Island Sands

Island Sands
Racing colours of Godolphin, carried by Island Sands in his Classic win.
Sire	Turtle Island
Grandsire	Fairy King
Dam	Tiavanita
Damsire	J. O. Tobin
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	27 January 1996
Country	Ireland
Colour	Dark Bay or Brown
Breeder	Mrs T. V. Ryan
Owner	Mrs Michael Meredith Godolphin Racing Maktoum Al Maktoum
Trainer	David Elsworth Saeed bin Suroor David Loder
Record	9:4-2-1
Earnings	£213,623
Major wins
2000 Guineas (1999)

Island Sands (foaled 27 January 1996) was an Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from August 1998 to June 2001 he ran nine times and won four races. His most notable success came in his first race as a three-year-old in 1999, when he won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. His subsequent career was restricted by injury and he won only one minor race in the next two years. He was eventually retired to a stud career in China.

Island Sands was described as a "most attractive" brown horse with a small white star and four white feet and stood 16 hands high. He was bred at the Kilcoran House Stud in County Tipperary, Ireland by Mrs T. V. Ryan. He was sired by Turtle Island out of the mare Tiavanita. Turtle Island won six races, most notably the 1994 Irish 2000 Guineas which he won by fifteen lengths on his favoured soft ground. At stud, he has sired the winners of over four hundred races, but Island Sands, from his first crop of foals, remains his only winner at Group One level. Tiavanita failed to win a race but was a half-sister of Corrupt, who won the Great Voltigeur Stakes and started joint-favourite for the 1991 Epsom Derby. As a yearling, Island Sands was sent to the Goffs Sale in October, where he was bought for IR£18,000 by the British trainer David Elsworth.

Island Sands made his first appearance in a six furlong maiden race at Salisbury in August 1998. Ridden by the apprentice jockey Alan Daly, he took the lead in the final furlong and won by two lengths from Victory Spin and twelve other runners. Five weeks later he returned to Salisbury for the Cranbourne Stakes in which he started favourite at odds of 4/6 and won by two lengths from Locombe Hill. After this race he was bought by Godolphin Racing and sent to spend the winter in Dubai, where he was trained by Saeed bin Suroor.