WE were reminded yet again of the importance of Dandy Man (Mozart) as a stallion when his two-year-old son Arabie took his winnings well past his 92,000gns yearling purchase price with victory in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin.

Sadly, the Ballyhane Stud star died in 2023.

Runner-up on his debut, Arabie has won all three starts since, and Karl Burke sent him at the weekend to triumph for the second time at Chantilly, as he had already annexed the Group 3 Prix du Bois there a month earlier. All three wins have come over six furlongs. What a remarkable record Arabie’s dam Mamma Morton has compiled. Arabie is her 13th foal, and all but one have been successful, the odd one out having placed a few times.

Can Mamma Morton’s next offspring, a yearling son of Ardad (Kodiac) keep that sequence going in time?

It almost seems that the older Mamma Morton gets, the better her offspring are. Her four-year-old Mammas Girl (Havana Grey) won the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes last year. Having cost £35,000 as a yearling, she was offered for sale at the end of the season but failed to sell at €660,000.

Another son of Mamma Morton, Master Of War (Compton Place), was a stakes winner at two and runner-up in a pair of Group 2 contests, the Mill Reef Stakes and the Richmond Stakes.

Whistlejacket

Could Whistlejacket emulate his full-brother Little Big Bear (No Nay Never) and add the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes to his tally of wins?

The pair are the best of six winners out of stakes winner Adventure Seeker (Bering), and both sons of No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) were bought at public auction. Whistlejacket was the more expensive of the pair, costing 500,000gns.

Whistlejacket won the first two-year-old blacktype race of 2024 here in Ireland, the Listed Gain First Flier Stakes, and he could eventually join Little Big Bear at stud. That 2022 European champion two-year-old has just completed his first season at Coolmore.

Their dam Adventure Seeker, a homebred by the Wildenstein’s Dayton Investments, was sold at their dispersal in 2016 at Goffs for €125,000 to Brendan Bashford on behalf of the Hyde family.

Adventure Seeker is out of a daughter of All Along (Targowice) who was rated the champion older horse in Europe and champion turf filly in the USA, both in 1983. Her total of nine wins included two Group 1s in France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Prix Vermeille, two Grade 1s in the USA, the Washington DC International and the Turf Classic, and the Grade 1 Rothman’s International in Canada.

Arabian Dusk

The Whitsbury Manor Stud-bred juvenile Arabian Dusk (Havana Grey) won at the third time of asking, and what a race she chose to do it in. The Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket has been won by some fine fillies, and Arabian Dusk will surely go on to even better. She was not making headlines for the first time, having turned from being an 80,000gns yearling buy by Mags O’Toole and Oak Tree Farm, into a 525,000gns breezer, purchased by Stroud Coleman.

Katie Walsh’s Greenhills Farm brought two breezers to this year’s Craven Breeze-Up Sale, a colt by New Bay and a daughter of Havana Grey, and sold each of them for 525,000gns. The colt topped the first session of the sale on Tuesday, with the filly being an early star on day two.

The colt, Anno Domini, was bought by Anthony Stroud on behalf of Godolphin and is unbeaten in two starts, and he also signed for the filly, now named Arabian Dusk. Stroud said after the second purchase: “This is a very nice filly who breezed very well. We have the connection with Havana Grey, and it was a great deal of money, but sometimes you have to stretch for the ones you like. She goes to Simon and Ed Crisford.”

Well now the investment is paying off. Arabian Dusk is the best of five winners from Lady Macduff (Iffraaj), and comes from the family of Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner Gilt Edge Girl (Monsieur Bond), and Group 1 Prix Morny winner Arcano (Oasis Dream).

Ancient Truth

Finally, among the juveniles, Godolphin’s talented crop includes the unbeaten Group 2 Superlative Stakes winner Ancient Truth (Dubawi). He became the 183rd group winner for his sire, and could join his pantheon of Group 1 stars as he is already being touted as a likely winner of the Group 1 2000 Guineas.

He and his full-brother Great Truth (Dubawi) are the first two foals and winners out of Beyond Reason (Australia).

A winner at two in England, Beyond Reason travelled to France to win both the Group 2 Prix du Calvados and Group 3 Prix Six Perfections, both run at Deauville, and she is the sole filly and only winner among three foals produced by No Explaining (Azamour). That mare produced her best form in the USA where she won a Grade 3 at Pimlico. Should Ancient Truth go on to win at the highest level, he would be the first to do so in his family for four generations. A number have come close, but always fell short.