Belinda Strudwick, Ballygallon Stud Limited

Exultant (Ire), 2014 g. by Teofilo out of Contrary, by Mark Of Esteem

RACED in Ireland as Irishcorrespondent, Exultant landed his fifth Group 1 win in Hong Kong when he added a second Champions & Chater Cup to successes in the FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup, the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup and the Longines Hong Kong Vase. His earnings have increased to almost €8.3 million with 13 career successes.

In 2017 he was trained by Michael Halford for Belinda Strudwick who bred the son of Teofilo at her Ballygallon Stud. He made quite an impression winning his first two starts, before finishing third to Churchill in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh. Bloodstock agent John McCormack acquired the colt to race in Hong Kong.

Exultant is the fourth foal and winner for his dam Contrary who won at two in France. She is out of the unraced Crystal Gaze and that mare made news when she sold at the inaugural Goffs London Sale in 2014. She was offered with her colt foal by Frankel, and was back in foal to him. MV Magnier bid £1,150,000 (or about €1.4 million) to buy her.

At the time she was the dam of Spirit Quartz, a Group 2 winner who was beaten a nose in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. Another son of the mare, Caspian Prince, had won the Investec Dash at Epsom on Derby day, but he has now gone on to win 11 more races, 19 in all, including the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes at the Curragh.

Timmy Hyde, Lynch Bages and Camas Park Stud

Russian Camelot (Ire), 2017 c. by Camelot out of Lady Babooshka, by Cape Cross

THE significance of the achievement by the northern hemisphere-born Russian Camelot in winning the Group 1 South Australian Derby cannot be emphasised enough. Bred by Timmy Hyde’s Camas Park Stud and Lynch Bages Ltd, the Danny O’Brien trained colt, foaled in late March 2017, is up to eight months behind his southern hemisphere-foaled peers. This victory provided his sire with his fourth Group or Grade 1 winner.

Russian Camelot sold in Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale for 120,000gns to Jeremy Brummitt. This victory was his first in a stakes race and his third in five starts. His dam Lady Babooshka is in foal to Camelot, having produced a filly this year by Zoffany. She had one foal prior to Russian Camelot, a 120,000gns yearling son of No Nay Never (Scat Daddy). Named No Trouble, he is a dual winner at Dundalk.

Bought for 40,000gns as an unraced three-year-old, Lady Babooshka is a three-parts sister to Alkaadhem, successful in the Group 2 Jebel Hatta and a Group 3 winner in England. He is the best winner out of Balalaika, winner of the Listed Dahlia Stakes and a Sadler’s Wells full-sister to Stagecraft who won the then Group 2 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and a couple of Grade 2 races in the USA. Their dam Bella Colora won the then Group 2 Prix de l’Opera and was placed in the Group 1 1000 Guineas and this is a great Meon Valley Stud family.

Mubarak Al Naemi

Spinning Memories, 2015 f. by Arcano out of Hanalei Memories, by Hard Spun

WINNER of a maiden in the colours of her breeder at Naas as a three-year-old, when trained by Andy Oliver, Spinning Memories was sold afterwards and has gone on to add five victories in France, all in blacktype races. In May she won her second Group 3 when she was victorious in the Prix du Palais-Royal run at Clairefontaine, adding to a listed win earlier in the month. Last year she was successful in the Prix de Meautry at Deauville. She is one of the best runners sired by the Italian-based Arcano, and her six wins from 12 starts have netted her owners almost €190,000.

Spinning Memories was bred by Mubarak Al Naemi at Kilfrush Stud and she is one of just a pair of offspring from her dam, a $240,000 yearling who was snapped up for $40,000 as an unraced three-year-old at Keeneland. Her only other produce was a two-year-old winner.

The third dam of Spinning Memories is the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes and Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes winner Memories Of Silver who won nine times in all, all but one of them in blacktype races. At stud four of her five winners were successful in stakes races.

Best of that quintet was the Grade 1 Diana Handicap and Grade 1 Garden City Stakes heroine Winter Memories, now herself a stakes-producer at stud. Memories Of Silver’s Grade 2 winning half-sister Memories bred the Group 3 French winner and Group 2 Cork and Orrery Stakes runner-up Russian Revival.

Gerry Callanan

Jin Jin (Ire), 2016 f. by Canford Cliffs out of Josphiel, by Okawango

IN 15 years of this competition there has never been a time such as recently, when racing all over the world has been affected by a pandemic, leading to many abandonments. With racing curtailed, this month a listed winner makes it among the four monthly nominees, the €4,000 bargain buy Jin Jin who won the Grosse Hannoversche Stutenmeile at Hanover, her fourth career success.

Bred at Gerry and Bernie Callanan’s Nanallac Stud near Monasterevin, Jin Jin is a full-sister to a hurdle winner and one of three winners from Josphiel who raced for Gerry. On her second start at two she was fifth in a maiden of 18 runners behind Halfway To Heaven at Leopardstown, later being placed a few times in England. At stud she had five offspring, three winners and the multiple-placed Bounty Girl who raced 10 times at two, finishing in the money, but failing to win, on eight occasions.

Josphiel was unusual as a non-winning daughter of the Indian King mare Indian Honey because seven of that mare’s offspring were winners, and six of them on more than one occasion. Best of them all was Good Girl who won the Listed Hilary Needler Trophy before running third, dividing Sophisticat and Lahinch, in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, though they were behind the runaway winner Queen’s Logic.

Breeding multiple winners is a feature of this family. Indian Honey was just one of a pair of 11 offspring from Rhein Honey not to run. Seven of the nine who did managed to win.