AT a starting fee of £10,000, the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes winner Triple Time warrants a serious look at by breeders. What are you getting for what looks to be a value fee?
Triple Time was a record-breaking juvenile, a pattern-winning three-year-old in a curtailed season, and winner of the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot at four, beating no fewer than four champions.
Add the fact that he is a son of the preeminent Frankel (Galileo), one of six stakes winners and two Group 1 winners from his dam, is closely related to last year’s Group 1-winning juvenile Rosallion, and traces to the dual Group 1 winner Dunette (Hard To Beat). Now does that starting fee look to be real value?
After winning a novice race at nine and a half lengths over a mile at Haydock, Triple Time returned to the track and set a new race record when taking the Listed Abernant Stakes.
Placed on both of his other starts at two, he went into winter quarters as an improving sort, and one worth watching at three.
However, we had to wait until September to see Triple Time again, when he won the Group 3 Superior Mile, showing a distinct likeness for Haydock.
Kept in training at four, Triple Time looked to be up against it when making his seasonal bow in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, opposed by four champions, including Inspiral, Modern Games and Native Trail, and the winners of 16 Group 1 races.
On the line Triple Time had a neck to spare over Inspiral, and it was two and a half lengths and more back to the rest. On his final start, Triple Time was fifth in a star-studded Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois.
Frankel, the sire of Triple Time, would cost you £350,000 to use if you could afford it, and he too numbered the Queen Anne Stakes among his 14 career wins. Now one of the world’s most successful sires, Frankel’s sons are in huge demand as stallion prospects, and last year one of his best runners, Cracksman, sired the unbeaten Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner Ace Impact.
Triple Time and his half-sister Ajman Princess (Teofilo), winner of the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet, are the best of nine winners out of the stakes-placed, three-time winner Reem Three, a daughter of Mark Of Esteem (Darshaan). Six of those nine were stakes winners, including Group 2 winner Ostilio (New Approach) and Group 3 winner Cape Byron (Shamardal).
Two of Reem Three’s other offspring are well worth highlighting. While her daughter Imperial Charm (Dubawi) only won once, she was placed in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary.
The unraced Rosaline (New Approach), an own-sister to Ostilio, is the dam of the ultra-smart 2023 juvenile Rosallion (Blue Point), and this winner of three of his four starts captured the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc day in Paris.