DANZIG (by Northern Dancer) was one of the world’s greatest stallions, a horse of tremendous influence as a sire and also through the exploits of those descended from his sons and daughters.

Despite the long list of his sons and other male descendants who sired Group/Grade 1 winners, it is remarkable that only two forged dynasties of their own: Danehill and Green Desert.

It is much too soon to have any idea about the legacy that Claiborne Farm’s War Front may create, but the 13-year-old, one of the last of the Danzig stallions, has already produced nine Group/Grade 1 winners from his first six crops.

They include The Factor, whose first yearlings are on offer this summer and autumn, mile ace and Ashford Stud stallion Declaration Of War whose first foals have arrived, and also juvenile star War Command who has finished his first season at Coolmore Stud.

The best of four stakes winners out of the multiple blacktype scorer Starry Dreamer (by Rubiano), his ninth winner at the highest level is Air Force Blue, the Aidan O’Brien-trained juvenile who impressed in the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh last Sunday.

Bred by Stone Farm, and a $490,000 graduate of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, this exciting thrice-raced colt was runner-up to Buratino in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Ascot on his previous outing. That rival finished only third in their rematch.

He is entered in all of the best two-year-old contests, as one might expect, and there is every reason to hope that he could become a leading miler next year.

His triple winning dam Chatham (by Maria’s Mon) was stakes-placed over five and a half furlongs and over a mile, and in addition to the Japanese winner Schon Meer (by Arch), the mare has also been represented by the US filly Bugle, a winning full-sister to Air Force Blue.

Chatham is the best of three winners out of Circle Of Gold, an unraced full-sister to Flanders (by Seeking The Gold), the US juvenile filly champion of 1994 when she won the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes, and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Five years later her daughter Surfside (by Seattle Slew) also won the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, plus the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes, but her championship year was at three.

That star filly won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks and the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes and she was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Surfside is the dam of the Grade 3 scorer Irish Surf (by Giant’s Causeway) and she is the grandam of High Celebrity (by Invincible Spirit) who was runner-up in the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes last year and then won the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg at Chantilly before taking third in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes.

As for Flanders, she is also the dam of Battle Plan (by Empire Maker), who won the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap before going to stud in Japan, and she is the grandam of the dual Grade 1-placed Grade 2 winner Open Water (by Include).

Flanders’ siblings include the Grade 2-placed Late Edition (by Cryptoclearance), who sired some winners and a blacktype scorer, and her unraced half-sister Engaging (by Private Account) is the dam of two stakes winners, more notably the Grade 2-winning miler Fiery Pursuit (by Carson City).

Scarlet Storm (by Storm Bird), who won her only two starts, is the third dam of Air Force Blue, and that daughter of Grade 3 Railbird Stakes scorer Cinegita (by Secretariat) was a full-sister to the 1985 Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes heroine Storm Star.

Storm Star became the dam and grandam of several stakes winners, including her Grade 3-winning son Dodge (by Mr Prospector), and she is the third dam of the Puerto Rican champion My Wandy’s Girl (by Flower Alley), a filly who was later Grade 1- and Grade 2-placed in the USA.

A Group 1-winning son of an exciting stallion son of Danzig, Air Force Blue represents a family that is no stranger to producing champions, and of all the juvenile winners seen out so far in blacktype company, he is arguably most likely to go on to classic success in 2016.