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‘It Was Mighty Stuff’ – Waipiro’s Breeder Molan Getting Used To The Spotlight

When the first horse Shane Molan bred in his own name turned out to be the multiple Group 1-winning star Waikuku (Ire) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), he didn't dream the achievement would ever be topped.

But Waikuku's dam London Plane (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), who Molan famously bought for just €13,500 from Hyde Park Stud at the Goffs February Sale back in 2013, has proved herself to be anything but a one-hit wonder.

Nor is the 37-year-old breeder who operates from the family base in Limerick at Riversfield Stud, which was once again put in the spotlight when Derby sixth Waipiro (Ire) (Australia {GB}), a half-brother to the horse who put Molan on the map, stormed to Royal Ascot success.

Like Waikuku, Waipiro carried the familiar red and black-striped silks of Hong Kong-based owner Siu Pak-Kwan, to victory in the G3 Hampton Court S. at Ascot. While Molan says that the horse is likely to continue his career in that part of the world eventually, he stated how he believes there could be more to come from Ed Walker's charge in Britain first.

He said, “Last week was mighty stuff. The mare is actually just scanned back in foal to Night Of Thunder (Ire) so hopefully all goes well there. She has a Wootton Bassett (GB) filly foal on the ground and we're very happy with her.”

Molan added, “I suppose connections could have one eye on the Hong Kong Derby but I'd love to see him continue progressing in Britain for now anyway and see where he can go.

“He seems to have plenty of speed and plenty of ability as well. He showed a lovely turn of foot to come through the gap and put the race to bed quite easily. Hopefully he can keep on climbing the ranks.”

Riversfield Stud may be a small operation in terms of the number of mares residing at the Limerick outfit but this is a farm that has continuously punched well above its weight. Molan's father Tom bred Harbour Watch (Ire) while the father-and-son duo combined to produce Bright Diamond (Ire) (El Kabeir), who finished fifth in this year's Oaks.

While the temptation for similarly small outfits would be to produce speedier types that will ultimately prove to be more commercial, Molan has explained how playing the long game in producing horses for the track rather than the sales ring in beginning to bear fruit.

He said, “Over the years, we would have kept seven or eight mares but we're back to just six mares on the farm now. It's a small operation. When we had the extra few mares, we were breeding them more commercially and we were getting winners but nothing of Waipiro's calibre.

“We probably breed for the track more so than the sales ring to a point and that's paying off now. It is a balancing act, though, because you need to be able to pay your bills. We try to breed the mares as best we can on paper and on budget and then just hope for the best.”

Off the back of Waikuku's success in Hong Kong, BBA Ireland's Richie Fitzsimons contacted Molan on behalf of bloodstock agent Alastair Donald, who looks after the interests of Siu, to see if the breeder would be interested in selling the younger brother. A deal was brokered after Fitzsimons saw Waipiro at Molan's base in Limerick and both parties can count themselves pleased with how things have worked out since.

Molan recalled, “John Oxx bought Waikuku from me at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale in 2016 [for €33,000] and then Alastair Donald bought the horse privately after he won his maiden at Leopardstown.

“It was a couple of years back when Richie Fitzsimons of BBA Ireland contacted me asking if I would be interested in selling Waipiro privately. That was through Alistair Donald again on behalf of the same owners as Waikuku so it's brilliant for them.

“Waikuku won close to €5 million in prize-money for the Sui family and Waipiro has won at Royal Ascot for them and is still progressing. I'd imagine he will head to Hong Kong at some stage and, if he settles in there, you would hope that he will win a lot of prize-money.”

On the reasoning behind sending the mare to Australia, he added, “When I bred Waipiro, Waikuku had only just won his maiden and I didn't have a massive budget to play with. Australia was holding his own and it was just the Danehill and Galileo (Ire) cross that was on my mind when I decided to go to him.”

Molan may not have had to bring Waipiro to the sales but revealed that sending the colt's dam London Plane to one of the boutique mares sales at the end of the year is coming under strong consideration.

He said, “It has crossed my mind. I've had two daughters of the mare in training. The two-year-old is by Acclamation (GB) and is in training with Ken Condon and then I have Dancing Rebel (Ire), who is by Highland Reel (Ire) and won over five furlongs at the Curragh. She's in foal to Blue Point (Ire). So it actually crossed my mind to sell London Plane given I have two of her daughters coming through. If Waipiro was to go and pick up a Group 2 or be competitive in Group 1s, well then the mare becomes a lot more attractive to prospective buyers.”

What the Molans have achieved with their small but successful broodmare band was there for everyone to see at Epsom earlier this month when Riversfield Stud graduates Waipiro and Bright Diamond ran solid races in the Derby and Oaks respectively.

Molan said, “I'm not in the game a very long time but I'm in it long enough to know that there are plenty of bad days. It has a habit of levelling you so you have to enjoy the good moments.

“Dad and I will have to split Bright Diamond as well. Dad owned her granddam, Devious Diva (Ire) (Dr Devious {Ire}), who produced Starlite Sienna (Ire) (Elusive Pimpernel). We sold her as a yearling before buying her back at the July Sale and then I chose to go to El Kabeir with her. I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing! But it was just the Scat Daddy line that I was keen to get into as I'd spotted that No Nay Never was out of an Elusive Quality mare as well. That's the line I followed there.”

He added, “I was at Epsom and it was lovely to be there. I actually thought Bright Diamond ran well in the Oaks and I'd like to see her run in the Irish Oaks now.

“It is hard to get your head around the fact we bred a runner in the Oaks and the Derby because, not only are we breeding five or six foals a year, but we're up against some of the biggest breeding operations in the world.

“Like, Coolmore sent Rhododendron (Ire) off to Japan to be covered by Deep Impact (Jpn) and there we are up against Auguste Rodin (Ire) with our Australia colt out of our €13,500 mare. On paper, we shouldn't be there at all, so it was an unbelievable achievement.”

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Seven Days: Many Indicators of Success

In the European edition we really shouldn't be overstepping our boundary to encroach on the territory of our American colleagues who did such a fine job in conveying the stories from Belmont Park last week.

Racing faces different problems in different jurisdictions and, from an outsider's perspective, it is hard to get fully behind racing in America when a number of its major participants remain overly reliant on medication. But if you read Cynthia Holt's wonderful account of being at Belmont 50 years ago to bear witness to arguably the greatest-ever performance by a Thoroughbred as Secretariat went for the Triple Crown, it is impossible not to wish for that situation to improve and for racing to be able to hold its head high. The only way it can survive and thrive around the world is if everyone involved pledges to do the the very best for the horses who make it possible to work in such an engaging and vibrant sport.

That is why the result of the 155th Belmont S. was so uplifting. For a start, it heralded yet another important marker in the advancement of women within the sport, with Jena Antonucci becoming the first female trainer of the winner of an American Triple Crown race. But more importantly, Arcangelo's victory was a major triumph for a smaller trainer who is apparently prepared to prioritise the welfare of her horses above all else. Coming with a horse who cost his owner Jon Ebbert $35,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, it is also a result which sends a message to other small operators: it can be done.

It should not be underestimated how much stories of this ilk are needed, and how much rarer they are becoming. It is hard now to imagine a trainer like Joe Janiak, a former taxi driver, turning up at Royal Ascot with his cast-off sprinter Takeover Target (Aus) and waltzing off with one of the week's biggest prizes. In three years and six starts at the royal meeting, the gelding with chipped knees was never out of the first four in the major sprints. And yes, his success had no bearing on the betterment of the breed, but what a battler, what a story.

Somehow, it is harder to get behind the horses owned by major investment syndicates, and that is not to denigrate the people funding those runners. Financial investment is vital for racing to continue, and for the breeders to be able to go on producing the goods, but emotional investment is just as important, and that is what you hear and feel when you read Jena Antonucci's story. The spotlight should always be on the horses, but racing is so much more compelling when you can root for their people, too.

I will confess that, until this past week, I knew barely anything about Antonucci. Some engaging interviews following her Belmont S. victory led me to her website and I was taken by one of the sub-headings on her homepage which stated 'Statistics aren't the only indicator of success'. It was an apposite line to read following the release of a video by a major syndicate trying to sell shares in a new recruit, in which the manager pours scorn on the record and percentages of the horse's former trainer. It was an act of quite staggering ignorance, bad manners and, ultimately, self-harm.

The colt in question is New Energy (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), who until last week was the top-rated horse in Sheila Lavery's stable. He is a horse who, since this time last year following his second-place finish in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, has been running with an official mark of 112 or 113. In other words, consistent and classy. Those two facts are surely the reason he was such a desirable purchase, and he was likely bought for many multiples of the £65,000 it took for his trainer and Ted Durcan to secure him at the breeze-up sales two years ago.

