Park (bred by Somerset Stud) and Gitiano (bred by Valjub CC).

Stage Craft (by Sadler’s Wells) was the highest weighted older Horse in Europe and is now a sire.

Another of Colorspin’s daughters, Spinning The Yarn, is the dam of Irish champion Necklace.

Extract from KZN Breeders

GIMCRACK A BOOST FOR MULLINS BAY

Mullins Bay
(Photo : Greig Muir)

MULLINS BAY
Machiavellian - Bella Colora

Last week’s victory by Caspar Netscher (Dutch Art) in the Gr.2 Gimcrack Stakes at York came as a welcome boost to Summerhill Stud’s young stallion Mullins Bay.

Bella Cantata (Singspiel), the dam of the Gimcrack winner, is an unraced half-sister to the son of Machiavellian, whose first foals have just turned two.

Tracing to Meon Valley’s famous broodmare Reprocolor (Jimmy Reppin) through her Gr.2 winning daughter Bella Colora (Bellypha), Mullins Bay is also a half-brother to Prince Of Wales Stakes hero Stagecraft (Sadler’s Wells).

Successful in both the Gr.3 Strensall Stakes and the Listed John Smith’s Magnet Cup at York, Mullins Bay placed in a number of prominent races, notably when beaten a short head in the Gr.2 Darley Stakes at Newmarket.

He was held in high regard by master trainer Mike de Kock, under whose tutelage Mullins Bay finished third in the 2007 Godolphin Mile at the Dubai World Cup meeting.

Extract for European Bloostock News

Meon Valley Matriarch REPROCOLOR dies

Reprocolor pictured here in 1994 with her unraced colt foal by Sadler’s Wells named Pierre, who now stands at Knockmullen House Stud.
(Pacemaker)

Reprocolor, the matriarch who established an illustrious equine dynasty and who was one of three foundation mares at Meon Valley Stud, has been put down at the grand old age of 32.

Europes leading bloodstock publication, Pacemaker, reports that the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Jimmy Reppin was bought as a yearling for 25,000gns by Richard Galpin on behalf of Egon Weinfeld, founder of Meon Valley Stud. She was subsequently trained by Sir Michael Stoute to win the Lancashire Oaks, Lingfield Oaks Trial and Pretty Polly Stakes, and she was also placed in both the Yorkshire and Epsom Oaks.

Her broodmare career got off to a flying start in 1981 with her very first foal, the Listed winner Rappa Tap Tap. A further 17 foals followed before she was retired in 1999, including the Group 1 winners Colorspin and Cezanne, and the Prix de l’Opera winner Bella Colora, dam in turn of the highly performed Mullins Bay, who has just joined the stallion roster at South Africa’s Champion Breeding establishment, Summerhill Stud.

Reprocolor’s daughters continued their dam’s success at stud producing, among others, Kayf Tara, Opera House, Stagecraft, Polish Precedent and Zee Zee Top. The family has continued to flourish through the progeny of Reprocolor’s grand-daughters: the best of those include the Group winners Necklace and Alkaadhem.

Even the mare’s great-grand-daughters have made their mark, producing the Group winners Alessandro Volta and France.

Egon Weinfeld’s son Mark, who manages Meon Valley Stud, commented: “Reprocolor produced at least 26 stakes-winning descendants as well as at least 13 who were stakes-placed. Pretty good for a mare whose sire cost 200gns!

“Her ashes will be buried on the farm with a tree planted in her memory.”

Visit Meon Valley Stud’s website : www.meonvalleystud.co.uk