The focus for the babies will be on Saturday’s Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) at Flemington where Brazen Beau will have the opportunity for bragging rights to be the first new season stallion to sire a winner.
The Godolphin homebred Mercury comes from a family that has served Godolphin well since taking over the Woodlands operation back in 2008.
One of those inherited was the Barathea (IRE) mare Saddler’s Silk who was placed in the Group 1 QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
A sister to dual Listed stakes-winner and Group 1 QTC TJ Smith Classic runner-up Barawin, Saddler’s Silk was joined by her daughters Patina (Anabaa) and Jerezana (Lonhro).
Patina won two races and is the dam of Godolphin’s high-class Viridine (Poet’s Voice) whose four wins included last year’s Group II ATC Roman Consul Stakes.
The Roman Consul is run at Randwick on Saturday and it can boast a roll call of winners in recent years that include Brazen Beau himself as well as Zoustar, Exosphere and Russian Revolution.
Godolphin parted with Patina in 2016 for $15,000 before Viridine began making headlines.
It is unlikely her half-sister Jerezana will suffer a similar fate any time soon.
Winner of the 2011 Listed CRJC Ramornie Handicap, Jerezana has made an outstanding start to her broodmare career.
Her first is the stakes-placed Commands gelding Badajoz who has won six and placed in 10 of his 24 starts with earnings of almost $450,000.
The second foal of Jerezana is the high-class Street Cry (IRE) gelding Osborne Bulls whose eight wins from 12 starts include the Listed Regal Roller Stakes and Listed Luskin Star Stakes and most recently was fifth in the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.
The third foal of Jerezana is the promising Exceed And Excel gelding Sedition a recent winner at Rosehill.
So, Mercury has a bit to live up to.
While Brazen Beau (pictured) was a champion sprinter, the son of I Am Invincible was not seen out until February of his juvenile season.
That came when making his debut in an 1100 metre maiden at Canterbury. Some maiden that turned out to be. Brazen Beau defeated the subsequent Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes winner Hampton Court with the Group III ATC Festival Stakes winner and $1.3 million earner Testashadow back in third.
Two starts later Brazen Beau won the Group II Champagne Classic and rounded out his juvenile year with seconds in the Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes and Group II BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
That proved a mere appetiser to an amazing three-year-old season in which Brazen Beau won the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes and Group 1 VRC Newmarket Handicap before winding up his career with a luckless second in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Brazen Beau’s first season service fee of $44,000 at Darley Stud’s Northwood Park was the most expensive of all first season sires in 2015.
He had a solid reception at the sales with his first crop of yearlings.
Fifty-two first crop yearlings averaged a tick under $156,000 with the top price of $700,000 paid by McEvoy Mitchell Racing for Coolmore Stud’s half-sister to Sertorius, Dollar For Dollar and Clifton Red out of the blue hen Encosta de Lago mare Pretty Penny.