He's not a one-off for Lavery, either, for she regularly gets a good tune out of horses who could be overlooked in bigger yards. Four years ago, she trained the €15,000 weanling purchase Lady Kaya (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) to run second in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket. I can still hear the devastation in her voice when she spoke of that filly's fatal injury on the gallops in the countdown to her next appearance at Royal Ascot. She will have been almost similarly upset to have lost New Energy to an Australian stable which has hundreds and hundreds of horses on its books. Lavery will have understood, though, that the horse had a greater chance of being a high earner in a jurisdiction endowed with plentiful prize-money, and in a sector where he may encounter weaker opposition than he has done in Europe.

Lavery and Antonucci have had 59 and 52 starters this year respectively, and it is well within the bounds of possibility that we will see Lavery follow Antonucci in becoming a Group/Grade 1-winning trainer. That of course becomes harder to achieve for every smaller operation as the good horses get whisked away by those with large cheque books. But in the cases of both women, and many other trainers of a similar size, a strong argument can be made for them not to be overlooked in the stampede towards the superstables.

Al Asifah a Potential Star for Shadwell

There is no such thing as a quiet week in racing, but with Royal Ascot now only a week away, and Epsom a week behind us, the fare of the last seven days has been more muted. However, there have been plenty of impressive performances to note, and none perhaps more so than the win of Shadwell's Al Asifah (GB) in the Listed Weatherbys/British EBF Agnes Keyser Fillies' S. The daughter of Frankel (GB) and Aneen (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}), herself a half-sister to Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Awtaad (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), may have missed most of the Classics but it would be no surprise to see her engaged in Group 1 races before too long, despite her inexperience.

Similarly, it was hard not to be impressed by the performance of Beautiful Diamond (GB) (Twilight Son {GB}) in her winning debut for Karl Burke and Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum at Nottingham. A pinhooking triumph for Tradewinds Stud, she went from being a 30,000gns yearling to a £360,000 breezer when becoming the most expensive filly sold at the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale in April.

Richard Fahey spoke eloquently in these pages last week of his approach to two-year-olds, and he has plenty of his stable's youngsters firing ahead of an important week. That was particularly notable by his twin strike at Beverley on Saturday with Midnight Affair (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in the Hilary Needler and Bombay Bazaar (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) in the Two-Year-Old Trophy.

From Rome to Hokkaido

Three nations combined in the winner of the Tattersalls-sponsored G2 Oaks d'Italia. Trainer Stefano Botti won the race for the fifth time since 2012 with Shavasana (Ire), who is now unbeaten in five starts, including the G3 Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1,000 Guineas). This time, however, she was ridden by Britain's Hollie Doyle, whose first Classic success came aboard Nashwa (GB) in last year's Prix de Diane, and won in the colours of leading Japanese owner/breeder Katsumi Yoshida, who bought the filly after her first Classic win.

Remarkably, Botti's first three wins in the Italian Oaks came in consecutive years with the half-sisters Cherry Collect (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}), Charity Line (Ire) (Manduro {Ger}) and Final Score (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}). Another of their half-sisters, Sea Of Class (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), later won the Irish Oaks, making their dam, Holy Moon (GB) (Hernando {Fr}), a most prized member of the broodmare band owned by the Botti family's Razza del Velino, who also bred Shavasana.

The Holy Moon family and the Oaks d'Italia are also clearly prized in Japan as all three of those aforementioned winning half-sisters are now in the ownership of either Katsumi or Teruya Yoshida.

Straight Ahead to Hamburg

The G2 Union-Rennen at Cologne provided the latest shake-up to the market of the G1 Deutsches Derby on July 2, which is now headed by Straight (Ger) (Zarak {Fr}). The Gestut Karlshof homebred has every right to be considered a serious Classic prospect, not just on his win in the 188th Union-Rennen but also for the names found on his page.

Straight's fourth dam Sacarina (GB) (Old Vic {GB}) has been a key player in the success of the Faust family's Karlshof operation. His third dam Sahel (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) is a full-sister to the Deutsches Derby winners Samum (Ger) and Schiaparelli (Ger) as well as to the Preis der Diana winner Salve Regine (Ger). Another sister, Sanwa (Ger), is the dam of the 2014 Deutsches Derby winner Sea The Moon (Ger), who is in turn the sire of the another of the leading fancies for this year's race, Fantastic Moon (Ger), who was champion two-year-old last year in Germany.

