THREE for three. That is the group race record of the progeny from the outstanding Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Misty For Me. This year she is dam of the dual Group 1 winner Roly Poly (War Front) and last weekend’s Group 3 Plusvital Round Tower Stakes winner U S Navy Flag.

Roly Poly won the Group 1 Prix Rothschild and Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes this season and was runner-up in both the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Last season she was in the runner-up position too in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes.

Cover Song, a daughter of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and the first foal of Misty For Me, won the Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes at Santa Anita late in October 2016 and was quickly added to the Fasig-Tipton November Sale just over a week later.

She proved to be a big hit with buyers and eventually sold for $1.6 million to James Delahooke, acting for Bobby Flay.

Now along comes U S Navy Flag to become the third runner, winner and group/graded offspring for his dam and he is followed by a yearling filly and a colt foal, both by War Front.

A daughter of Galileo, Misty For Me won three Group 1 races with Seamie Heffernan in the saddle, the Moyglare Stud Stakes, the Irish 1000 Guineas and the Pretty Polly Stakes, while Johnny Murtagh had the leg up when she won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac. She is a full-sister to Ballydoyle and she too won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac and was runner-up last year in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, while another own-sister is the stakes winner and group-placed Twirl.

Their dam was the unraced Storm Cat (Storm Bird) mare Butterfly Cove, a full-sister to Group 3 winner Kamarinskaya and a half-sister to Group 1 winner and sire Fasliyev (Nureyev).

U S Navy Flag’s third dam was the unraced Mr P’s Princess (Mr Prospector) and her siblings include a pair of Grade 1 winners, both of whom were second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

Menifee (Harlan) won the most money of the pair, his five victories yielding over $1.7 million and including the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational Handicap and the Blue Grass Stakes. He was placed in all three legs of the US Triple Crown. His stallion career was not distinguished, in spite of the fact that pedigree charts list him as having been champion sire five times in the Republic of Korea!

Menifee’s half-brother Desert Wine (Damascus) won eight races, earned about $100,000 less than his sibling, and was successful three times at the highest level, namely when annexing the Hollywood Gold Cup (beating the legendary John Henry), Charles H Strub Stakes and Californian Stakes. He is most recently remembered as the damsire of St Nicholas Abbey.

War Front has had a meteoric rise to fame, starting his stud career at $12,500, falling to $10,000 in his fourth season, and this year commanding $250,000 at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. He retired to stud having won four of his 13 starts, the best of which was at Grade 2 level, though he twice placed second at Grade 1 level. He made a single start at two and failed to trouble the judge on that occasion.

War Front’s eighth crop are this year’s juveniles and U S Navy Flag is the first of them to win at stakes level. He is the 63rd stakes winner for his sire and his 36th group/graded winner.

War Front’s winners at the highest level make for impressive reading, including Declaration Of War, Air Force Blue, The Factor, Data Link, Hong Kong champion Lines Of Battle, Hit It A Bomb, War Command, Roly Poly, American Patriot and Brave Anna.