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00:00The Irish national stud recently announced the retirement of their stalwart stallion
00:07Invincible Spirit, and while his presence will be missed on their roster, they have
00:11recruited a new stallion who shares a lot of similarities with that of Invincible Spirit.
00:16Should it have been a ring, his by-sire is sensational Havana Grey, and he is the first
00:21of Havana Grey's sons to retire to stud in Ireland.
00:24Gátha Bheal fills us in on his profile.
00:28Delighted to have Should It Have Been A Ring, so new for 2025, so really tough, consistent,
00:35hard knocking horse, retires sound of wind and limb, 30 races, he was a stakes winner
00:44at 2, stakes winner at 3, group winner at 4, and obviously he's by Havana Grey who
00:49needs no introduction.
00:51Huge attraction to Should It Have Been A Ring to be the first son of Havana Grey to retire
00:55to stud in Ireland, he's his highest prize money winner, I'd say his most consistent
01:00horse to train on at 3 and 4, having been a very, very good 2 year old, and obviously
01:06Havana Grey has started from modest beginnings, a little bit like Invincible Spirit, a bit
01:11like Kodiak, a bit like Acclamation, I think he's this type of horse, a horse that's
01:15going to start off with great value at €6,000 and hopefully if he becomes half as good as
01:21those guys we'll be very happy.
01:23I think it's really important and it's probably often overlooked just how important
01:27soundness is, everybody knows when we get to the foal sales and the yearling sales that
01:31we have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to sell our foals, so if they look like
01:35him and they act like him, which is always the hope, people are going to be in good shape
01:39because he's a beautiful physical, he stands 15.3, he's slightly bigger than his dad,
01:45beautiful mover, he's got his same sort of shape and movement, so he's a very similar
01:51horse in that way but just a little bit bigger, and as I say soundness and durability is sort
01:57of overlooked maybe in the modern world but it's really important and we're in this
02:01for the long haul, it's important to sell foals very well and sell yearlings very well
02:05in the couple of years time.
02:07We've been delighted with the response to him, anybody who's got to see him have
02:13pretty much bought a share instantly on the day, so it's still early days getting people
02:18out there but once people have seen him they've been really, really positive to it.
02:22I think everybody likes the idea, everybody knows Savannah Gray, everybody understands
02:26the type of horse he is, everybody remembers him on the track, they know what he's done,
02:30they know just how fast he was, repeated over six furlongs and seven furlongs, it's
02:36what the market wants, I think he'll suit mares that are five and six furlong mares
02:41but he'll also suit mares up to a mile and mile and two.
02:45We've had a long history of finding the next stallion when the big stallion has moved on,
02:51it happened when Ahanura left, followed by Indian Ridge, followed by Invincible Spirit
02:55and again, one of these new horses coming along, I think they've all got an opportunity
03:00to sort of step up and to take on that sort of mantle of being the kingpin at the stud
03:06and look, we obviously hope it should have been a ring in that he's going to have a
03:10very similar profile to Invincible Spirit, he was beaten a short head in the Haydock
03:14Sprint Cup, the same race that Invincible Spirit won, he improved from two to three
03:18to four, he was fast, he was a six furlong horse and he was by a proven speed horse,
03:25Green Desert in Invincible Spirit's case and Savannah Gray now in should have been
03:29a ring's case, so I think there's a lot of similarities there.
03:40.