IT took a few crops for Raven’s Pass (Elusive Quality) to come up with his first Group 1 winner, and now he has four from just two years, those born in 2015 and 2016, his sixth and seventh crops.

Those born in 2015 are Matterhorn, winner of the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 in Dubai, and the Japanese-born Tower Of London, successful in the Sprinters Stakes in the land of his birth. The 2016 crop was led by the Group 1 winning juvenile, Royal Marine, who landed the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc weekend three years ago. He has been joined by last weekend’s sprint star Romantic Proposal.

The five-year-old mare was bred by Julie Lynch’s Fastnet Stud and sold as a foal to Amy and Aileen Lynam for €25,000 at Goffs. She returned to the same ring for the following year’s Orby Sale from Horse Park Stud, John Cullinan’s nursery, and made a handy profit, more than doubling in price to €55,000, and falling to Joe Foley’s winning bid.

There was an added bonus for the Lynam clan when the filly was sent into training, on behalf of Clipper Logistics, with Amy’s father, and Aileen’s husband, Eddie. Fondly known as ‘Fast Eddie’, the Co Meath trainer has specialised in speedsters, and he has yet another who has won at the highest level.

With four victories under her belt prior to Sunday, Romantic Proposal’s best previous effort was at the Curragh when she won the Listed Belgrave Stakes. She was group-placed twice at headquarters. Now she is a Group 1 winner, from a Group 1 family, and a very valuable broodmare prospect.

Playwithmyheart

Romantic Proposal’s dam Playwithmyheart (Diktat), a €65,000 buy by Fastnet Stud at Arqana as a five-year-old in 2011, was a juvenile winner in France, and she had the added attraction at the time of her purchase of being a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix de la Foret winner Toylsome (Cadeaux Genereaux). Two years after her sale to Julie Lynch, the mare’s half-sister Coral Mist (Bahamian Bounty) won a Group 3 race at Ayr for two-year-olds.

Coral Mist brought to eight the number of winning offspring of Treasure Trove (The Minstrel), a half-sister to three American stakes winners. The best of that trio was Dance Parade (Gone West). She won the Group 3 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot at two, the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes at three, and then stepped up a level to win the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita. At stud Dance Parade bred the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Leading Light (Montjeu).

Raven’s Pass

Romantic Proposal is one of 37 stakes winners for Raven’s Pass who was available at an unbelievable €7,500 this season. He is the broodmare sire of Mishriff (Make Believe), while his runners this year also include the recent Grade 1-placed Lemista. Raven’s Pass set a course record over 10 furlongs at Santa Anita when he won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic beating, among others, stars such as Henrythenavigator, Tiago, Curlin, Colonel John, Champs Elysees and Duke Of Marmalade.

Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator met frequently, and the Darley stallion also beat his great rival when winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile. The places were reversed in both the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes and the Sussex Stakes, the O’Brien-trained colt prevailing by a head at Goodwood. Tamayuz denied Raven’s Pass a third Group/Grade 1 win at three in the Prix Jean Prat.

Raven’s Pass only suffered one defeat at two, He went into the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes with an unblemished three-race winning streak, notably setting another course record when winning the seven-furlong Solario Stakes at Sandown by seven lengths. He ran third to New Approach and Fast Company in the Dewhurst, with Rio De La Plata and Dark Angel in arrears