ALICE Nugent paid €22,000 for the unraced Docksider (Diesis) filly Noyelles at the 2007 Arqana December Sale. It was a shrewd purchase, and the family and its various branches have grown in significance since. Indeed, another branch was highlighted last week after the Arc weekend at ParisLongchamp.

I wrote about the latest stakes winner in the family, Labeling (Frankel), following the inaugural Goffs Dubai Breeze Up Sale in 2022, one at which Alice’s husband and Goffs director Nick was on the rostrum. The second-highest price at the sale was for Noyelles’ Frankel (Galileo) son, and he sold for just over €500,000 to Big Red Farm.

The reason for the sale ring interest among buyers was simple; Noyelles has delivered time and again as a broodmare. Her first two foals have been her best, both stakes-winning fillies and both Group 1 performers. They are Lily’s Angel (Dark Angel) and Zurigha (Cape Cross), but now we can add the same description to her penultimate offspring, the four-year-old Labeling, as he won the Listed Shinetsu Stakes on his most recent start in Japan, and was placed in a Group 1 at two.

Lily’s Angel

The first-born, Lily’s Angel, sold as a yearling for just £8,000 and won 10 times at up to Group 3 level. On her penultimate start (she raced 26 times) she was denied a Group 1 victory by half a length, finishing behind La Collina in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. Zurigha was fourth in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, and she was also placed a few times in Group 2 races.

Both Lily’s Angel and Zurigha are now at stud, and the latter is in the news this year, thanks to her three-year-old daughter Oversubscribed (Too Darn Hot). Purchased as a yearling for 400,000gns by Mike Ryan, Oversubscribed is a stakes winner at Belmont and was runner-up in the Grade 3 Lake George Stakes at Saratoga.

Nick and Alice sold another Frankel son of Noyelles, the mare’s last foal, to their friends Eddie and Wendy O’Leary of Lynn Lodge Stud for €210,000 as a foal in Goffs, and this was the fourth offspring in a row to bring that amount or more. Labeling sold to Oneliner as a foal for €360,000. When Noyelles was purchased, the pedigree was a good one, but it has since enjoyed an explosion of success.

Back in 2007, Noyelles had three stakes-winning half-sisters, all either in the early stages of their second careers or about to head to the breeding shed. Now her siblings are responsible for eight Group 1 winners, either bred by themselves or through their offspring.

In Clover

Noyelles’ half-sister In Clover (Inchinor) was a Group 3 winner and now she has seven stakes winners, including no fewer than four who won at Group 1 level – Call The Wind (Frankel), With You and We Are, both daughters of Dansili (Danehill), and on Arc weekend they were joined by Friendly Soul (Kingman). In Clover is also the grandam of last year’s Group 1 Prix de la Foret winner, Kelina (Frankel).

Stakes winner Bellona (Bering) is another of Noyelles’ siblings and she is the grandam of Group 1 Hong Kong Vase winner Dominant (Cacique), and Aristia (Starspangledbanner), successful in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet.

Finally, Forty Belles (Forty Niner), placed six times, is grandam of the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas heroine Teppal (Camacho).

By the way, Labeling is stakes winner number 151 for Frankel, and 101 of them were successful at group or graded stakes level. With five wins now, and surely more and better to come, Labeling has certainly paid his way, with winnings so far of £665,000.

A timely boost for their upcoming sale

THE catalogue for the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale features the Group 2 winner Birthe on the front cover. She sold from Tara Stud to JD Moore for just €10,000.

In its former guise as the Sportsman’s Yearling Sale, Deny Knowledge went through the ring for €26,000, sold to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock. The daughter of Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry) and The Paris Shrug (Manduro) was bred by Mylerstown Farms Limited and sold from Kilcarn Park.

Twice a winner at three when trained in England by John Quinn, Deny Knowledge was sold to Australia, and what a revelation she has been there.

Today, she runs in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup, just a week after gaining the biggest victory of her career in the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes. That was her seventh win in Australia, and boosted her career winnings in the direction of £850,000. Sadly, for Kilcarn Park, they offloaded her dam The Paris Shrug at the Goffs February Sale in 2022, barren, for a mere €2,000, and she was purchased by Paul Cocoman.

Sent to Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner Alkumait (Showcasing) in his first season at stud, The Paris Shrug produced a colt who sold at last year’s Goffs November Foal Sale for €18,000, and this year she has had another colt by the same stallion. The progeny of The Paris Shrug certainly like to travel, and her daughter, The Little T (Decorated Knight) has won four times to date in Hungary.

Puzzle

The €2,000 sale valuation placed on The Parus Shrug was even more of a puzzle in hindsight, given that she won and was placed from three starts, and her six winning siblings are headed by another Group 1 winner, Big Orange (Duke Of Marmalade).

He won £1.25 million during a racing career that encompassed nine wins, most famously in the Ascot Gold Cup. He twice won the Group 2 Goodwood Cup, and was second in the race when it was upgraded to Group 1. In fact, all but one of his victories were in group or listed races.

Excellent line

This is a really excellent female line, and Deny Knowledge’s graduating to winning a Group 1 race means that The Paris Shrug is now the fourth dam in a row to do so. Her own dam Miss Brown To You (Fasliyev) bred Big Orange, the next dam Almaaseh (Dancing Brave) bred Military Attack (Oratorio), while Deny Knowledge’s fourth dam was the classic winner Al Bahathri (Blushing Groom), responsible at stud for another classic winner, Haafhd (Alhaarth).

This is a family that is very familiar to breeding pundits. Military Attack won Group 1 races in Hong Kong and Singapore, and his half-sister bred the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase winner Red Cadeaux (Cadeaux Genereux).

Pride Of Dubai shuttled for three seasons but is now at Coolmore in Australia. Deny Knowledge and Dubai Honour, a three-time Group 1 winner in France, England and Australia, were both from the same Irish-conceived crop, his first, as were Group 2 winners Just Beautiful and Telepathic Games, along with Group 3 winners Flying Visit and Star Of Emaraaty.

Down under, he is responsible for three more Group 1 winners.