ONE of my annual highlights is to spend an hour with the students on the management course at the Irish National Stud, where I talk about the very select ‘Blue Hen’ group of mares, numbering just 10 worldwide, who have produced four or more Group/Grade 1 winners on the flat.

Two of the mares are from Aga Khan families, and one of those mares is the three-time listed winner Ebaziya (Darshaan). While she was responsible for three Group 1-winning daughters, and a son who also won at that level, no Group 1 flat winners had emerged since then from Ebaziya’s descendants – until last Friday.

Ebaziya is the third dam of the Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) three-year-old Ezeliya, and she stormed to a three-length victory in the colours of His Highness the Aga Khan in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom. This was a remarkable 99th individual Group 1 winner for His Highness the Aga Khan and Princess Zahra. No doubt their trainers will be hoping that they are the one to have in their care the next one.

When the Dermot Weld-trained Ezeliya won the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes on her third start, I boldly ran with the headline that the “Aga Khan Studs have a live classic hope”. Her trainer was no less bullish at the time, saying that she “is a Group 1 filly”, and his judgement has been proven correct, again.

A classic success was well deserved too, as her dam, Eziyra, a daughter of Teofilo (Galileo), was placed in the Group 1 Irish Oaks just seven years ago, A half-sister to that mare, Ebadiyla (Sadler’s Wells), won the Irish Oaks two decades previously.

Ezeliya is one of Dubawi’s 13 stakes winners so far this year, and one of a quartet to have been successful at the highest level. His other Group/Grade 1 winners are Notable Speech, winner of the 2000 Guineas, Rebel’s Romance who has triumphed in both the Sheema Classic and the Champions and Chater Cup, while Master Of The Seas claimed the honours in the Maker’s Mark Mile Stakes in the USA.

Beautiful filly

At two Ezeliya had a pair of outings, breaking her maiden on her second attempt when winning at Cork, despite dwelling at the start. After her win at Epsom, Weld said: ‘She’s a beautiful filly to train. She’s not a big filly, but has a lot of quality and these races are all special.” This win was undoubtedly special for the Aga Khan, as it is the first time that he has won the classic.

Ezeliya is the second foal out of the multiple group-winning mare, Eziyra. She was a champion older female in Ireland and won pattern races in each of the three seasons she raced. As a juvenile she claimed the seven-furlong Group 3 Park Stakes, added two more at three and was third in the Group 1 Irish Oaks, while at four her pattern wins included the Group 2 Blandford Stakes over 10 furlongs.

She placed third in both the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks and Hong Kong Vase, and thanks especially to her performance in the latter race, went to stud with winnings of some £555,000.

The first foal out of Eziyra was Eziva (Medaglia D’Oro), a winner last year who then sold for €250,000 at the Goffs November Sale to McKeever Bloodstock, and she visited Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) this year. Following on is a two-year-old son of Siyouni (Pivotal) who is with Dermot Weld, but Eziyra’s subsequent colt by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) died after his birth, and last year she was rested. This spring she was covered by Wootton Bassett.

Consistency

This is a family that has been a standout for the Aga Khan Studs, and thanks to His Highness the Aga Khan’s generosity, for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The Oaks winner’s third dam was Ebaziya (Darshaan), and three of that mare’s four victories were in listed races. She was trained by John Oxx and ridden to each of her stakes victories by a different jockey, Johnny Murtagh, Richard Hughes and Dermot Hogan.

Such was her consistency that Ebaziya was never out of the frame in nine starts, and her placed efforts included running third in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes. The race that day was won by the Vincent O’Brien-trained Andros Day, and a certain Lester Piggott was in the saddle. As good as she was racing, Ebaziya was an outstanding broodmare.

In the breeding shed Ebaziya had 14 foals, four of them colts. Thirteen raced and eight were winners. Remarkably, half of her winners gained a Group 1 success, and two of these won the same race, the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup. They were the colt Enzeli (Kahyasi) and the filly Estimate (Monsun), the latter for the English monarch.

Highest level

Another daughter, Edabiya (Rainbow Quest), won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, while Ebadiyla was the only one of the quartet to double up at the highest level, winning both the Group 1 Irish Oaks and the Group 1 Prix Royal Oak.

Of the three Group 1 winning daughters, Ebadiyla has had the greatest impact at stud, and not just on the flat. Her son Eyshal (Green Desert) won the Centenary Vase in Hong Kong, and this was after he placed at two in the Group 1 National Stakes.

Ebadiyla had two other blacktype winners, but both were at their best when faced with an obstacle. Ebanour (Indian Ridge) won many of the USA’s best races over jumps, while his half-brother Ebaziyan (Daylami) won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. Daughters of Ebadiyla have also been responsible for the French Group 2 winner Ebiyza (Rock Of Gibraltar) and the Grade 3 hurdle winner, Ebadiyan (Daylami).

Go back one more generation and another star on the racecourse appears, though she was bred and raced by the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

While Ebaziya was streets better than any of her seven successful siblings, special mention must be made of her full-sister, the unraced Ezilla (Darshaan). That mare’s daughter, Ezima (Sadler’s Wells), gained three of her four wins in listed races and was runner-up in the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks.

Shadwell

At the age of four, Ezima was sold to Shadwell Estates for 320,000gns, a nice mark up on her foal price of 87,000gns, and she bred the 2014 champion three-year-old filly, Taghrooda (Sea The Stars). Her first Group 1 win came in the Oaks, a decade before her distant cousin won the race, and she added the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Taghrooda also placed in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and her third produce, Israr (Muhaarar), won last year’s Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes, and most recently was second to Passenger in the Group 2 Huxley Stakes at Chester.

This family descends from the Boussac mare Tourzima (Tourbillon) foaled in 1939, and whose many high-class descendants also include the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Akiyda (Labus), the dual Derby winner and Prix de l’Arc scorer Sinndar (Grand Lodge), the Group 1 French Derby winner Darshaan (Shirley Heights), and Dalakhani (Darshaan), successful in both the Group 1 French Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Just as Lope De Vega did at Chantilly, Dubawi also sired the first two home in the Oaks, Ezeliya beating Dance Sequence. This was also the first Oaks winner at Epsom for the Dalham Hall superstar. The latest Group 1 success now means that Dubawi’s tally of such winners stands at 59.