Mare of the Month by Martin Stevens
LAMPS OF HEAVEN (IRE)
Lamps Of Heaven made stealthy but significant headway in her broodmare career during 2020. Not a household name in the bloodstock industry yet, she soon could be.
The rising nine-year-old daughter of Invincible Spirit was bred by Limetree Stud out of the unraced Cadeaux Genereux mare Star Studded, a full-sister to Land Of Dreams — winner of the Flying Childers Stakes and dam of multiple Group 1-winning sprinter Dream Ahead.
She was sent out by Olly Stevens to win a 5f Southwell maiden at the end of her three-year-old season, although she showed her best form when splitting the useful pair Foolaad and Thesme as a runner-up at Doncaster earlier that year.
Lamps Of Heaven entered the Chasemore Farm broodmare after being bought for 110,000gns at the Tattersalls December Breeding-Stock Sale of 2016, when she was carrying a foal by Ballylinch Stud’s crack sire Lope De Vega.
The resultant offspring was a colt sold as a foal to JC Bloodstock for 90,000gns and resold as a yearling by Ballyvolane Stud for 325,000gns. Shadwell bought the colt and sent him to Roger Varian under the name Mondammej.
Mondammej never raced for Varian and was instead sold to Antony Brittain for just 4,000gns at the inaugural Tattersalls August Horses in Training Sale in 2020.
Brittain has since saddled him to win a Newcastle 6f novice stakes by a wide margin on debut, despite getting loose at the start, and to finish a head second in a similar event on his next run, this time being unruly in the lead-up and setting a breakneck pace in the race itself.
Clearly in possession of bags of talent, Mondammej could be a force to be reckoned with in sprints on the all-weather this winter if he gains more maturity with increased racecourse experience.
Lamps Of Heaven’s second foal is the two-year-old Sepoy gelding Soldierpoy, a shrewd purchase by Billy Jackson-Stops and Tom Clover at £7,000 during the Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale in 2019.
Soldierpoy was trained by Clover to win a Thirsk novice auction stakes and run a close third in the ultra-competitive Weatherbys Super Sprint in the summer, before being sent under the hammer at the same Tattersalls August Horses in Training Sale at which Mondammej was sourced so cheaply.
Soldierpoy made considerably more than his half-brother, though, being knocked down to Charlie Gordon-Watson on behalf of Qatari clients for 67,000gns.
He is now trained by Mohammed Hussain for Khalifa Bin Sheail Al Kuwari and is unbeaten in three starts at Doha. After winning two Class 2 events in good fashion in November, he took the competitive Al Rayyan Stakes by four and a half lengths in December.
So that’s two useful sorts who have brought their buyers plenty of pleasure from two foals for Lamps Of Heaven. That bodes well for Sanatone Lodge, the buyers of her Aclaim colt for a mere £15,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale this autumn.
Lamps Of Heaven has a colt foal by Lope De Vega and is back in foal to Aclaim. It is unlikely that the Lope De Vega or the mare’s future produce will be bought so cheaply again in the short term.
