MOST of the recent top flat action came at the five-day Glorious Goodwood festival, and its two Group 1 contests, the Qipco Sussex Stakes and the Markel Insurance Nassau Stakes, were won by Kingman and Sultanina respectively.

That pair, a three-year-old son of Invincible Spirit (by Green Desert) and a four-year-old daughter of New Approach (by Galileo) respectively, have already been reviewed here this year.

Kingman is owned and bred by Juddmonte Farms, and Sultanina, who did not even start her racing career until May of this year, is owned and bred by Philippa Cooper’s Normandie Stud.

The Group 2 races at the festival also included a homebred winner, a horse who became a first time pattern scorer at the age of seven.

This is quite an unusual feat, and unlike many horses who do not become pattern winners until after the age of five or six, he is also quite lightly raced for one of his years.

Take Cover did not begin his career until October of his four-year-old season, but won a maiden and two handicaps from three starts at Southwell.

He was then off the track until the following September, but returned with a win over six furlongs in heavy ground at Newbury.

The final of his four outings that year was a short-head defeat back at Southwell, he was beaten a nose on his seasonal reappearance at Goodwood the following August, and rounded off that short campaign with a neck defeat in a listed contest at Lingfield.

Take Cover, who is trained by David Griffiths for his owner-breeder Norcroft Stud, made his first start of 2014 in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Ascot, and he was far from disgraced in finishing only three lengths behind Sole Power.

He then won a listed contest over five furlongs at York before holding on to beat the fast-finishing three-year-old Extortionist in the Group 2 Betfred King George Stakes over the same trip at Goodwood last Friday.

The gelding holds an entry in the Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York, and his rise to fame has been remarkable, and not just because of his age and career profile.

Leading sprinters can emerge from quite modest families, and Take Cover is the only blacktype winner in the most recent generations of his family, but regardless of the strength of the distaff side of their lineage, they generally represent stallions noted for speed.

Take Cover, however, is a son of the outstanding middle-distance horse Singspiel (by In The Wings), a stallion whose Group/Grade 1 winners include middle-distance stars such as Dar Re Mi, Eastern Anthem, Lahudood, and Moon Ballad, and whose stayers include the Group 1 Gold Cup hero Papineau.

That is not to say that Singspiel only got horses that required at least 10 furlongs to show their best, as his list of high achievers in the milers’ division includes Asakusa Den’En, Lohengrin, Lateral, and Funfair.

The dam of Take Cover is the stakes-placed five-time scorer Enchanted (by Magic Ring), a filly who was best from five to seven furlongs, and whose sire was a notably speedy early son of Green Desert (by Danzig).

She is, in turn, out of a non-winner called Snugfit Annie (by Midyan), and her siblings include the multiple sprint winners Golden Asha (by Danehill Dancer) and Excellent Aim (by Exceed And Excel).

You will find some stamina if you go back another generation or two and look at some of the winners in those branches, but although they contain a listed-placed hurdler, they are of mostly minor interest.

So how do we explain the high level of talent shown by Take Cover, and the arena in which he has demonstrated that ability?

His siblings include the six-time scorer Arteus, who is a son of the middle-distance star Fantastic Light (by Rahy) and yet has been most successful at seven furlongs, and his lightly-raced Motivator (by Montjeu) half-brother Master Wizard has been placed over five and six furlongs.

This would suggest that his emergence as a sprinter is mostly due to the influence of his dam, and with the level of that ability being so far in excess of anything else achieved by his relatives, it would appear that his class has come from his sire.