Can Chayan be Compared to Sunshine in Paris?

In our Tara Talks Racing podcast this week we chatted to Henry Field of Newgate Farm, who has an exciting late addition to his consignment for the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in Chayan.

Mares offered at elite breeding stock sales are usually at the end of their racing careers, but in the case of Chayan, who started favourite in the Golden Slipper, she is at the start.

A two year-old filly by I Am Invincible, Chayan has shown elite talent in just four race starts for Annabel and Rob Archibald.

She was second debut to Streisand in the Group II MRC Blue Diamond Prelude and then a luckless seventh in the Group I MRC Blue Diamond won by Streisand.

She secured a start and favouritism for the Golden Slipper with a scintillating three length win in the Group II ATC Reisling Stakes and has now earned a well-deserved holiday after finishing eighth in the Golden Slipper when a soft track and wide gate did little to help her chances.

Chayan will head to auction as a lightly raced filly with serious G1 racing potential for the future and in that regard has earned comparison with Sunshine in Paris, who was also trained by Annabel Archibald (when she was Neasham) and was offered in the Newgate Consignment at Magic Millions National in 2023.

She sold for $3.9million to James Harron Bloodstock on behalf of John Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds and at the time of the sale had raced five times for three wins including the G1 ATC Surround Stakes and had earned $519,700.

She returned to Annabel and went on to win a further four races, two of them Group I races and retired last year with earnings of $6million and change!

Can Chayan offer a similar scenario…. Henry Field revealed in his chat on Tara Talks Racing this week that Annabel believes she can.

“John Camilleri bought Sunshine in Paris as a lightly raced filly. She was a three-year-old, not a two-year-old like Chayan, but they have had a similar number of starts before the sale,” said Henry Field.

“When it was announced Sunshine in Paris was going to be in our consignment Annabel rang me and said, ‘I'm just pleading with you to get her back into my stable because I'm telling you she's that good’ and she was dead right. She went on multiple G1 wins and ran fifth in an Everest, she was a superstar.

“When the news came to light that Chayan was coming to the market this year I had a good hour on the phone with Annabel over the weekend and she said, ‘Henry, you've got to get this filly back into my stable’.

“With Sunshine in Paris, she was so confident, about how much upside that filly had and what she'd get out of her and I think with her and Rob training this exceptional 2YO filly so well and having so much confidence in her, it's unbelievable to think what they could do with her once she goes into her three-year-old year and beyond, because she's a star.”