Paardeberg Stud’s well-performed new stallion Expert Eye is the sire of progressive gelding Optician, who made it four wins in a row when successful at Wolverhampton on Friday.
The Shaun Lycett trained four-year-old justified favouritism when staying on gamely, under Daniel Tudhope, to land Friday’s Build Your Acca With BetUk Handicap (Div 1) by half a length.
Bred by Kirsten Rausing, Optician came into Friday’s race having won his three previous starts.
The gelded Optician is out of the Oasis Dream mare Starlit Sands.
Optician’s sire Expert Eye, who will stand his first season in South Africa this year, was a top-class racehorse, who scored his signature win in the 2018 G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
In winning the 2018 Mile, Expert Eye defeated a top-class field with his beaten rivals headed by the G1 winners Divisidero, One Master, Clemmie, Lightning Spear, and Oscar Performance.
A son of top-class sire Acclamation, Expert Eye retired to stud having won five of ten starts, with the bay winning four group or graded races.
To date, Expert Eye’s first two full Northern Hemisphere crops have yielded six horses to have either won or been placed in stakes races, with this tally headed by 2023 G3 Ire-Incentive, It Pays To Buy Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes winner Juniper Berries.