The Last Lion to shuttle to Darley Kelvinside

Tuesday 28 March 2017, 9:03am

Outstanding European juvenile, The Last Lion (IRE) winner of last year's Group I Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket, will join the Darley roster at Kelvinside this season.

An ultra-tough and consistent performer, The Last Lion is one of 10 Group I winners sired by Choisir and never finished out of the first three in his ten career starts.

Trained by Mark Johnston, The Last Lion landed the opening race on the British juvenile calendar, the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster. He went on to win the Listed Dragon Stakes en route to a four-length victory in the Group III Sirenia Stakes. He also notched up a further four places at Group level, including second in the Group II Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot.

He rounded off his racing career with a superb win in the Middle Park Stakes – Europe's elite 1,200m challenge for two-year-olds and a contest won the previous year by fellow shuttler Shalaa. 

That day he defeated no fewer than six Stakes-winning juveniles in a win that saw him rated the best two-year-old colt in Europe by the Racing Post. He is also the highest-rated two-year-old by Choisir, ahead of Olympic Glory on Racing Post ratings.

Alastair Pulford, Head of Sales for Darley stallions in Australia said, "The success of Danehill-line speed stallions here in Australia has been phenomenal and we are delighted to have two more young stallions who fit that criteria joining our roster this season with The Last Lion at Kelvinside and Holler at Northwood Park.

"The Last Lion was tough and precocious, exactly what the Australian market looks for in a stallion. He also boasts a strong female family. His dam was G1-placed on multiple occasions herself as a juvenile and she is a producer of two other Stakes winners already."

The Last Lion comes from a female family well known to Australian breeders and is a sibling to stakes-winning sprinters Russian Rock ad Contest from Group I placed Brief Truce mare Mala Mala, a grand-daughter of Molokai.

Australian bred stakes-winning descendants of Molokai include Group I winner Costa Viva and Group winners Fravashi, Pure Joy, Vivacious Spirit and Serene Majesty.

Molokai is a sister to Icing, whose Australian descendants include Group I winner and sire Snowland, successful sire Snippetson and Group II winners Ghisoni and Portillo, not to mention Group I winning shuttler Myboycharlie (IRE), the sire of superstar staying mare Jameka.

– Breednet

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »