Introducing golden boy Helmet

Helmet's good looks and athleticism were easy to spot but what may not have been fully appreciated by those unfamiliar with the scopey and well-balanced son of Exceed And Excel was just how exceptional he was on the track in his home country.

During a season that is unlikely to be forgotten by Darley’s Australian trainer Peter Snowden, the juvenile Helmet annexed the G1 AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes and G1 Champagne Stakes within a fortnight while his stablemate and fellow new Darley sire Sepoy won the two other key juvenile contests of the Australian racing season, the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes and the G1 Golden Slipper. What was particularly pleasing for the team at Darley was that these two outstanding homebred colts were also by ‘home team’ stallions – Exceed And Excel and Elusive Quality.

Helmet was more than just a precocious two-year-old, however. He returned at three to take the G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude en route to winning the Caulfield Guineas itself.

Displaying what his regular jockey Kerrin McEvoy referred to as his “breathtaking ability”, Helmet jumped from a wide draw in the Classic to take an early lead and hold off a challenge from the talented Group One winner Manawanui. His performance that day set a new standard for the Caulfield Guineas, his victory being achieved in the record time of 1:35.36.

Helmet’s exploits certainly did not go unnoticed by bloodstock agent Dermot Farrington, who says: “Hemet was always the three-year-old that the others had to beat when he raced at seven furlongs and a mile. He was a top-class horse, winning three Group One races in one of the most competitive countries in the world.”

Like Farrington, Grant Pritchard-Gordon has extensive experience and knowledge of the Australian racing and breeding scene. He says: “Helmet was an impressive staying two-year-old. His speed-orientated sire Exceed And Excel has combined with a great staying European family to produce an exciting stallion prospect for both hemispheres.”

While Helmet’s accomplishments on the track are not so well known to British and Irish breeders, he hails, as Pritchard-Gordon highlights, from a family well known in Europe. His first two dams are unraced but they have not fallen short in the production department. Accessories, by Singspiel, had already produced Bullbars to Elusive Quality by the time that Helmet came along, and that good colt wasted no time in getting her broodmare career off to a flying start by winning the G3 C S Hayes Stakes before narrowly failing to claim a Classic of his own when second to Shamrocker in the Australian Guineas.

With Helmet still at the apogee of Accessories’ achievements to date, her third foal, Epaulette (who is by another son of Danehill, Commands) is however adding yet more lustre to the family. He recently won the G1 Golden Rose Stakes at Rosehill, having been runner-up last season to the Juvenile Triple Crown winner Pierro in the G2 Todman Stakes.

Accessories’ dam, Anna Matrushka, a daughter of the great broodmare sire Mill Reef, has spawned a dynasty which includes Dubawi’s highly-talented daughter Anna Salai, dual French Group Two winner Annaba and the German Champion filly Anna Monda, while his third dam is Anna Paola, ancestress of 24 Stakes winners. There are no holes in his pedigree and his performance record is rock solid, so how about the other important ‘P’, physique? In that area he is not found wanting either and he turned many heads of those present at Dalham Hall Stud in July, as Grant Pritchard-Gordon concurs: “Helmet really impressed me at the Darley stallion parade. He has a wonderful walk to him that would be a great asset for any of his yearlings in the future.”

His grandsire Danehill has already proved phenomenally successful in both hemispheres, and Exceed And Excel, given the more daunting task of ‘reverse-shuttling’ is proving to be a chip off the old block. Helmet has everything in his favour to stake his claim to being the next dual-hemisphere success story.