WHAT a pleasure it was to see the late Gerry Oldham’s silks being carried first past the post in a group event. It happened at Saint-Cloud last Sunday in the Prix Edmond Blanc when Kalsa ran on well inside the final furlong to defeat the favourite Menardais by three-parts of a length.

The Irish-bred daughter of Whipper, now a four-year-old, certainly appears to be improving with age as she had previously lifted a listed event at Fontainebleau and, like many produce of her sire, likes a testing surface.

The filly runs in the name of Oldham’s son James and she is the only one of the Citadel Stud Establishment’s thoroughbreds still racing in the maroon and white hooped colours.

Could her success mean the rebirth of a famous breeding and racing operation which produced such products as the triple Ascot Gold Cup winner Sagaro and Zino who lifted the 2000 Guineas in 1982?

Robert Collet commented: “I have always considered her a top class filly and but for a training setback, she would have run in last year’s Pouliches. I specifically asked the owner if I could keep her in training knowing that the best was still to come. We will now run in the Prix du Muguet and then probably keep her to a mile. James Oldham has already told me he would like to breed from her when she retires from racing.”