PAT Grogan owns Killourney Mor Farm in Co Offaly, home to the Pivotal (Polar Falcon) mare Humble And Proud. The stud is run by his son Eoghan.

The unraced Humble And Proud is already in foal this year to Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), who stands for €100,000 at Kildangan Stud. Given that the most Grogan received for any of the first three foals out of Humble And Proud was €20,000, and that the fourth sold for £40,000 as a yearling, you might imagine that the breeder was perhaps over-facing his farm’s resident.

Well, you would be mistaken. The first foal from Humble And Proud was Glorious Empire (Holy Roman Emperor), and Whatton Manor Stud’s €20,000 investment in him as a foal turned into a 90,000gns yearling sale. Better was to come, as the 10-time winner numbers the Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga among his victories.

That win did not come in time to make the next two living offspring good sellers in the ring. They were his full-sister Outside Inside (Holy Roman Emperor) and own-brother Thebestfortheeast (Holy Roman Emperor). Both became winners, having sold for just €18,000 and €16,000 respectively. Given the success the family has been having, the good news is that Outside Inside is back at the place of her birth, Pat Grogan and his son Eoghan buying her for €55,000 a little over a year ago.

The story gets better. The £40,000 yearling was Goldana (Galileo Gold), and she went to Germany. Last year she won a listed race, having been placed a number of times at that level, and was sent to the December Sale in Arqana.

Sold for €120,000, Goldana was sent to Joseph O’Brien, and she looks value now, opening her four-year-old account with victory in the Group 3 Gladness Stakes.

Close relative

This win, from a close relative in Mea Domina (Pivotal), came two days after the fifth living offspring of Humble And Proud won her second stakes race in the USA. Love Reigns (U S Navy Flag) reversed one trend with the progeny of her dam, selling for €160,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale to Ben McElroy.

Love Reigns has won stakes races at Saratoga and Keeneland, and is now set to return to Royal Ascot where she was just out of the first three in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes last year. She was denied third place by a short head, and is trained by Wesley Ward. Her sale price as a yearling was matched last year by the now two-year-old Kodiac Wintergreen (Kodiac), while hopefully heading to the sales this autumn for the Grogans is a yearling colt by Mehmas (Acclamation).

Humble And Proud is a half-sister to Delsarte (Theatrical), a listed winner at three who was runner-up in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot on just his third start. Their Italian stakes-placed half-sister to Regina Mundi (Montjeu) is doing very well at stud, four of her first six foals, all winners, earning blacktype.

Rocques (Lawman) is Regina Mundi’s second foal and she won the Group 3 Prix d’Aumale. Mea Domina, second to Goldana at the weekend, won a listed race at Saint-Cloud last year, and is the fifth foal out of Regina Mundi.

Speed and stamina

There is a mix of speed and stamina in this family. Rocques’ third dam Casey (Caerleon) won the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes, often referred to as the fillies’ St Leger. Run over 14 and a half furlongs, it was the pinnacle of Casey’s racing career. Her full-sister Alessia (Caerleon) won over seven furlongs at two and she bred a pair of top notch sprinters in Patavellian (Machiavellian) and Avonbridge (Averti). Both horses won the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

The three-year-old Love Reigns is one of a pair of stakes winners from the first crop by U S Navy Flag (War Front). The Castlehyde Stud stallion, who stands for €10,000 this year, was expected to be a contender for top honours as a freshman sire in 2022, and he duly delivered a dozen juvenile winners, including a pair of stakes winners.

They were Ocean Vision, a dual winner who was successful in the Listed Prix de la Vallee D’Auge at Deauville for Tim Donworth and ran third in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte at Chantilly, and Love Reigns.

U S Navy Flag is a full-brother to the classic-placed triple Group 1-winning miler Roly Poly (War Front) and they are out of the juvenile champion and Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Misty For Me (Galileo). That mare’s own-sister is the classic-placed juvenile Group 1-star Ballydoyle (Galileo), while their dam is a half-sister to juvenile champion and Group 1 sire Fasliyev (Nureyev).

Champion

U S Navy Flag was Europe’s juvenile champion colt of 2017 following wins in the Group 3 Round Tower Stakes by six lengths, the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, the latter by two and a half lengths from Mendelssohn. He was also runner-up in the Group 2 July Stakes and fourth in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien, U S Navy Flag followed that fine juvenile season by becoming Europe’s champion three-year-old sprinter. His near two-length defeat of the previous year’s Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest star Brando in the Group 1 July Cup sealed the title. Fleet Review, runner-up to him in the Middle Park Stakes, finished third. Less than two months before, U S Navy Flag chased home Romanised in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas.