ITBA Flat Seminar Spurs Lively Distance Discussion

The Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (ITBA)'s Flat Seminar, The Distance Debate, was held in conjunction with the Derby Festival at the Curragh on June 30.

The seminar featured a panel of top experts–Kevin Blake, Stuart Boman, Ado McGuinness, Jason Morris and John Oxx, with ITBA Chairman Cathy Grassick taking on hosting duties.

The discussion–Sprinters, Stayers and Everything in Between–analyzed breeding for different distances to suit market demands, as well as changes in trends over the past number of years and what the future might look like. The panel's lively discussion included points on varying trends within the Flat breeding and racing sector, international markets, balancing speed versus stamina and market demand.

“Distance horses are still speedy horses,” champion trainer and Staffordstown Stud Director John Oxx said. “Carrying speed for longer is what we are trying to produce. The superior athletic specimen.”

ITBA Chief Executive Una Tormey said, ”A huge thanks to the Curragh Racecourse for facilitating ITBA's Flat Seminar and to our great panel for giving up their time ahead of a busy Derby Festival weekend. The discussion provided some valued insights into all matters pertaining to the current trends around breeding for markets demands. Those in attendance provided plenty of comments and questions throughout the afternoon and the debate was well balanced and informative. There were lots of food for thought and plenty of key items were discussed. I would encourage those who missed the event to watch it back via ITBA website.”

The Seminar can be viewed in full by visiting the ITBA website or YouTube Channel.

 

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Death Of Former Irish National Stud Boss John Clarke 

John Oxx has led the tributes to John Clarke, the former chief executive of the Irish National Stud and advisor to Mrs Tsui, who died on Thursday following a long illness. 

Clarke died peacefully in Blackrock Hospice in Dublin and, according to Oxx, will be remembered for leaving a “considerable mark” on the Irish National Stud's history.

Oxx said, “I knew John well. He was the chief executive of the Irish National Stud for a long number of years. He enjoyed a long stint there, during which time the stud had Ahonoora before he was sold to Coolmore.

“Then Invincible Spirit and Indian Ridge came along and they were great stallions for the stud. They are three outstanding stallions who were there for his tenure and he left a considerable mark on the stud's history.”

He added, “In John's latter years, he was looking after Mrs Tsui's interests and Sea The Stars's stud career along with Pat Downes of Giltown Stud. He's been associated with some of the biggest equine names in the Irish bloodstock industry. Sea The Stars of course was foaled and reared at the Irish National Stud before he came into training with me and Urban Sea used to board there and is buried on the grounds of the stud. John had quite a history of great horses under his wing over a long number of years.”

Clarke's funeral mass takes place on Wednesday, June 7, at 10am in the Church of the Assumption, Dalkey.

 

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Seven Days: Kings and Queens of the Heath 

It's a heady time of year to be on Newmarket Heath of a Saturday morning. You can tell by the convoy of smart cars when one of the big strings is about to arrive at the Al Bahathri, with Guineas weekend providing the perfect opportunity for owners to watch their horses work. 

This past Saturday, either 2,000 Guineas day, Kentucky Derby day, or Coronation Day, depending on your persuasion, was no exception. With the car park double-stacked and trainers and jockeys all about, Joe Foley, waiting for the off with Steve Parkin and Danny Tudhope, exclaimed, “It's just like being at The Yard”, in reference to Newmarket's famous watering hole not far from Tattersalls. 

The Gosden string swept by, with Teddy Grimthorpe on hand to watch Imad Al Sagar's Classic heroine Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in action, and they were followed by Sir Michael Stoute's team from Freemason Lodge. Philip Robinson and Richard Brown were in attendance, guaranteeing the appearance of reigning Derby hero Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), with Kevin Bradshaw in the saddle, Sarah Denniff at his side, as the countdown continues to his much-awaited comeback. 

The previous evening, Stoute has been a special guest at a reception at the National Horse Racing Museum to mark his induction into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame, along with Sea The Stars (Ire). The latter's owner and co-breeder Christopher Tsui had flown in from Hong Kong for the event, and his trainer John Oxx from Ireland. In the hands of the excellent Lydia Hislop, the interviews at the ceremony were both revealing and emotional.

Earlier on at the Rowley Mile, Stoute and Sea The Stars had combined to provide a maiden success for Infinite Cosmos (Ire), a market springer for the Oaks, which may just come a stroke too soon following the unfortunate abandonment of Sandown's meeting a week earlier, at which she had been set to make her seasonal resumption.

Stoute, ever the master of the slow burn with his Classic prospects, would not be pressed on the matter of the likelihood of Epsom for the elegant chestnut filly. As the great owner-breeders of yore fade into the past, it would be a poignant marker for Infinite Cosmos to contest a Classic this year, running in memory of her late breeder Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. Interviewed after the race, the trainer's mouth twitched a little, which may just have been irritation at the reporters' questions, or may, in a more fanciful light, be a flicker of evidence of the regard in which he holds the long-striding filly who represents connections who have provided his stable with such names as Crystal Ocean (GB) and Notnowcato (GB). We look forward to seeing her next in the G3 Tattersalls Musidora S. at York on May 17, which was confirmed as her next start to TDN on Monday.

There was less twitching and more active wriggling and fidgeting by the time Stoute was put under an actual spotlight in the Museum and grilled by Hislop, who thanked him profusely for not running away from her, as he is wont to do when faced by a microphone at the races.

The horses may speak for themselves there, but when Stoute is pressed to speak on their behalf, remembering which of them he loved the best, he is reluctant to choose from a swathe of greats but eventually leans on those global gallopers, Singspiel (Ire) and Pilsudski (Ire). Quite a response from the man who trained Shergar (Ire), but Stoute is rarely predictable.

“Because they raced until they were five-year-olds,” he explained. “And they were international horses, they had a wonderful record. Their constitutions were tremendous, their temperaments. They were just lovely horses to have.”

Of course the irony with Stoute is that the less he says, the more people want to know what he thinks. Like his favoured jockey, Ryan Moore, he is clearly uncomfortable in the media glare. His deliberate pauses before answering and mid-sentence are unlikely to be because he is at a loss for words; more probably because he knows how readily words can be pounced upon and misinterpreted. Clearly, however, at 77, he has lost none of his appetite for training. In an industry so preoccupied with viewing racehorses as commodities rather than than the living works in progress that they all are at their tender ages, to hear Stoute's few words was heartening.

“I think you're got to love horses,” he told Hislop. “They are fascinating, so it's intriguing work. But the staff are so important, and relationships with the staff are so important. So I find that quite fascinating, getting their opinions.

“It's all team work. The rider has to contribute a great deal and the people that feed him early in the morning. I'm not trying to be immodest. It's interesting, if you love horses and you love racing.”

The many long-serving members of staff at Freemason Lodge speak volumes as to the two-way loyalty of those involved at the Stoute stable, top to bottom. 

The Understated Oxx

From one of the most cherished members of the British racing fraternity, the microphone was passed to John Oxx, for whom the same comments apply in Ireland. Standing alongside him was Christopher Tsui, who, as an 11-year-old boy, watched his parents' horse Urban Sea win the Arc. Though that occasion was memorable enough in itself, who there that day could even have imagined the legacy that mare would leave, both for her owners and for the Thoroughbred breed? To the wider world, it could be argued that her greatest gift was Galileo (Ire). To the Tsui family, it was another of her sons, Sea The Stars.

When Christopher Tsui was asked by Hislop when John Oxx had first let on that Sea The Stars was something special, he replied, “John is very careful. So I think it was after he won the Guineas.”

As the laughter died down, Oxx added in his own defence, “You have to manage owners' expectations, so if you set the bar too high to begin with, there's only one way, and that's down. Mind you, I could have been rash in my early assessments and he wouldn't have let you down.”

But his sensible caution, which one imagines would be echoed by Stoute, was evident again when he said, “The most commonly asked question for me was 'When did you know he was a great horse?' Each race is a new test, and until you've won the next one you can never be sure.”

In the Footsteps of Frankel

For John Oxx and Christopher Tsui, the dream season for Sea The Stars was only really beginning this week 14 years ago when he won the 2,000 Guineas. This year, the King's procession after the Coronation reached Buckingham Palace just ahead of the off for the first race on 2,000 Guineas day, precision timing of which Her Late Majesty would surely have approved. 

On a momentous day for the Balding family, Clare was perhaps able to conclude her royal commentating duties for the BBC in time to switch on ITV Racing to watch her brother Andrew land the third British Classic of his career. 

Claiming a fifth victory in the 2,000 Guineas for Juddmonte Farms, Chaldean (GB) was the first of son of Frankel (GB) to emulate his sire's jaw-dropping performance on the Rowley Mile 12 years ago, and happily this came on the first occasion that Prince Saud, son of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah, had visited a British racecourse.

With such a powerful stallion roster and broodmare band at its disposal, the Juddmonte name doesn't appear on the buyers' lists at sales too often, but when it does, those charged with making the purchases don't often get it wrong. Arrogate was one such example in recent years, and Chaldean, whose Guineas success came four days shy of his actual third birthday, can be added alongside him.

The chestnut colt is the product of Whitsbury Manor Stud's breeding programme, and his dam Suelita (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) has been making a determined bid for blue hen status of late, with five of her six offspring having earned black type, including the Group 2 winner Alkumait (GB) (Showcasing {GB}).

Whitsbury Manor also featured as the breeder over the weekend of the Listed Charles II S. winner Shouldvebeenaring (GB) and easy juvenile debutant winner Elite Status (GB), both by resident stallion Havana Grey (GB). 

Despite this great run, the stud's director Ed Harper was still doing a very convincing Eeyore impression at Newmarket, claiming ahead of the race that Chaldean had little chance. Perhaps he was just taking a leaf out of the John Oxx book of expectation management, and we are happy to report that, despite the teeming rain that had persisted throughout Saturday afternoon, Harper was more Tigger-like after the Guineas. 

A Delight of Derby Winners

Many more people had that Tigger bounce to their step by Sunday, when sunshine brought an altogether more upbeat feel to proceedings at Newmarket. 

From the vision of Desert Crown's more substantial four-year-old frame on Saturday morning, we were treated to the sight of the second of three Derby winners currently remaining in training when the magnificent beast that is Adayar (Ire) stepped into the parade ring. Frankel had his fingerprints all over Newmarket's group contests, with his Irish Derby and St Leger winner Hurricane Lane (Ire) having made a return to the winner's enclosure after Friday's G2 Jockey Club S., followed by his old mucker Adayar in the rescheduled G3 Gordon Richards S. on Sunday. 

Royal Ascot for the Prince of Wales's S. Is the most likely target for the latter, who will surely relish better ground but did everything required to get his career back on track after his narrow defeat by Bay Bridge (GB) in the Champion S. during a season in which he appeared only twice. 

Godolphin's excellent day continued when Mawj (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) doggedly repelled the favourite Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {FR}) in the 1,000 Guineas to give Saeed Bin Suroor his first Group 1 win in Britain in a decade and a first major success for Oisin Murphy since his comeback from a 14-month suspension.

Murphy was excellent, too, on Classic prospect Running Lion (GB) (Roaring Lion), who was one of two stakes winners over the weekend for David Howden, whose eponymous company had stepped in to sponsor the entire undercard at Newmarket, backing up QIPCO's sponsorship of both Guineas races. 

“That was a magical moment,” shouted Howden to David Redvers, with whom he bred Running Lion from the Dansili (GB) mare Bella Nouf (GB).

A man not short of enthusiasm, he told the crowd of journalists, “Amazing. It's so wonderful to see her win today. She's such a special horse, being by Roaring Lion, who had a very special place in our hearts. Today, for me, that's as good as it gets.”

Explaining the relationship a little further, Redvers added, “Bella Nouf was one of the first mares we bought together. When we bought her I had to take a big loan because I came to the conclusion that we had to buy some nice mares to support Roaring Lion. David came in as a partner in several, and I think he's probably got 25 horses in total now.

“Isn't it weird the way it happens? Originally, he bought a day on the gallops at the school my sister's children go to and his children went to. I rang him recently and said there was the opportunity to sponsor the whole undercard here, and he's never said no to me–though I usually have to take a leg in something.

“He's been incredibly lucky but I think it's a bit like his business, where he gets enthusiastic people around him who are investors in the business in exactly the same way as I am with the horses.”

Redvers is understandably emotional when it comes to the late Roaring Lion, who died after covering for only one season at Tweenhills, and who was trained, like Running Lion, at the Gosdens' Clarehaven Stables. 

“I went and stood at the back of the lift on the way down [from the grandstand]. I didn't want to have anyone around me,” he said in the winner's enclosure.

“I also have to stress that this is all down to Sheikh Fahad. If he hadn't bought Roaring Lion, and stood Roaring Lion, and sponsored this meeting through QIPCO, then we wouldn't have any part of it either. David gets on really well with Sheikh Fahad and they have shares together in several horses. It's a happy marriage. Unless you are running your own country, to play in this game at a decent level you need to have partnerships. It's a much better sport when you're sharing the fun, and it's a much easier sport when you're sharing the downside.”

He added, “You pick out horses in your life. That's the great thing about this game. My career started with a filly called Lady Rebecca, and then Dunaden changed it beyond recognition, and Roaring Lion changed it again. Now we have Running Lion. That's the reason we do it, for horses like this.”

