AFTER White Birch (Ulysses) won the Group 2 Coolmore Stud Sottsass Irish EBF Mooresbridge Stakes, I pointed out that the race had previously been a springboard for Group 1 success for Broome, Magical, Minding, Found and Fascinating Rock in the past decade.
Well, it has done it again.
On Sunday, White Birch ascended to a racing high with his success in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, and provided a number of landmarks. Not only is it a racing best win for the Murphy family in Innishannon, Co Cork, it was a first winner at the highest level for Cheveley Park Stud’s Ulysses (Galileo). That sire is having his best season to date.
A dual Group 3 winner too, runner-up in the Group 2 Dante Stakes and third to Auguste Rodin in the Group 1 Derby, White Birch is one of four blacktype winners this year for Ulysses. That stallion stands for £9,000 at Cheveley Park Stud, and they are also the breeders of White Birch, a 75,000gns foal buy by Tally-Ho Stud.
In addition to White Birch, unbeaten in all three starts this year, Ulysses is sire of the Group 3 Huxley Stakes winner Passenger, the Ger Lyons-trained, Juddmonte-owned and bred Wendla who won a Group 3 last month at Leopardstown, and the Australian stakes winner Mighty Ulysses.
White Birch and his three-time winning full-brother Anatomic (Ulysses) are the two winners to date from Diagnostic (Dutch Art), a winner four times and one of a quartet of winners from the unraced Holistic (Pivotal). While Holistic never faced a starter, 11 of her siblings won, five of them at group and listed level.
Rebel’s Romance
Godolphin’s homebred Rebel’s Romance (Dubawi) took his lifetime earnings to nearly €8.4 million with his latest Group 1 success, this time in the Champions & Chater Cup at Sha Tin.
This was victory number 13 in a 19-race career, and the six-year-old gelding has been a true globetrotter, enjoying success in six different countries. His biggest win was in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March, while 2022 saw him land the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin on his way to capturing that autumn’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf.
This has been an amazing year for Rebel’s Romance’s dam Minidress (Street Cry). Her four-year-old son Measured Time (Frankel), who won three of his four starts last year in Britain, added the Group 1 Jebel Hatta to a win in the Group 2 Al Rashidiya Stakes at Meydan. Measured Time and Rebel’s Romance are two of four winners out of the stakes-placed Minidress, another being the Irish stakes-placed Petticoat (Cape Cross).
Minidress is a daughter of Short Skirt (Diktat), successful in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes and St Simon Stakes. She was purchased for Godolphin for 1,400,000gns after running third in the Group 1 Oaks. Short Skirt’s best runner is Minidress’s own-brother Volcanic Sky (Street Cry), a Group 3 winner at Meydan.
Msqe De Sevigne
More than a decade after she had her first Group 1 winner, the Sevres Rose (Caerleon) mare Penne produced another last year, and that now five-year-old, Msqe De Sevigne, has just taken her Group 1 win count to three.
Runner-up in a pair of listed races, Penne comes from a solid, if undistinguished, female line. Under her own first three dams there are a total of just three blacktype winners, two of them listed scorers on the flat, one at the little-known Agen, and the third is a Grade 2 chase winner at Cheltenham.
Penne has lifted the family to an unprecedented level, with six winners from eight runners. Her daughter Mqse De Sevigne has earned half of her six wins in Group 1 contests, the Prix Rothschild, Prix Jean Romanet, and now the Prix d’Ispahan. She is one of 10 top level winners by the Aga Khan Studs’ Siyouni (Pivotal).
Mqse De Sevigne is owned and was bred by Baron Edouard de Rothschild. He and his family also for a time raced Mqse De Sevigne’s half-brother, Meandre (Slickly), and he was a four-time Group 1 winner before ending his racing days in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Meandre beat Seville to win the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris, before adding the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Grosser Preis von Berlin and the Preis von Europa.
A feature of the majority of Siyouni’s Group 1 winners is that they win at this level more than once, and his tally of victories at the highest level now stands at 31. Little wonder that he is one of Europe’s most sought-after sires, and commands a current stud fee of €200,000.
Japanese Derby
Epiphaneia (Symboli Kris S) stands at Shadai Stallion Station for the equivalent of some €90,000. On Sunday, his three-year-old son Danon Decile showed that he is a horse on the upgrade when he caused a surprise, beating the hot favourite Justin Milano, to take the honours in the Group 1 Tokyo Yushun, the Japanese Derby.
This was Danon Decile’s third win in five starts, and he missed out on a previous classic challenge due to lameness.
He is the second classic winner this year for his sire, who was himself runner-up in the 2013 Japanese Derby and 2000 Guineas. Epiphaneia made amends when landing the Group 1 Kikuka Sho, Japanese St Leger, and the following year he added the Group 1 Japan Cup to his career tally of six wins.
Epiphaneia’s daughter Stellenbosch won this year’s Group 1 Oka Sho, Japanese 1000 Guineas, and she and Danon Decile are among four classic winners to date for their sire, and among his tally of six Group 1 winners. This is probably a decent enough reward for his six crops aged three or more.
On the dam side of Danon Decile’s pedigree, he is the first Group 1 winner in four generations.
Top Decile, a daughter of Congrats (A.P. Indy), is the dam of Danon Decile. She won just once, at two, but she was runner-up in both the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes.
Her race record after that was unusual; unplaced in two starts at three, a winner in Canada at four, and unplaced in a single run at five.
Shadai Farm
Covered by American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) at five, she was sold for $950,000 to Shadai Farm that November. The resulting filly, Top The Bill, won three times in Japan. Top Decile’s first three foals were fillies, two of whom raced and won. Danon Decile is the first of three colts now. Top Decile and the stakes-placed Ginja (Quality Road) are two of the eight winners produced by Sequoia Queen (Forestry), and that mare won two of her three starts.
Sequoia Queen is a full-sister to the Japanese winner Grass Thunder (Forestry), and they are the only two offspring of Barefoot Dyana (Dynaformer). Seven of her nine wins were in minor stakes in the USA, and she managed to run second at Churchill Downs in a Grade 3. She was certainly following in the hoofprints of her own dam, Spankey’s Seconds (Wig Out). She raced just 15 times, won eight, and three of these were minor stakes wins.
Danon Decile sold to Danox at the JRA Select Yearling Sale for 148,500,000 yen, and has now amassed 382,000,000 yen. There will be plenty more to come.