TWO European classics staged this past week have a rich history, but only Group 2 status, the Coolmore St Mark’s Basilica German 2000 Guineas and the Derby Italiano.

The former was won by the Irish-bred Devil’s Point, a three-year-old son of Ballylinch Stud’s New Bay (Dubawi), and out of a Pivotal (Polar Falcon) mare, the stakes-placed Hairy Rocket.

Bred beside Ballymacoll Stud near Dunboyne by the late Frank Dunne’s Hamwood Stud, now owned by Dunne’s partner Ann Marshall, the colt was sold as a foal for €200,000, and then resold as a yearling for 475,000gns.

Catalogued twice at breeze up sales, Devil’s Point ended up in the ownership of Clive Washbourn and in the training stables of David Menuisier. While he intriguingly has a Royal Ascot entry for the six-furlong Commonwealth Cup, he is a seven and a half-furlong maiden winner at two, runner-up to Ancient Wisdom in the Group 1 Kameko Futurity Trophy at Doncaster, and now a mile classic winner in his second season.

Hairy Rocket was bred and raced for the Keswick family’s Rockcliffe Stud, and at two she won on her debut at Windsor, ran third in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, and rounded off her first season by winning over a mile on the all-weather at Lingfield.

She was then sent to the Tattersalls December Sale and sold to Fastnet Stud for 120,000gns. Hairy Rocket then moved from Richard Hannon to William Haggas, and carried Ann Marshall’s colours with no impact in four starts.

Hairy Rocket

It was not a great start at stud for Hairy Rocket, her first foal, a filly, racing once with no success.

Her second offspring, Rocket Science (Fastnet Rock), won twice for Ann Marshall when saddled by Jessica Harrington, and missed out on blacktype when finishing fourth in three such races, two of them Group 3s. Sold for €84,000 at Goffs, she moved to Joseph O’Brien but didn’t do anything with him before she made her way to Australia, was covered there by Camelot (Montjeu), and sold for A$330,000 in May, 2022.

An unnamed full-sister to Rocket Science followed, and then Hairy Rocket had her first colt, The Acropolis (Churchill). Sold as a foal to Camas Park for €140,000, he went to Ballydoyle and won at the second time of asking. He put in plenty of indifferent performances, but twice was narrowly beaten in listed races, once by a neck and another time by half a length. Devil’s Point was next, Mary Sherman (Starspangledbanner) is an unraced two-year-old, and Hairy Rocket this year had a colt foal, an own-brother to Devil’s Point.

Hairy Rocket and the Group 3 runner-up Marsh Hawk (Invincible Spirit) are the best of the five winners out of Asaawir (Royal Applause), and that dual winner at two was also stakes-placed.

If winning blacktype races had seemed a little elusive in the pedigree in recent years, things may be changing for the better. Devil’s Point has now won a Group 2, and so too has Trillium (No Nay Never), the best of Marsh Hawk’s runners.

Trillium was a leading juvenile two years ago when she was successful in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes and in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes.

Triple Reef

Other branches of this family, all descending from Devil’s Point’s unraced fourth dam Triple Reef (Mill Reef), have produced Group 1 and 2 winners Duncan (Dalakhani), Talented (Bustino), Carlton House (Street Cry), Lazuli (Dubawi), Wavy Run (Commanche Run), Gretchen (Galileo) and Samuel (Sakhee), as well as the Randox Grand National winner One For Arthur (Milan).

Devil’s Point is stakes winner number 14 for the Juddmonte-bred and raced New Bay, the 2015 Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner. He was also runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, and third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. New Bay’s first crop contained the dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach (sold for 3,600,000gns in 2022) and Group 1 Champion Stakes winner Bay Bridge, and they are joined at the top table by Bayside Boy who now stands alongside his sire in Co Kilkenny.

That Group 1 count should be even better, and shows again what an excellent sire New Bay is. His three-year-old son Alcantor was half a length second in last year’s Group 1 Criterium International, and recently was the same distance behind the winner Metropolitan when third in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

Half a length was all that separated New Bay’s daughter Shuwari last year from Ylang Ylang in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, while only Native Trail stood between New Energy and victory in the 2022 Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas.

Saxon Warrior

The first crop by Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact) included the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road and seven other stakes winners. His second European crop is beginning to gather pace, and the French-bred Borna is the first of them to win at pattern level, choosing the Group 2 Derby Italiano in which to do so.

What a bargain Borna is proving to be, costing €20,000 in a private transaction at Arqana, and now with earnings of €375,000 from three wins and a Group 2 second in five starts.

In a not too dissimilar story to New Bay, Saxon Warrior’s tally of Group 1 winners could be even better, but for a couple of results that didn’t go the way of his offspring. Group 2 Blandford Stakes winner Lumiere Rock was placed in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, Jim Bolger’s Gan Teorainn was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac before selling for 1,000,000gns, Impact Warrior went from winning a Roscommon maiden to placing in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, while in Australia Aethelflaed finished second in the Grade 1 Kennedy Oaks at Flemington.

Borna is one of a pair of winners out of Kingdom Come (King’s Best), and she could never find a winning opportunity in France where she placed on six occasions. Both of her winning siblings were successful at pattern level, Top Trip (Dubai Destination) and Believe In Love (Make Believe).

Believe In Love

Top Trip won the Group 2 Prix Hocquart and placed third to Estimate in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup. He has had some small success as a National Hunt stallion. Believe In Love came even closer to a Group 1 victory, beaten a short neck in the Prix de Royallieu, and she won Group 3 races in Ireland, Britain and France. Group 1 success just keeps eluding this family.

Top Trip and Believe In Love are out of the group-placed Topka (Kahyasi), and her winning dam Tipsy Topsy (Ashkalani) was one of six successful offspring of the unraced Heady (Rousillon). The best of these was Salselon (Salse), a Group 3 winner in France and Italy who travelled to race in England, and was beaten half a length by Russian Rhythm in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes. He also put up another fine performance when third in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, just a length behind Refuse To Bend, with Soviet Song dividing them.