Time to Heed the Warnings

Whether we call it a sport, a business, or an industry, many people involved with horse racing will share the sentiments expressed above by Redvers. We all hope for that good horse to come along, and we love the ones who are not so good just the same. 

However, as events at the signature meetings of Churchill Downs and Aintree have shown in recent weeks, we must never rest when it comes to doing the very best for the horses in our care. This has to start at the top and be upheld throughout, and if horsemen and women cannot get behind reforms to the sport made in the best interests of the creatures on whom many of us base our life's work, then they have no business being in the business. 

On a personal note, I know of almost no happier feeling than standing on Newmarket Heath, training morning or racing afternoon, with the sun on my face and the drumming of horses' hooves in my ears. How to reconcile this near-lifelong love with the portrayal of the sport on mainstream platforms outside racing is a question I am finding harder to answer. And it's not just ill-informed protest groups being given uncontested airtime in the build-up to the Grand National. 

Consider these lines, from the Washington Post on the day the Kentucky Derby was run at a Churchill Downs reeling from the fall-out from the fatalities of five horses during the previous week: “Thoroughbred horse racing is to drug abuse as the Fourth of July is to beer and hot dogs. Win or die.”

Or these, from the New York Times the next day, after another two horses were euthanised on the Derby undercard: “It is the horses that are feeding everyone in a multibillion-dollar industry. It is the humans who are letting them down.”

For most participants within the sport, abusing horses with so-called performance-enhancing drugs is unthinkable, but that's not enough. It must become abhorrent to all. Now is not the time for complacency or obstinance or cheating. If we want this great love affair to continue, now is the time for a public display of commitment.

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Classic Win Emphasises Lear Fan’s Broodmare Sire Legacy

Juddmonte homebred Westover (GB)'s seven-length thumping of the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby field last month was the second consecutive Irish Derby victory by a son of Frankel (GB) after Hurricane Lane (Ire) in 2021, but his achievement was also a timely reminder of the potency of his late broodmare sire Lear Fan. Born in 1981, the dark bay has also featured as the broodmare sire of another prominent Sadler's Wells-line runner, the two-time U.S. Champion Sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}), who died at Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa in Kentucky on July 15, but more on that Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred later.

A son of Derby winner Roberto (Hail to Reason), Lear Fan, trained by Guy Harwood for Ahmed Salman, went three-for-three as a juvenile, his campaign culminating with a victory in Doncaster's G2 Champagne S. Making his 3-year-old bow in the G3 Craven S., the colt had future Arc victor and sire Rainbow Quest (Blushing Groom {Fr}) back in second. He emulated his sire with a placing in the G1 2000 Guineas in the wake of the high-class runner and future star sire El Gran Senor (Northern Dancer).

Sent to France in search of a top-flight victory, Lear Fan trotted up in the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois and was then second in the G1 Prix du Moulin. Although he participated in the first edition of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollywood Park, Lear Fan did not land a blow and was duly retired after a brief but brilliant eight-start career to Gainesway Farm in Kentucky, where he lived out the rest of his years as a stallion.

Despite not founding a mainstream male line, Lear Fan did well in the breeding shed with an above-average percentage of black-type winners, leaving 68 stakes winners (7%) and 32 graded/group winners from 914 foals. Among his 12 Grade/Group 1 winners were eight champions headed by 2008 Hong Kong Horse of the Year Good Ba Ba, a three-time winner of the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile from 2007-2009 and earner of over $7.4 million. Other standouts included Italian champion and seven-time Group 1 winner Sikeston, as well as the four-time Grade/Group 1 winner Ryafan, successful at the highest level in both France (Prix Marcel Boussac) and thrice in the States, who was named the Eclipse Champion Grass Mare in 1997.

However, it is through his daughters that Lear Fan, the sixth of 13 foals out of Wac, a daughter of noted broodmare sire Lt. Stevens out of a daughter of an even more significant broodmare sire in War Admiral, is maintaining his presence in pedigrees. Bred by Preston Madden, Wac was a full-sister to the stakes-placed Bel Sheba, herself the dam of dirt router par excellence and 1988 U.S. Horse of the Year Alysheba (Alydar), who won the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness S., as well an additional seven Grade I races, including the 1988 Breeders' Cup Classic.

