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We were delighted to be named the TBA's Breeder of the Month in the September edition of Owner Breeder magazine. 

The accolade was awarded off the back of Nashwa's win in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes.

Read more below.

Words: Howard Wright

Nashwa, whose success in the Group 1 Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket has earned Blue Diamond Stud the nomination as the TBA Breeder of the Month for July, is living proof that two into one does go.

Her dam, Princess Loulou, was among the bloodstock retained by Kuwaiti businessman Imad Alsagar in 2018, when he dissolved the partnership with fellow countryman Saleh Al Homaizi that had brought Classic success in successive years with Araafa (Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes) and Authorized (Derby and Juddmonte International Stakes).

The partners had begun Blue Diamond Stud in Newmarket in 2010 and achieved notable success with the homebred 2017 Irish Champion Stakes winner Decorated Knight, whose dam Pearling cost 2.4 million guineas for Alsagar to retain at Tattersalls the following December. Princess Loulou, originally bought as a yearling for 310,000gns seven years earlier, followed her back to Blue Diamond.

The decision to retain Princess Loulou proved prescient, for the Frankel foal she was carrying at the time was Nashwa, winner of the Prix de Diane and Nassau Stakes in 2022 and arguably even better when beating Remarquee by five lengths for her third Group 1 victory.

While enhancing her own standing, Nashwa’s continuing success will do no harm to the sales prospects of her Dubawi yearling half-brother when he goes to Tattersalls next month. “Everyone who has seen him says he should make a good amount of money, if the market is anything like last year,” says Blue Diamond chief executive Ted Voute.

In an introduction to the stud’s website, Alsagar – described as “very hands-on and knowledgeable” by those working most closely with him – writes about Blue Diamond’s vision, noting: “Today’s broodmare band, overseen by Andrew Rawlin at Blue Diamond South, is a representation of years of careful cultivation. Meanwhile at Blue Diamond North, we have another expert team headed by Gerry Meehan to oversee our yearling division. Last year marked our first season selling commercially and we were delighted with the results, headed by a 625,000gns son of Dubawi.”

Expanding on the stud’s overall breeding and racing policy, Voute explains: “We want to showcase the stud and what it can do by trying to sell the ones that will be most profitable, with a view to investing in the top stallions and upgrading the mares that way.

“It isn’t a traditional policy of keeping the fillies and selling the colts, but Mr Alsager doesn’t want to keep on paying and paying without a return. So, for instance, if the Dubawi colt makes two or three times his stud fee, that would account for two or three nominations to Dubawi or Frankel next year.

“Mr Alsagar has said he want to do this over a number of years, so that he’ll have made a good profit and been able to upgrade some of the other mares by sending three to Frankel and two to Dubawi rather than one to each.”

Voute adds: “The idea will be to buy cleverly. We got lucky with Zotilla, whom Mr Alsagar identified and bought in December 2019 for €75,000 and who has ended up as a Classic-winning mare, being the dam of last year’s French 1,000 Guineas winner Mangoustine.

“We had Pearling when I joined, then along came Princess Loulou and Nashwa. Sadly, Pearling died this year, but Zotilla came up with her Classic winner, and we have bought a couple of fillies in America – Free Look, who ran fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies' Turf last year, for $550,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Horses in Training Sale in July, and she’s gone to trainer Brad Cox to see if we can upgrade her to full black-type status before she comes into the broodmare band, and a Blame mare called Abscond, a Grade 1 winner as a two-year-old, whom we bought privately last year and is in foal to Not This Time before she comes over to go to Frankel.

“If we can be clever in buying mares and invest in different families, then we can send as many as we’re allowed to the top stallions in the UK, which at the moment are Dubawi and Frankel.”

Princess Loulou, whose Decorated Knight two-year-old Mesmering was bought back for €260,000 last August and is heading to join Nashwa at the Gosdens’ yard, will have no representatives this year or next, but “she’ll start afresh next year,” according to Voute, who adds: “As for Nashwa, Mr Alsagar is taking one step at a time, but she will definitely come back to Blue Diamond in time.”