SAXON Warrior (Deep Impact) was an unbeaten Group 1 star at two, a classic winner at three, and now he is making waves with his first crop of racing age.

At the weekend Saxon Warrior sired his second group winner when Lumiere Rock gained a first success at her fourth attempt, but she did so in the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes at the Curragh. How apt that Kirsten Rausing should sponsor the race as she too stands a son of the great Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), Study Of Man.

With 14 winners, at the time of writing, a near 30% winners to runners’ ratio, and six stakes horses in his first crop, Coolmore must be delighted with how well Saxon Warrior has started his second career. His son Victoria Road won the Group 3 Prix de Conde in France and a listed race, while his daughter Gan Teorainn was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc weekend.

Yet, you feel that the best is yet to come from a sire who did not make his racing debut until late August.

Saxon Warrior’s more than three-length first success over a mile at the Curragh was followed up in similar style in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at Naas, one month before he beat Roaring Lion by a neck in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster. Saxon Warrior versus Roaring Lion was to become quite the story of 2018.

Their first rematch was in the Group 1 classic 2000 Guineas, which Saxon Warrior won well from a quality field that included the subsequent Derby winner Maar in third. Roaring Lion was only fifth. Their final dual was a memorable Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes battle where only a neck separated them at the line. Roaring Lion also won their Group 1 Coral-Eclipse Stakes head-to-head by a neck.

Saxon Warrior was less than a length behind Latrobe in the Group 1 Irish Derby, and his only other runs resulted in fourth-place finishes. Remember that he stumbled out of the stalls at Epsom, encountered traffic problems, and still finished just over four lengths off Masar in the Derby.

Famous family

From a famous family, Saxon Warrior has the added attraction and rarity value of being a top-class son in Europe of Deep Impact, one of the greatest Japanese runners ever, and himself a son of his own dynasty-making sire.

Saxon Warrior’s dam is the classic-placed juvenile champion filly Maybe, a daughter of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) who won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes.

The next dam was the sprinting stakes winner Sumora (Danehill), herself a three-parts sister to the Group 1 Oaks and Preis der Diana-German Oaks heroine, 4,000,000gns sales filly, and later blacktype producer, Dancing Rain (Danehill Dancer).

This is the immediate family of Group 1 Derby winner Dr Devious (Ahonoora) and notable sprinter Archway (Thatching), both half-brothers going on to sire Group 1 winners. Others of their siblings produced the Group 1 Irish Oaks winner Even So (Camelot) and Japanese Group 1 winner Suzuka Phoenix (Sunday Silence).

Yesterday

When you finish reading this, perhaps you could look up the results from yesterday’s Book 3 Sale at Tattersalls. Due to go under the hammer was Lumiere Rock’s yearling half-sister by Zoffany (Dansili). By the sire of leading fillies Mother Earth, Prosperous Voyage and Albigna, she will have come to the attention of more potential buyers following her sibling’s Group 3 win.

The choice of Saxon Warrior was a pretty obvious one really for the partnership that bred Lumiere Rock and sold her as a yearling for 55,000gns. After all, her dam Last Gold (Gold Away) is a half-sister to a pair of French Group 3 winners by Deep Impact, Akihiro (later renamed Stimulation in Hong Kong) and Bartaba.