Another Zarak colt from the immediate family of Straight also features in the Derby betting: Sirjan (Ger), a Group 3 winner in Italy last year, was also bred at Karlshof and is a half-brother to Straight's dam Seductive (Ger) (Henrythenavigator).

It is a family which has already tasted Classic success in Europe this season as yet another of Sacarina's daughters by Monsun, Sortita (Ger), features as the grand-dam of the G2 Derby Italiano winner Goldenas (Ire) (Golden Horn {GB}).

And Now For Something Completely Different

If you wander into the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, you might expect to find exhibitions pertaining to the horse in some form or other.

This summer, however, the museum has spread its wings to become involved in a show named The Urban Frame: Mutiny In Colour, which opened last week and is being staged across three venues in Suffolk. The exhibition includes more than 50 works from some renowned contemporary artists, including Banksy, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

The street artist and international man (or woman) of mystery, Banksy, is also represented at the National Horseracing Museum in The 7: Banksy Under Siege, which features replicas of life-size 'walls' created during the artist's visit to Ukraine last year.

It is a world-first for this exhibition, which runs until October 1. Who says Newmarket is boring?

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Seven Days: Who Bears Wins

'Industry heavyweights' seems to have been the buzz phrase of the last few weeks, and we have a few of those in our long-running 12-to-follow competition organised by my husband every Flat and National Hunt season. Those competing this summer include several leading Irish stud masters, bloodstock agents, trainers, breeders, sales company executives, and the head of the Tote. And they are all currently trailing in the wake of an 11-year-old boy who was shrewd enough to include Little Big Bear in his list.

What a selection that was. Mind you, Alex Barry is no ordinary 11-year-old boy. He devours pedigrees for breakfast and will surely one day shove his dad Luke aside to take the helm at Manister House Stud. They start 'em young in Ireland, and that's one of the reasons the Irish have the edge in just about every facet of the bloodstock industry.

The bears came out of the woods on Saturday with Little Big Bear landing the Curragh's G1 Keeneland Phoenix S., and the admirably hardy Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}), who had been a close third in that same race last year, posting his third group win in the G3 Rathasker Stud Phoenix Sprint S.

Little Big Bear became the fourth Group/Grade 1 winner for his sire No Nay Never, whose name has popped up at pretty much every major meeting this season, with his star performer Alcohol Free (Ire) having added the July Cup to her tally of top-level wins, Blackbeard (Ire) notching group wins in Ireland and France, Trillium (GB) landing the Molecomb S., and Little Big Bear having first hinted at his prowess in the Windsor Castle S. at Royal Ascot.

No Nay Never's sire Scat Daddy is a son of Aidan O'Brien's outstanding juvenile Johannesburg, the winner of Group/Grade 1 races in Ireland, France, Britain and America in his debut season. That run started with the Phoenix S., which was taken by his great-grandson in such impressive fashion at the Curragh on Saturday. The G1 Prix Morny was next on the list for Johannesburg 21 years ago, but it appears that Little Big Bear will not yet take a trip to the land where his dam Adventure Seeker (Fr) (Bering {GB}) was bred by the Wildenstein family, and indeed where his third dam, the champion All Along (Fr) (Targowice), won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1983. Aidan O'Brien told the Nick Luck Daily podcast on Monday that the star juvenile will likely stay at home to contest the G1 National S. next.

Daddy's Legacy

Scat Daddy was only 11 when he died in 2015 but his reputation had grown enough by that stage for him to have left a number of sons at stud, with at least 15 currently scattered between Europe and America. His former home of Ashford Stud contains three of those sons: Caravaggio, the sire of the dual Group 1 winner Tenebrism, Triple Crown winner Justify, and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn. Those last two named both have first-crop runners this year, with Justify currently in second in the American freshman table. His leading performer to date is the G2 Airlie Stud S. winner Statuette, a three-parts-sister to Tenebrism, their dam being the celebrated Group 1-winning miler Immortal Verse (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}).

