IF you see a pedigree reference to Mustajeer now it will read: won four races to six years, 2019 and £738,281. What it will not say is that the bulk of those earnings come from a race that does not carry listed or group status, but which attracted a field better than many such races.

Congratulations to Ger Lyons, David Spratt and all connections of the six-year-old son of Medicean (Machiavellian) who will hopefully have a chance to prove himself to be a Group 1 horse when he gets to race down under. He already has some form at the highest level, albeit a distant third to Magical and Flag Of Honour in the five-runner Tattersalls Gold Cup this year.

What a purchase Mustajeer was when he was sold at the Tattersalls July Sale in 2017 to Philip Burns’ Gaelic Bloodstock for 50,000gns, a sum that seems a trifle now in light of his winnings and what Australian interests must have paid to acquire a majority share in him. A winner for Barry Hills and trained by Owen Burrows before his sale to Ireland, Mustajeer was bred by and ooriginally ran in the colours of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

This is a family with which the Sheikh has had a long and fruitful association. In fact it goes back more than 30 years to when Sheikh Hamdan paid $1.65 million for a son of Danzig (Northern Dancer) out of the champion three-year-old US sprinter Gold Beauty (Mr Prospector). The colt was named Dayjur, was sent to Barry Hills to be trained and was the best three-year-old of his generation in Europe. His seven career successes included the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock, the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp and the then Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes. He suffered a defeat in his final race, jumping shadows in sight of the winning post to finish runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Dayjur’s own-sister Elhasna, a winner in just three starts, is Mustajeer’s third dam and she bred a pair of US stakes winners, both gaining these honours at Emerald Downs. Her daughter Irtahal (Swain) was trained by Marcus Tregoning and ran third in the Group 3 Tattersalls Musidora Stakes on her second start and while still a maiden. She won on the fourth of her six outings. Irtahal bred three winners, one of which was Mustajeer’s dam Qelaan, a daughter of Dynaformer (Roberto).

Qelaan was also trained by Tregoning and won a couple of times at three. She was sold in the year that Mustajeer was born, making just 14,000gns at Newmarket and heading to Saudi Arabia where her fourth winning offspring, Anba’a (Byron) was born.