Now Standing in Ireland, Behesht Sires First Winner

French stakes winner and second-crop sire Behesht  sired his first winner a few months after being sold and relocated to Whytemount Stud in County Kilkenny, Ireland.

The 11-year-old son of Sea The Stars  entered stud at Calumet Farm in Central Kentucky and stood there until he was sold this winter during the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale for $3,500 to William Nicks. Behesht was then sold to Ronnie O'Neill, who owns Whytemount Stud, according to Nicks.

"I liked the horse, but he wasn't getting enough mares at Calumet. I thought he would work somewhere else like Maryland or Canada where they have a lot of turf racing or Polytrack," he said.

He advertised the stallion and soon got a call from O'Neill.

"He sort of fell into my lap, so to speak," O'Neill told Thoroughbred Stallion Guide. "I was watching him and saw him in France one day and thought he would make some stallion, as it's a powerful pedigree. There are group 1 flat winners and grade 1 national hunt winners in his first two generations. And the granddam (Behera, by Mill Reef) was a group 1 winner who was second in the Prix de l'Arc."

Yurena, a 3-year-old filly bred by Calumet, became Behesht's first winner March 13 at Monterrico in Peru. The filly has been knocking on the door of her first win, finishing second or third five times from nine starts for owner Jet Set and trainer Juan Suarez Villarroel. Yurena was sold as a weanling for $2,000 during the 2019 Keeneland November sale to a buyer named Dayol out of Buckland Sales' consignment.

As further evidence of Behesht's potential overseas, Yurena is out of the Sadler's Wells daughter Harpeth , who has also produced stakes-placed Irish winner Queen Anne's Lace. The immediate family produced French champion and later leading sire in France Darshaan.

Behesht was bred by the Aga Khan and sold at the 2014 Arqana Saint Cloud Arc de Triomphe Sale for €525,000 (US$656,985) to Dermot Weld after the colt won the Prix Turenne at Saint Cloud and was runner-up in the Prix Frederic de Lagrange at Vichy. Behesht wound up in the hands of Calumet in 2016 and made eight starts in the U.S. without a win. He was retired with a 3-2-0 record from 16 starts and earned $143,833.

"He was wasted over there (in the United States), but the fact he's a Sea The Stars will make him popular back here. It was too good to be true and I couldn't turn him down once he became available, even though we weren't looking for another stallion," O'Neill said.