 

Inking His Legacy

Pensioned after the 2004 breeding season, four years prior to his death, Lear Fan's grandchildren began arriving in 1991, and it did not take him long to make his mark as a broodmare sire. The first inkling of his eventual 85 stakes-winning grandchildren came with the win of Tzar Rodney (Fr) (Assert {Ire}) in the 2100-metre Listed Prix Maurice Caillault at Saint-Cloud in March of 1995. The son of the winning Laquifan then became the first of 35 group winners for Lear Fan as broodmare sire with a win in the G3 Prix La Force later in the season.

The G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup second by Danetime (Ire) (Danehill  in September 1997 was another notable milestone for his grandsire. Subsequently placed in the G1 July Cup too, Danetime was given a place at stud and served mares in both hemispheres before his death in Western Australia in 2005. The bay's progeny includes three Group 1 winners among his 30 stakes winners.

 

Just Desserts

Grade I winners that produce Grade I winners are few and far between, and those that repeat that feat are in another stratosphere entirely, but the 1996 Canadian champion Windsharp, who raced for Ahmed Salman's The Thoroughbred Corp., was one such quality filly. From Lear Fan's 1991 crop, she punctuated her career with top-level scores in the GI San Luis Rey S. and the GI Beverly Hills H. in the mid-90s, and even stretched her stamina when second, by only a length, in the 1 3/4-mile GI San Juan Capistrano Invitational H.

At stud, she provided Lear Fan with his first two top-level winners as a broodmare sire in the form of the 2002 GI Hollywood Derby hero Johar (Gone West) and the Storm Cat filly Dessert, who won the GI Del Mar Oaks in August of 2003. Both were also Thoroughbred Corp. homebreds. Johar would go on to pad his reputation with a dead-heat victory that November–with High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) –in a memorable edition of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. Offered at Keeneland, Windsharp later brought an eye-watering $6.1 million from John Ferguson to join the Darley broodmare band after her childrens' accomplishments that November.

Over one quarter of Lear Fan's 11 Grade/Group 1 winners earned that badge in 2003, with Volga (Ire) (Caerleon) following in the wake of Dessert with a victory of her own in the E.P. Taylor S. at Woodbine that autumn. Lear Fan's annus mirabilis ended on a high note with Vallee Enchantee (Ire) (Peintre Celebre) taking out the G1 Hong Kong Vase at year's end.

 

'Mour' Heights To Scale

The best runner out of a Lear Fan mare in Europe was undoubtedly the impeccably bred Aga Khan homebred Azamour (Ire) (Night Shift), a son of the Irish listed heroine Asmara. The John Oxx-trained winner of the 2004 G1 St James's Palace S. and G1 Irish Champion S. was also Classic-placed in both the 2000 Guineas and Irish equivalent earlier that year. Kept in training at four, he secured the G1 Princes Of Wales's S., the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S., and ran third in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Lone Star Park in Texas.

At stud, he left 43 black-type winners (including five Group 1 winners), but sadly died at the relatively young age of 13. The 2015 G1 Irish Oaks heroine Covert Love (Ire), who was also successful in the G1 Prix de l'Opera, was the best of his progeny, which included the G1 Prix de Diane victrix Valyra (GB). However, his best male flagbearer was the gelded Best Of Days (GB), who struck in the G1 Cantala S. In Australia.

Johar, too, was given a place at stud, and came up with 16 stakes winners (10 at group level), with GI Breeders' Futurity S. winner Joha on dirt and New Zealand Group 1 winner Guiseppina (NZ) the two stars. Besides the latter, the admirable filly Keertana won a quintet of graded races and was third in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in 2010.

 

Kitten's First, The Rest Nowhere

Initially not the most distinguished daughter of Lear Fan to grace the paddocks, Kitten's First made just $17,000 as a 1992 Keeneland September Yearling and was selected by Sarah Ramsey for $41,000 out of the OBS Spring Sale one year later as her first horse. The future blue hen achieved a debut win in a seven-furlong turf maiden special weight at Belmont Park in July of 1993 and was pulled up in her only other start, Monmouth's Junior Champion S., later that summer.

However, her true merits were revealed at stud, and she hit pay dirt with her very first foal–the dual stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Justenuffheart (Broad Brush). As it stands, that branch of the Kitten's First family now features no fewer than 11 black-type horses out of Kitten's First's firstborn, anchored by 2006 Eclipse Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Dreaming Of Anna (Rahy), who won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Kitten's First visited El Prado (Ire) in 2000, and the resulting foal, Kitten's Joy, has guaranteed Lear Fan's influence well into the 21st century. A $95,000 RNA out of the 2003 OBS April Sale and named in honour of the late Sarah Ramsey, the blaze-faced chestnut was destined to become a dual Grade I winner in 2004 with victories in the Secretariat S. and Turf Classic for trainer Dale Romans. Although he was second in the Breeders' Cup Turf, his earlier efforts granted him a championship at year's end as the Eclipse Champion Turf Male. He returned the next year with a victory in the GII Firecracker Breeders' Cup H. and ended his career with an unlucky runner-up performance in the GI Arlington Million a few months later.

