ON racecards, and for record purposes, horses carrying the royal colours now in Britain are said to be owned by The King.

King Charles III took over the racing and breeding interests that had been cultivated for some seven decades by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The distinctive silks were carried to a first win on the flat in 2023 at Kempton this week by a beautifully-bred daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) named Calmly.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, the filly was making just her second start, and showed great improvement on her debut over the same trip (11 furlongs) and course at the end of last year. Hopefully Calmly can improve to become stakes class, as each of her older siblings – two other winners and a placed filly – were sold out of The Royal Studs at the end of their racing days for the monarch.

Calmly is a daughter of Shama, a daughter of Danehill Dancer (Danehill) who was bred by His Highness the Aga Khan but raced for Queen Elizabeth. She only started five times, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, and won at the second time of asking. However, she failed to build on her early promise, and was sent to be covered.

Her first foal was Shrewdness (Lawman), a winner for William Haggas, and she sold for 50,000gns to continue her career in the USA where she was placed. Haggas also trained the next offspring, Kew Palace (Kingman), but she did not live up to her grand name’s expectations, being placed and sold off for 18,000gns.

Kew Palace was purchased, like Shrewdness, by Gordian Troller, and she managed to be placed for her new owners.

Stimulate (Motivator) was next, and she won one of her two starts for Michael Bell, before being covered by Space Blues (Dubawi). She too found her way to the sales and Alex Elliott spent 75,000gns to acquire her last year. She will look to be great value should Calmly go on to better things.

Meanwhile, yet to be named, is a two-year-old own-brother to Calmly, and last year Shama was covered by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi). There is a lot of faith being placed in this cross working.

As you would expect, Shama is well-related. She is one of nine winners from 10 runners from the Group 2 winner Shamadara (Kahyasi). Trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre, Shamadara was sent to the Curragh after winning the Prix de Malleret, and she was beaten just a short head by Dance Design.

She proved to be an equally good producer, and bred the Italian Group 1 winner and Group 1 Prix du Cadran runner-up Shamdala (Grand Lodge), Shama’s listed-winning own-sister Shamanova (Danehill Dancer), and another stakes winner in Shamakiya (Intikhab).

In addition to her stakes-winning siblings, Shama is a half-sister to the Group 2 placed Shamdara (Dr Devious), and her pair of group-winning offspring are headed by Shamdinan (Dr Fong), winner of the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes, runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, and third in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby.

It will come as no surprise that this is the family of Shergar (Great Nephew), one of the greatest racehorses owned by the Aga Khan, and whose disappearance has been the cause of much upset and sadness for four decades. He was a son of Calmly’s fourth dam, Sharmeen (Val De Loir).

WHEN it comes to a bargain, Cottonmouth can lay claims to being one of the best. The daughter of Noverre (Rahy) sold as a yearling at Fairyhouse for €5,000, and went on to win 12 times in Italy at up to Group 3 level, and earn more than £190,000.

As if that was not enough, she has become an exceptional broodmare, her first eight named foals all being winners. The most recent of these is the John O’Connor-bred Imperial Ace (Lope De Vega), and the three-year-old followed up his promising placed debut run with a win over a mile at Newcastle on Thursday. The 125,000gns yearling purchase is trained by Hugo Palmer who signed for him at the sales with Avenue Bloodstock.

This is all good news for Brendan Holland at Grove Stud. He spent €160,000 on Imperial Ace’s then yearling full-sister at last year’s Goffs Orby Sale, and she was already then an own-sister to a winner. That was Poetic Legacy and she is a broodmare now in Japan where her first produce is a two-year-old filly by Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact).

Brendan reports that the filly at home is “a nice mover and will head for the breeze-up in Arqana”.

Better than all of the above is the fact that three of Cottonmouth’s winners are stakes winners, the most recent being Henry Mouth (Henrythenavigator), and he was also classic-placed when second in the Group 2 Derby Italiano in 2018. That still left him some way behind his half-brother, and Cottonmouth’s first foal, the Group 1 winner Dylan Mouth (Dylan Thomas).

He won the Group 2 Derby Italiano, was even a Group 3 winner in England, but he was a champion in Italy where his 12 successes included three Group 1 races. Dylan Mouth is the best yet from Cottonmouth, but perhaps there is better to come?

Cottonmouth has some interesting siblings, and while flat purists may decry them somewhat, they do show that they had talent. Most notably this concerns Jumbo Rio (Captain Rio). Born the year after his stakes-winning half-sister, he won at three on the flat before having his attention turned to hurdling. At four he won a Grade 1 at the Punchestown Festival after proving himself to be a leading juvenile hurdler.

LINDA’S Lad came to prominence at two when he won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud for Sean Mulryan, one of three wins he enjoyed as a juvenile, all gained in stakes races.

Trained by André Fabre, he added the Group 3 Derby Trial at Lingfield Park to his tally of wins, and finished mid-division in the Derby won by Sir Percy. He trained off after that, and even a spell racing in the USA failed to reignite the spark of his two-year-old days.

Originally at stud in France, this year he is at his third new stud in Britain, standing under the Elusive Bloodstock banner at Hundred Acre Farm in Lincolnshire. He has certainly shown an ability to sire winners over jumps, and his 2013 crop alone included the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle winner at Punchestown, Draconien, the Grade 2 Troytown Chase winner Tout Est Permis, and the Grade 2 Navan Handicap Hurdle winner Damalisque.

However, the enduring star of that 2013 crop has been L’Estran, and he won the Grade 1 Gran Premio Merano Chase four times. Recently, the first member of the 2014 crop by Linda’s Lad won a graded race over fences, Suroit landing the spoils in the Grade 3 Grand Prix de la Ville de Nice Chase at Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Bred by Guy Cherel, this was a sixth win for Suroit, and he is one of four winning offspring from the Grade 3 Auteuil hurdle winner Suzuka (Cadoudal). She had a previous blacktype winner, thanks to a listed chase win at Auteuil for Suzerain (Trempolino). You have to go back a few generations to find a real star runner in the family with the appearance, in the fourth remove, of the Grade 1 Royal and SunAlliance Chase winner Star De Mohaison (Beyessac).