At Coolmore in Ireland, another freshman sire of 2022, Sioux Nation, stands alongside No Nay Never, and he has had a pretty stonking week with two Group 3 winners to his credit – Sydneyarms Chelsea (Ire) at Deauville and the tail-swishing Lakota Sioux (Ire) at Newmarket. All of this activity means that No Nay Never has taken over from Havana Grey (GB) as Europe's leading sire of 2-year-olds, with Sioux Nation now in third place in that particular table.

It is also worth noting that Yeomanstown Stud's grey son of Scat Daddy, El Kabeir, provided arguably the most eye-catching maiden winner of the last week in the Karl Burke-trained Bright Diamond (Ire), who sparkled on debut when beating some smartly-bred types by nine lengths at Newmarket.

Meanwhile there are now four young sons of No Nay Never at stud. The first yearlings of Coolmore's Ten Sovereigns will come under the hammer this weekend at Arqana, where the first yearling by Highclere Stud's Land Force (Ire) is also consigned. The G2 Coventry S. winner Arizona (Ire) will have his first foals for sale later this year, while in France Al Shaqab's Molecomb winner Armor (GB) covered his first book of mares this spring at Haras de Bouquetot.

Clearly we will be seeing plenty more runners representing the Scat Daddy line in the coming seasons. The most interesting question to be answered in the relatively short term will be whether the classy female family of the Camas Park Stud and Summerhill-bred Little Big Bear will combine with this generally fast and precocious line well enough to help him show a similar level of form at a mile and fulfil his obvious Classic pretensions.

The Queen of Highfield

There is encouragement to be gained for breeders large and small by the admirable progression of John Fairley's homebred Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}), who took some notable scalps when winning the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest on Sunday. Born only a few miles up the road from Deauville, she is really a child of Yorkshire, where she is trained by John Quinn in the yard he rents from Fairley, Highfield Stables, from which she takes her name.

And she is indeed worthy of that regal soubriquet now, though that was not necessarily apparent from the early days of her career. Unraced at two, her three unplaced maiden/novice runs saw Highfield Princess earn an opening handicap mark of 57 as a 3-year-old, though it must be said that third appearance of her life came in a Redcar novice in which she was fourth, beaten ten lengths by subsequent Group 1 winner Dreamloper (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). In good old workmanlike fashion Highfield Princess climbed the ratings to end that opening season on a mark of 83 as a four-time winner.

Last season's delights included a victory at Royal Ascot then a first stakes success in Chelmsford City's Listed Queen Charlotte Fillies' S., and a runner-up finish to Space Blues (Ire) in the G2 City Of York S. That upwardly mobile progression has continued to the very top this season, and she has rewarded her breeder's decision to keep her in training at five by landing the valuable All-Weather Fillies' and Mares' Championship, followed by the G2 Duke of York S. and now her victory over a field which included three previous Group 1 winners.

John Fairley, who breeds under the name of Trainers House Enterprises, bought the former Godolphin mare Pure Illusion (Ire) (Danehill) when carrying Highfield Princess, a first-crop daughter of Night Of Thunder. His first piece of luck was being able to buy her for 18,000gns, and extra bonuses soon came his way when the next season the mare's 2-year-old colt by Lonhro (Aus), named Cardsharp (GB), won the Woodcote S. and G2 July S. Two years later Night Of Thunder announced himself on the scene by becoming champion first-season sire. Though Highfield Princess was not among his 25 first-crop juvenile winners, she will now become his top-rated runner among three Group 1 winners for the son of Dubawi in Ireland, France and Australia. She could yet extend that geographical range to America, with Quinn keen to take his stable star to the Breeders' Cup meeting at Keeneland.

Sadly for Fairley, Pure Illusion died after producing just one more foal after Highfield Princess, and that 2-year-old colt by Aclaim (Ire) is now in training alongside her and has been named Highland Viking (GB).

Brilliant Buick, Marvellous Moore

It has been a good season so far for those racing fans who prefer their jockeys to be boringly brilliant.

William Buick, who arguably should be the current champion jockey, is in the form of his life and is pushing full steam ahead in his quest to gain that accolade this year, currently racking up the winners at a rate of 25%. Buick returned from his Saratoga Derby and Oaks double over the weekend for Charlie Appleby to take up three rides at Wolverhampton on Monday. Now that's dedication.

Ryan Moore has already been champion jockey on three occasions, and his flitting between Britain and Ireland to fulfil his Ballydoyle obligations means that his tally of winners is more or less equally divided between the two nations, but it is a list certainly not short on quality. Four of his five winners of the last week have been in stakes company, led by Little Big Bear and including a treble at Deauville last Tuesday for three different trainers.