Predominantly a miler by trade, although he did win beyond that in the Firecracker and turned in several noteworthy efforts in defeat at longer distances, Kitten's Joy achieved sire success beyond the wildest dreams of most breeders, with two American sire titles (2013 and 2018) and took every U.S. Champion Turf Sire crown from 2013-2018. Currently sitting at 111 stakes winners (53 graded/group winners), the late chestnut, who stood at Ramsey Farm until he was moved to Hill 'n' Dale in 2018, has also accrued 15 Grade/Group 1 winners.

Three of his offspring won Grade I races on the same day–Aug. 17, 2013–Big Blue Kitten in the Sword Dancer Invitational S. in New York and both Real Solution and Admiral Kitten stamped their names on historic Chicago fixtures–the Arlington Million and Secretariat S., respectively. His European stars were Group 1 winners Hawkbill, the late Cartier Horse of the Year Roaring Lion, and 2000 Guineas victor Kameko, while GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Bobby's Kitten also won at listed level in Ireland. All four went to stud, though Roaring Lion's tenure was sadly short-lived. He died of colic after siring just one crop in Europe.

(For a more in depth look at the exploits of Kitten's Joy by Lucas Marquardt, please click here.)

The legacy of Kitten's First continued with her Catienus filly of 2003, Precious Kitten. Although a championship title evaded her, she did strike several times at the highest level in the 2007 John C. Mabee H. and Matriarch S., before adding her final Grade I in the Gamely S. at Hollywood Park in the spring of 2008.

As a broodmare, she has produced Grade III winner and sire Divining Rod (Tapit), who was second in the GI Cigar Mile H. and earned a Classic placing when third in the GI Preakness S.

 

Late To The 'Pizza' Party

Lear Fan's grandchildren continued to make an impact on the world stage after his death in 2008. Mutual Trust (GB) (Cacique {Ire}), out of the stakes winner Posteritas, claimed the 2011 G1 Prix Jean Prat, while Camilin Camilon (Per) (Unbridels King), a son of the winning Lear Dancer, struck in Peru's G1 Derby Nacional in 2013.

English Channel's The Pizza Man was the final top-flight victor for his broodmare sire prior to Westover, with a win in the 2015 Arlington Million. The immensely popular gelding, out of the multiple stakes-placed mare I Can Fan Fan, became a dual top-level scorer with a narrow tally in the Northern Dancer Turf S. the following year.

 

Go West My Son

The Juddmonte breeding programme is renowned near and far, and Westover's first three dams are all products of the storied operation. His 20-year-old dam, Mirabilis, gained black-type as a juvenile with a second in the G3 Prix Miesque, before improving to take the Listed Prix d'Angerville at three. Two more group-placings followed, among them the all-important Group 1 with a third in the Prix de la Foret. Sent Stateside, she captured the GIII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile S. as a 4-year-old and was also third in the GII Jenny Wiley S. and GII Buena Vista H.

A consistent producer, Mirabilis had three winners from three runners prior to foaling Monarchs Glen (GB). By European champion sire Frankel, the full-brother to the Irish Derby hero took the G3 Club S. Also, a stakes winner on American shores just like his dam, Monarchs Glen was placed in the GIII Mint Million at Kentucky Downs. Westover, who was also third in the Derby at Epsom, is the 10th foal from Mirabilis and is followed by the Expert Eye (GB) juvenile filly Japala (GB), who has yet to race.

The Ralph Beckett-trained Classic winner wasn't the only new stakes winner for his grandsire recently either, with Nick Papagiorgio (Outflanker) running out a half-length victor of Laurel Park's Find S. in Maryland on June 19.

With his youngest broodmare daughters now 17, most of the chapters on Lear Fan's immediate influence as a broodmare sire have been written, but Westover's victory illuminated once again what a conduit for class the Gainesway stallion yet embodies in pedigrees. That point could be illustrated even more poignantly on Saturday, with Westover entered in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. If he completes the Irish Derby/King George double, he would be the first 3-year-old colt to do so since Alamshar (Ire) (Key Of Luck) in 2003.

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