CONSIDERED by some to have been an unlucky sixth in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, Sparkling Plenty (Kingman) made amends on Sunday when she recorded win number five in eight starts by taking the honours in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks.

The following evening, in absentia, she was again in the headlines, initially being knocked down for a record £8.1 million at the Goffs London Sale. Sadly, the record was just a fleeting title, though Al Shaqab Racing subsequently took a 50% share in her for £5 million.

In addition to being a Group 1 classic winner, an outstanding model, by leading sire Kingman (Invincible Spirit), and with a deep pedigree, Sparkling Plenty also has the potential to win again at the highest level, with even the Arc already mentioned as a late season target.

Two years ago, Juddmonte’s Kingman, who stands at Banstead Manor Stud, ended the five-day Royal Ascot meeting with three winners, Thesis, Candleford and Noble Truth. The latter was his sole blacktype winner that week, successful in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes. Bred by Jean-Pierre Dubois, Noble Truth was sold to Godolphin for €1.1 million as a yearling at Arqana.

Runner-up at two in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, three of his four wins came in stakes races. David O’Meara spent 130,000gns to acquire Noble Truth last August.

Sparkling Beauty was retained as a yearling at €600,000, and she is a full-sister to Noble Truth. Their dam is the unraced Speralita (Frankel), herself a half-sister to the six-time Group/Grade 1 winner Stacelita (Monsun).

Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, Stacelita was unbeaten when she lined up against Sea The Stars and more in the 2009 Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but she was beaten a total of five lengths by that champion, finishing seventh in the 19-runner field.

Prior to that, Stacelita was successful three times in Group 1 races, the Prix Saint-Alary, Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and the Prix Vermeille. She was bought by Martin Schwartz after the first of those wins, added the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet at four, and then headed to race in the USA. Stateside she added two more wins at the top tables, capturing both the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes and the Beverly D. Stakes.

Terry Yoshida

At the end of her racing career, Stacelita was sold to Terry Yoshida and afterwards visited sires in the USA, England and Japan. She is the dam of two stakes winners by Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), but her best runner is Soul Stirring, and she was the first Group 1 winner by Frankel (Galileo). Soul Stirring also won the Group 1 Yushun Himba-Japanese Oaks at three.

That is not the end of the family’s classic connections. Not to be outdone, Stacelita’s first foal, Southern Stars (Smart Strike), produced the 2022 Japanese champion three-year-old filly Stars On Earth (Duramente) who won both the Group 1 Oka Sho (1000 Guineas) and the Yushun Himba (Oaks).

Kingman is having a profound influence on this family, and this brings us neatly to Stacelita’s half-sister, the unraced Salicorne, a daughter of Aragorn (Giant’s Causeway). Born three years after Stacelita, she has played a leading role, being the dam of Sauterne (Kingman) who won the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp last year, her fifth and most important success. Sauterne was also classic-placed. She was another, bred by Jean-Pierre Dubois, to have been offered at the Goffs London Sale in 2023, and she was retained when bidding hit £1.2 million. Her subsequent Group 1 win proved connections right.

Interesting gelding

This year has thrown up an interesting winner in the family. Sauterne’s half-brother Sauvignon (Inns Of Court), is a three-year-old gelding whose two wins in 2024 include the Listed Prix Stanley Hurdle at Auteuil.

In the first four generations of the family of Sparkling Plenty, there are six Group 1 winners, all are fillies, and all of their Group and Grade 1 victories have been gained in the last 15 years.

This is a pedigree that established itself in Germany, but has now spread its wings to enjoy victories at the highest levels also in France, the USA and in Japan. The genesis of this recent success goes back to the early nineties, just after the reunification of Germany.

The French-bred filly Suivez (Fioravanti) won a couple of races in West Germany, and she showed that she was above average when finishing second in a pair of listed races. In the breeding shed she proved to be a great asset, and four of her six winning offspring won either listed races or, in the case of Simoun (Monsun), was successful a couple of times at Group 2 level. He later went on to win a few hurdle races for Martin Pipe, sell for 2,600gns as a seven-year-old, win a point-to-point as a nine-year-old, but met with a fatal accident on his second start between the flags.

Blacktype winners

In addition to having four stakes winners, Suivez has three other daughters responsible for blacktype winners. The unraced Suisun (Monsun) bred a pair of them, the best of which is Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Silvaner (Lomitas). Songerie (Shirocco), a winner herself, is the dam of last year’s US stakes winner Freydis The Red (Saxon Warrior), while the four-time winner Suivi (Darshaan) can trump those two as she bred the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern winner Sunny Queen (Camelot).

Suivez’s stakes winner and group-placed daughter Soudaine has two blacktype winners, one of which, Savoir Vivre (Adlerflug), won the Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville and was runner-up in the Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby. In addition, she is the grandam of Flaming Rib (Ribchester), a juvenile listed winner who was second in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.

Sparkling Plenty and Sauterne are among a dozen Group 1 winners for Kingman, who stands with Frankel and others at Banstead Manor Stud. That group also includes this year’s Group 1 1000 Guineas winner Elmalka. His four Group 1 winning daughters have been successful at that level in the past two years.