AWTAAD (Cape Cross), winner in 2016 of the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas and now a Derrinstown Stud stallion, was in the news recently thanks to the fact that he sired his first Group 1 winner, Anmaat.

This week it is the turn of his female family to be in the limelight, and this follows the second win on her second start for the Frankel (Galileo) three-year-old, Al Asifah.

This Shadwell homebred looks as though her victory in the Listed Abingdon Stakes at Goodwood will not be her career highlight, and John and Thady Gosden will surely be eyeing some better prizes later in the season.

Al Asifah is the second foal and first winner for her dam Aneen, a daughter of Lawman (Invincible Spirit). That two-year-old winner for Kevin Prendergast only raced six times, and her placed efforts saw her run second, beaten half a length, in the Listed Cooley Stakes at Dundalk. She must have been well-regarded by connections, and made her seasonal debut at three in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas.

Aneen is certainly being given every chance of success at stud, with two daughters by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) on the ground, one of whom was placed and the other being an unraced two-year-old, and her yearling colt is a full-brother to Al Asifah by Frankel.

This is a female line that has had a long association with Kevin Prendergast, as he handled the career of Aneen’s dam Asheerah (Shamardal), though she trained off after her runner-up effort in the Listed Salsabil Stakes at Navan, and the next dam, the stakes winner and group-placed Adaala (Sahm). The Curragh trainer also came close to saddling a Derby winner when the latter’s grandson, Madhmoon (Dawn Approach), was second to Anthony Van Dyke, beaten half a length, and with Japan, Broome, Sir Dragonet and Circus Maximus filling the next four places.

Frankel has enjoyed success with this family before. He is the sire of Mehnah, a half-sister to Awtaad, and they are among five stakes performers from the six successful offspring of Asheerah. Adaala, the third dam of Al Asifah, won a listed race at the Curragh in 2005, and at stud had seven winners, four of them earning some blacktype, though none won a listed or group race.

Left Sea

Sunday was a good day for Frankel, as another of his three-year-old daughters, Left Sea, took her winning tally to three in five starts with success in the Listed Prix Melisande at ParisLongchamp.

The Wertheimer homebred is the second winner out of the Group 1 Prix Vermeille winner Left Hand, herself a daughter of Dubawi. Left Sea’s full-brother Gaucher (Frankel) won twice last year in France and sold for €260,000 at Arqana and is now in training with Willie Mullins. He has yet to start for his new connections.

Left Hand was pretty consistent at the highest level, and she was less than a length in arrears when runner-up in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and she placed in both the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet. One of six winners from Balladeuse (Singspiel), Left Hand is a half-sister to the French stakes winner Bilissie (Dansili).

Balladeuse was placed at Group 1 level, though her sole stakes success was a good one, capturing the Group 2 Prix de Royallieu with some notable fillies in arrears, and that was on the last of her five starts. She was born the year before the best of her siblings, the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Plumania (Anabaa). They are two of the 10 winners out of Featherquest (Rainbow Quest), a winning half-sister to Group 1 winner and successful sire, Groom Dancer (Blushing Groom).

Plumania is the dam of Group 3 winner Plumatic (Dubawi), stakes-winner Maniaco (Galileo), group-placed Starmaniac (Sea The Stars) and the stakes-placed Castle (Frankel). Another of her winning daughters Solilea (Galileo) is the dam of the Group 1-placed Solsticia (Le Havre).

Morpheus

Meanwhile, Frankel’s half-brother Morpheus (Oasis Dream), a one-time Tally-Ho Stud stallion, is the sire of Incantatrice, and that five-year-old mare gained the ninth win of her career in Italy, and the second at listed level, when she was successful in the one-mile Premio Royal Mares in Milan. This took her winnings to almost £90,000, incredible given that she was unsold at £2,000 when Tally-Ho offered her for sale as a yearling.

Incantatrice is the best of the seven winners bred by Red Trance (Soviet Star), a two-year-old winner whose stock were all sired by stallions standing at Tony O’Callaghan’s Co Westmeath farm. Most of her triumphant offspring won more than once, and Desilva (Zebedee) too found his way to Italy where he won seven times and was stakes-placed.

Seven winning offspring for Red Trance, an own-sister to Grade 3-winning hurdler Red Merlin (Soviet Star), was one less than the number produced by her own dam, Truly Bewitched (Affirmed). That group also includes the Group 3-placed, multiple winner producer Arabian Spell (Desert Prince), and Truly Enchanting (Danehill Dancer), whose best offspring was the Grade 3 American Derby winner Infinite Magic (More Than Ready).

Classic winner

Skip back to Incantatrice’s fourth dam, and she was the 1981 Group 1 1000 Guineas winner Fairy Footsteps (Mill Reef). Though she never had a runner that came within shouting distance of her own ability, Fairy Footsteps is the grandam of five stakes winners, and one of these stands out. Desert Prince is one of a pair of group winners out of the placed Flying Fairy (Bustino), and he was the champion three-year-old in Europe 25 years ago.

That season the son of Green Desert (Danzig) won the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, while he placed in the St James’s Palace Stakes and Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas. Retired initially to the Irish National Stud, but later found a number of homes, he sired winners at the highest level on the flat and over jumps.

Morpheus’ record at stud was hardly inspiring, his first crop including a pair of stakes-placed winners, his second giving up a listed winner in Germany and a Grade 1-winning hurdler in Italy, and his third was responsible for Incantatrice and a group-placed winner, again in Italy.