WHAT a training performance by Francis Graffard on Saturday, when he posted yet another European Group 1 success to his burgeoning curriculum vitae.

The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is a jewel in the crown of British racing, and Ascot’s centrepiece was won in scintillating fashion by the four-year-old gelding Goliath. The son of Adlerflug (In The Wings) will not be able to compete in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, thanks to undergoing castration, but he will surely be a feature now in many of the world’s best races open to geldings.

Patience has been key to the Goliath success story. Bred by Baron Philip von Ullmann at his family’s Gestüt Schlenderhan, Goliath had screws inserted in a fetlock as a young horse, and therefore did not race until May of his three-year-old year. Indeed, patience has rewarded the Baron’s family for many generations, and they have never been averse to keeping their best runners in training until the ages of five and beyond. It is a family philosophy. The Baron has been quoted previously as saying that, in racing, “the one thing you need, other than money, is patience.”

Raced in France and Germany, Goliath won four times, highlighted by a victory in the mile and a half Group 1 Prix d’Hedouville at ParisLongchamp. He then went to Royal Ascot where he was runner-up in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes, hence his big odds for last weekend’s race. He won’t be ignored in future, and he has few equals now over 12 furlongs in Europe.

Gouache

Last December, at Arqana, the Dutch-based Agrolexica International Trading, represented by Ananios Antoniadis, spent €200,000 to acquire the listed-winning Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) mare Gouache, and now they own the dam of a Group 1 winner, as Goliath is her second foal and winner.

First up was Goliath’s full-sister Gamine (Adlerflug), and she won five times in Germany. Next up is the three-year-old unraced filly Galaxy (Cloth Of Gold), the unraced juvenile filly Go Flying (Adlerflug), and a yearling filly, Grande Merci (Magna Grecia).

At the sale in Arqana, Gouache was sold in foal to Blackbeard (No Nay Never), though no return has yet been made, and she was covered this year by Baaeed (Sea The Stars).

Gouache took until the age of four to record her second success, but it was in a nine-furlong listed race at Hoppegarten in Berlin. Consequently, she became the third stakes winner for her dam Guantana (Dynaformer), herself a dual listed winner in Germany and pattern-placed. Her two stakes-winning siblings proved themselves outside Germany too. Guardini (Dalakhani) was a Group 2 winner in Germany, and successful at Group 3 level in France and Australia, while Guizot (Tertullian) was a listed winner in Australia. Guantana bred five winners and they were all her foals.

Outstanding

This is an outstanding female line.

Guantana had two Group 1 winning half-brothers. Half of the six career wins for Guignol (Cape Cross) were achieved in Group 1 races in Germany, while Guiliani (Tertullian) won once at that level. They were among seven winning offspring of Guadalupe (Monsun), and her biggest win was in Italy, taking the classic Group 1 Oaks d’Italia. She was beaten a short neck by Black Sam Bellamy in another Italian Group 1, and not disgraced, though well beaten, by Islington in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks.

Guadalupe’s full-brother Getaway (Monsun) is well-known in Ireland. A dual Group 1 winner in Germany, successful in the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes and a few times at that level in France, he has been on the National Hunt stallion roster for the Coolmore group for many years, and his offspring include the Grade 1 winners Sporting John (Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase), Verdana Blue (Christmas Hurdle) and Feronily (Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown).

Died suddenly

Adlerflug died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 17 in in April, 2021. Owned and bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan, he was an impressive winner of the Group 1 German Derby and runner-up in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden at three, and the following year added the Group 1 Deutschland-Preis. He never stood for more than €16,000 in his 12 years at Schlenderhan.

At the time of his death, Adlerflug had sired five Group 1 winners, and the best of them was probably In Swoop. He had won the previous year’s Group 1 German Derby and then run second to Sottsass in the Arc. The Graffard-trained colt had also finished runner-up in the Group 1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris.

Another son of Adlerflug then was Torquator Tasso and he was second to In Swoop in the German Derby, later winning the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin. In 2021 he won go on to win the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Goliath is now his sire’s ninth Group 1 winner. Alenquer, triumphant in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, is among a stellar list that also comprises multiple group 1 winner Iquitos, German Oaks heroine Lacazar, Grosser Preis von Bayern hero Ito, Mendocino and India. A number of his sons are at stud.

Calif

Arqana sold the dam of Goliath last December, and at their Arc Sale in October they sold Calif for €400,000. Then a four-year-old, the gelded son of Areion (Big Shuffle) had just completed a fine season which had seen him win a pair of group races in Germany, most notably the Group 2 Oettingen Rennen at Baden-Baden. He joined Fawzi Nass, raced in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, and then went back to France to continue his racing career.

A seasonal debut in the Group 3 La Coupe at ParisLongchamp, which he won, was his warm up for a top-level challenge, and on Sunday he was in the winners’ enclosure again after the 10-furlong Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen. He is the best of four winners for his dam, Cherry Danon (Rock Of Gibraltar), and all four share the distinction of being stakes winners.

The other three won at listed level, and they are Celebrity (Shamardal), Cherry Lady (Soldier Hollow) and Chilly Filly (Makfi). The first and last-named were both group-placed.

Spillane’s Tower

Cherry Danon was a Group 3 winner over a mile in Germany, and runner-up in the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas. Her half-sister In The Habit (Duke Of Marmalade) never raced, but she is the dam of one of the most popular Grade 1 winners of the recent National Hunt season in Ireland, Spillane’s Tower (Walk In The Park).

Calif’s third dam Shona (Windwurf) was a listed winner in West Germany in the late eighties, and bred eight winners, one of whom was successful at stakes level. A count of all the blacktype winners, both on the level and over jumps, that descend from Shona stands currently at 24, among them the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin winner Sirius (Dashing Blade), and last year’s champion juvenile filly in Germany, Shagara (Zarak).