THIS column is happy to look back on many maiden winners in the last 40 weeks or so and watch their progress and success with a degree of pleasure.

Hopefully being mentioned on these pages continues to bestow a degree of good fortune during the new flat season which kicked off at the Curragh on Sunday.

One of the winners that caught the eye was Stenographer, trained by Jim Bolger and winning in the familiar Godolphin colours. This son of leading sire Distorted Humor – responsible for champions such as Funny Cide and Drosselmeyer – cost John Ferguson $450,000 at Fasig Tipton as a yearling in 2014. He was bred at WinStar Farms where he sire commands a fee of $100,000 this year.

Stenographer is yet another winning offspring for his dam Sadler’s Secretary, a daughter of the multiple champion Sadler’s Wells and an own-sister to Perfect Soul who stands at Darby Dan Farm in the USA.

He is the sire of the Breeders’ Cup winner Perfect Shirl, the Kentucky Derby runner-up Golden Soul and more. As a racehorse he won the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland and set a track record at the same venue for eight furlongs when landing the Grade 2 Maker’s Mark Mile Stakes. Perfect Soul is also a full-brother to Not Impossible, a classic sire in Canada.

Perfect Soul is the best winner produced by the Secretariat mare Ball Chairman and her other winning offspring include Dance Secretary, winner in Ireland when trained by John Oxx for Charles Fipke and group-placed at three years. Her first foal, a three-year-old named Lorgnette, by Galileo, sold for €1 million as a yearling, while her now two-year-old daughter of Sea The Stars was unsold at €750,000 as a yearling in Arqana last year.

This is still a young, progressive family and lots of possibilities exist among the many branches of the pedigree.

Perhaps Stenographer will be the horse to put his particular branch in the headlines this year and he is a horse to note.