Sandown Stud said good bye to resident stallion Ashaawes recently, when Ashaawes sadly passed away last week at the age of 17.
Ashaawes, who shared his French classic winning sire Kingmambo with such top stallions as King Kamehameha, Lemon Drop Kid and King’s Best, showed plenty of promise during his brief racing career.
The handsome bay, whose full-brother Meydan City was sold for $11.7 million at the 2006 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, won three of only seven starts, with Ashaawes winning from seven furlongs to a mile and a quarter. Ashaawes, who was bred on the same Kingmambo/Seattle Slew as US champion, and top sire, Lemon Drop Kid, also ran fourth, beaten less than two lengths, to subsequent G1 Racing Post Trophy winner Palace Episode in the 2005 Acomb Stakes at York.
(Subsequent Irish 2000 Guineas winner Araafa ran second in the 2005 Acomb Stakes.)
Retired to Sandown in 2008, Ashaawes was quick to make his mark. His very first crop yielded 16 winners from just 28 runners, with his first crop headed by G3 Champagne Stakes/G3 Prix du Cap winner Priceless Jewel and Racing Association Stakes hero Way Clear.
However, the real star of Ashaawes’ first crop was the remarkable Sanshaawes, a bargain R30 000 buy, who shone in Dubai after a stellar local racing career.
Third, to subsequent Equus Champion Capetown Noir, in the 2013 G1 Investec Cape Derby, Sanshaawes won four times in Dubai and finished runner up, to subsequent Dubai World Cup winner Prince Bishop in the 2014 G1 Al Maktoum Challenge R3.
Ashaawes’ subsequent crops went on to produce such notable stakes horses as Reim (G3 Matchem Stakes), Drama Queen (2nd Perfect Promise Sprint), Winter Watch (2nd Gardenia Stakes), Asstar (Umngeni Handicap), and Aurelia Cotta (2nd G3 Fillies Mile).
The regally bred Ashaawes was produced by Seattle Slew’s Pocahontas Stakes winning daughter Crown Of Crimson and he traced back to important tap root mare Self Control –who is also the ancestress of recent G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational winner Mucho Gusto and top US sire Broken Vow.
As a son of an excellent sire/broodmare sire Kingmambo, and from a truly outstanding family, Ashaawes looks set to make his mark as a broodmare sire in years to come.
He will be missed by all those who knew him!