UMMALNAR was sent from William Haggas’ yard in Newmarket to Dundalk to contest the one-mile Listed Cooley Stakes. What was the victory worth?

At one level, it was worth €28,500 in prize money, but the increase in the value of the winner as a broodmare prospect is valued at multiples of that. This would also explain why a five-year-old daughter of Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) is still in training, and only making her eighth career start. She has won on half of those outings, while her previous placings include finishing third in listed races at Saint-Cloud and Lingfield Park.

This shrewd placing will pay dividends in the future should the mare herself or any of her progeny be sold at public auction. She is the second stakes winner for her dam Royal Secrets (Highest Honor) who won for Ummalnar’s owner Mohammed Jaber when in the care of Ed Dunlop. The other stakes winner is Sheikhzayedroad, a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). He was quite a flagbearer for Newmarket trainer David Simcock until his retirement two years ago at the age of nine.

The gelding ran 49 times and won 11 times, including major successes in the Group 2 QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup and the Group 2 Doncaster Cup, while his foreign exploits brought him his sole success at Grade 1 level in Woodbine’s Northern Dancer Stakes. The stayer is now enjoying retirement as a hack at Trillium Place, Simcock’s stables.

Sheikhzayedroad, named after one of the main roads in Dubai, enjoyed success there too when he won the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy and finished second in a couple of Group 2 races. His grandam Marble Maiden (Lead On Time) was purchased by David and Diane Nagle’s Barronstown Stud for just €80,000, carrying Ummalnar’s dam whom they sold for a profitable €180,000 as a yearling. Marble Maiden was a Grade 2 winner in the USA and a Group 3 winner in France.

In a neat twist of timing, Marble Maiden had a second stakes winner in her immediate family last weekend. Her granddaughter Sopran Aragorn won the Listed Premio Rumon in Rome and this two-year-old, from the first crop by Rathasker Stud’s Coulsty (Kodiac), is the stallion’s third stakes winner from eight successful progeny.

French influence on the double at Punchestown

DAVIDOFF may not be one of the most instantly recognisable sons of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), but he has a remarkable achievement as a sire from a small number of offspring.

Never better as a racehorse than Group 3 class, at which level he won and was placed a few times in his native Germany, he went to stud in France and last appeared to be active a few years ago.

His winners over jumps include five who earned some blacktype, and two of these won at Grade 1 level. Saturnas, trained by Willie Mullins, was the first to do so and in 2016 he won the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown. He was from the second crop sired by Davidoff (named after a well-known scent for men).

Abacadabras’ success in the Morgiana Hurdle at the weekend was a second top-level win for the six-year-old and he too won the same Grade 1 race at Leopardstown annexed by Saturnas. Abacadabras has also been runner-up three times in Grade 1 races, including the Champion INH Flat Race at Punchestown and the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Bred by Evelyne van Haaren, Abacadabras was sold to Moanmore Stables as a three-year-old at the Arqana Summer Sale for a paltry €14,000 and his winnings are swiftly motoring towards the quarter of a million euro mark. He is one of a trio of winners from Cadoubelle Des As (Cadoudal) who was placed over jumps. Siblings of Abacadabras include the Grade 3-placed French chaser La Barakas.

Skip back two generations and the third dam of Abacadabras is the three-time winner Popie D’Ecorcei (Balsamo). All of her wins were over jumps and she had six winning offspring, headed by Poliantas (Rasi Brasak) whose moment of glory, among eight career wins, was victory in the Grade 2 Silver Trophy Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

Pencilfulloflead

There was also a French influence in the family of another of Punchestown’s big race winners at the weekend. Pencilfulloflead, a son of Shantou (Alleged), was bred at the Vasicek-owned Kenilworth House Stud and he is the second foal and first winner for Quaspia (Fragrant Mix) who carried the silks of Joerg Vasicek to victories in France and England when trained by François Doumen.

Pencilfulloflead won the Grade 2 Florida Pearl Novice Chase by an impressive seven lengths from Latest Exhibition, with another seven lengths dividing the runner-up from the third-placed Brace Yourself. The winner and Brace Yourself were bought as young horses by Kevin Ross Bloodstock.

Pencilfulloflead cost Ross €19,000 at Fairyhouse having just turned a yearling, and he resold for €42,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale.

Quaspia is one of seven winners out of Jonquiere (Trebrook) and she was a winner over jumps. That success meant that her unraced dam Jolivette (Laniste) is credited with producing an impressive 10 winners from 12 foals, all but one of whom raced.

Jolivette’s daughters and descendants have left their mark. They include Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 Champion Hurdle runner-up Osana (Video Rock), dual Grade 1 winning chaser Notre Pere (Kadalko) who won the Punchestown Gold Cup, and Grade 3 Cheltenham Chase winner Cepage (Saddler Maker).

This is also the family of the iconic French chaser Ubu III (Maiymad) who tragically collapsed and died while being hosed down after his 17th, and most important success, in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil.

Is this the best value stallion still at stud?

NORMAN Court Stud is currently home to Sixties Icon. The 17-year-old son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) is from the first crop of that iconic stallion and was one of four winners at the highest level in that debut group – joining Red Rocks, Allegretto and Nightime.

Sixties Icon was the champion three-year-old stayer in Europe following his victory in the Group 1 classic St Leger, a race in which Red Rocks ran third.

Unraced at two, Sixties Icon ran for another two seasons, was a group winner in each, and retired to stud having won eight times. He began at a fee of £6,000, fluctuated a little over the years, but this year was still commanding his starting fee.

Now his owners have slashed him to £1,000 for 2021, no doubt a reaction to the fact that he covered just 30 mares this year. Will he be covering many multiples of that at just a grand?

Argentinian adventure

Sixties Icon shuttled to Argentina where he arguably had his greatest successes as a sire.

Two of his sons and one daughter won at Group 1 level, with Sixties Song being successful three times at that grade. In Australia Sixties Groove won the Group 2 Brisbane Cup last year and has been Group 1 placed. Nancy From Nairobi won a Grade 2 in the USA, while this year Sixties Icon’s son Nagano Gold ran second in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Over jumps his best runner is the Willie Mullins-trained Buildmeupbuttercup, and this six-year-old won for the seventh time when beating her stablemate Elimay in the Listed Grabel Mares Hurdle at Punchestown.

Also winner of listed mares hurdle races at Gowran Park and Killarney, Buildmeupbuttercup was runner-up in a Grade A hurdle race at Fairyhouse.

That mare was bred by William Harrison-Allen and is the first winner for Eastern Paramour (Kris Kin).

She carried Harrison-Allen’s colours to a junior bumper success on her debut, later adding two more wins on the flat.