There's something almost perversely pleasurable about a Ryan Moore post-race interview in that you almost don't want to watch because it's so very clear how much he's hating it, but you have to stick with it to the end just in case he cracks a faint smile, which is all the more special for its rarity value. While Moore sensibly refuses to play the court jester for the media, he is however absolutely superb in his debriefings with owners and trainers. Those charged with promoting the sport may argue that that's not enough, but it is, first and foremost, his job.

The amusing postscript to Little Big Bear's triumph was found in these words from Aidan O'Brien: “Ryan was very complimentary about him and there's not too many horses Ryan is complimentary of.”

Spin? Possibly. But then this was the man who dismounted from his first victory in the Oaks on Snow Fairy and said, “Well it's not the Derby, is it?” The likelihood is that Moore, along with the rest of us, thinks that Little Big Bear is very exciting indeed.

And to this observer, having two jockeys of the class demonstrated by Buick and Moore, both on and off their horses, is all the excitement one needs. Let's leave the drama and angst to others.

All Roads Lead to Deauville

The strange world within a world that is the bloodstock sales scene cranks into top gear this weekend with the start of the European yearling season in France.

Readers of The Times may have been disheartened by last week's 'Litany of gloom' leader forewarning of another major recession for Britain, but that is unlikely to upset the bull run of the yearling sales. Not yet anyway, and not while there is such a clamour for European-bred turf horses with a touch of middle-distance class from our colleagues in America, Australia and beyond.

Pre-pandemic, Arqana's August Sale hit a new high just shy of €43 million in 2019, and it wasn't far off that last year when the sale returned to its normal slot after a disrupted calendar in 2020, and almost €40 million was traded for 244 yearlings. The catalogue is slightly smaller this year, but it is fair to expect some pretty red hot trade as temperatures soar again in Europe.

Hottest among the trainers in France is the unstoppable Jean-Claude Rouget, who reached a new milestone this weekend when saddling his 7,000th winner, thereby extending his European record as the winningmost trainer.

On the day of his victory with Vadeni (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) in the Eclipse at Sandown, Rouget spoke of the slow beginning to his 43-year training career, when he was training “some jumpers and some bad Flat horses”.

Rouget's recent former assistant Tim Donworth has made a quicker start to his own training career, which began last September. The Chantilly-based Irishman now has 13 winners to his name, and recorded his first stakes win on Saturday with Ocean Vision (Ire) (U S Navy Flag) in the Listed Prix de la Vallee d'Auge, in which he also trained the third home, Kokachin (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}).

La Vie Est Belle

Although there was only one non-German-trained runner in Sunday's G1 Preis der Diana, there was still a strong international feel to the result, with the French-bred Toskana Belle becoming the first Group 1 winner for her Normandy-based sire Shamalgan (Fr), a son of Footstepsinthesand (GB). Furthermore, the filly is now owned by Australian Bloodstock, and she was ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, who was making a flying visit to Europe to ride in the Shergar Cup at Ascot on Saturday and stayed on an extra day to land his second European Classic victory following the St Leger win of Rule Of Law (Kingmambo) in 2004.

Luke Murrell and Jamie Lovett of Australian Bloodstock have long had ties to Germany, where their racing and breeding interests are managed by Ronald Rauscher and include the Gestut Rottgen-based stallion Protectionist (Ger). Like Toskana Belle, the Melbourne Cup-winning son of Monsun (Ger) was trained by Andreas Wohler, who collected his seventh German Oaks victory while, remarkably, the Australian Bloodstock syndicate has now won the race three times.

Toskana Belle, who only started her racing career this April, was initially under the care of Marian Falk Weissmeier, for whom she finished third in the G3 Diana Trial in June before joining the Wohler stable. She was bred by Simon Springer of Ecurie Normandie Pur Sang, who also owns her sire and the Prix Morny winner Dabirsim (Fr). Unusually, Springer bought Shamalgan, now 15, at the Arqana December Sale five years ago for €135,000, and both stallions stand at Haras de Grandcamp.

Springer's own colours were carried to success in France just minutes after Toskana Belle's Classic success when his homebred son of Dabirsim, Celestin (Fr), won the Grand Handicap de Deauville.

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