GALILEO is the grandsire of Derby winner Masar, but he went one better in the Group 1 Investec Oaks when his daughter Forever Together broke her maiden in the classic on just her fourth outing. This was vindication of the decision to spend €900,000 at Goffs on the daughter of the multiple champion sire. The classic winner was bred by Vimal and Gillian Khosla.

When MV Magnier signalled the winning bid for Forever Together, he did so in the knowledge that all the same elements had been in place for the filly’s full-sister a few years earlier.

That sibling was Together Forever (Galileo) and she cost Magnier €680,000 at the 2013 Goffs Orby Sale. She was a Group 1 winning juvenile when she landed the Dubai Fillies’ Mile.

Both Group 1 winning fillies were born some years after their Theatrical (Nureyev) dam Green Room’s other winner of note. Her first foal was Lord Shanakill (Speightstown) and he cost BBA Ireland $110,000 as a yearling at Keeneland. He was variously in the care of four trainers, starting with Karl Burke, ending with Sir Henry Cecil, and being with Alan Jarvis and Richard Mandella in between.

As a two-year-old Lord Shanakill failed by just a nose to land the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes, finding Intense Focus too good, but he gained that valuable top-flight success in his second season when he travelled to France and beat all-comers in the Prix Jean Prat. He stood his first few seasons at the Irish National Stud before moving to continue his career in Pennsylvania.

Green Room never ran and the now dam of three Group 1 winners was sold at Tattersalls as a three-year-old for just 20,000gns to Kinsale Bloodstock. Covered by Speightstown (Gone West) who stood for $40,000 at the time, she was traded 11 months later at Keeneland to Templeton Railton Farms for €240,000, a tidy profit. She is also the dam of the winner Signe (Sea The Stars) who was purchased by Amanda Skiffington for €1.1 million as a yearling at Goffs, while her two most recent offspring are a yearling and a foal, both fillies, by Galileo.

Green Room is a half-sister to the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes winner Spanish Fern (El Gran Senor) who was also runner-up in the same race. Their unraced sibling Rusty Back (Defensive Play) bred Heatseeker (Giant’s Causeway). He started in Ireland when he placed in the Group 1 National Stakes at two, but in the USA he blossomed to become a Grade 1 winner of the Santa Anita Handicap.

Spanish Fern and Green Room are daughters of Chain Fern (Blushing Groom) and she is an unraced full-sister to Al Bahathri. Al Bahathri passed away peacefully at the great age of 32 just four years ago, having lived out her retirement at Derrinstown Stud.

Al Bahathri (whose name means lavender) was bred by Tom Whitney at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky and bought as a yearling at the 1983 Keeneland July Sale for $650,000. Put in training with Harry Thompson Jones she won the Group 2 Lowther Stakes and Listed Princess Margaret Stakes, finishing third in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes from a disadvantageous draw.

At three she made the running in the Group 1 1000 Guineas, only caught close home by the Fillies’ Triple Crown winner Oh So Sharp. Al Bahathri won the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas three weeks later and won Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes, giving weight all round. She won six of her 12 starts.

Al Bahathri produced eight winners, including the dual Group 1 and classic winner Haafhd (Alhaarth) who was foaled when she was 19. She is grandam of the Group 1 winners Gladiatorus (Silic) and Military Attack (Oratorio), and third dam of Group 1 winners Big Orange (Duke Of Marmalade) and Red Cadeaux (Cadeaux Genereux).