WHAT an afternoon it was at the Curragh on Sunday for Darley’s super-sire Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). In addition to getting his 55th Group or Grade 1 winner on the board, thanks to the unbeaten Henry Longfellow, he followed up in the next race when Eldar Eldarov won the Irish St Leger, a year after he annexed the British equivalent.

Not only that, but Dubawi’s son Too Darn Hot, represented by his first runners in 2023, sired the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Fallen Angel. Another son of Dubawi, Night Of Thunder, added a pair of new stakes winners to his tally, notably Flight Plan in the Group 2 Dullingham Park Stakes at Leopardstown.

Back for now to Eldar Eldarov. Rated the champion three-year-old stayer in Europe last year, the four-year-old son of All At Sea (Sea The Stars) could well be the subject of an interesting question at a future table quiz. What dual classic winner was twice sold at Doncaster, but never by the resident auction house, Goffs UK? It was Eldar Eldarov, and he was sold at the Goffs Orby Sale there, and back at the same venue by Arqana as a breezer.

When the Kirsten Rausing-bred Eldar Eldarov won the Group 1 St Leger last September, he was the 53rd top-level winner for his sire, the then champion-in-waiting Dubawi. Earlier in the year he became that Dalham Hall sire’s landmark 150th pattern winner when he won the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot.

On a weekend when some of the best female families in the stud book had big race successes, Eldar Eldarov continued that trend. Readers of this column, anyone who studies sales catalogues, and breeding aficionados will know this one by heart, thanks to Lanwades, St Simon and Staffordstown Stud owner Kirsten Rausing and her careful cultivation of the female line.

In spite of the family’s success, Miss Rausing sold Eldar Eldarov as a yearling for £110,000, after ‘persuading’ Norman Williamson to take a chance on him at the sale.

That gamble by Williamson was richly rewarded when he resold Eldar Eldarov for £480,000 at the Arqana Breeze Up Sale in Doncaster. The colt’s subsequent victories have added another chapter of success to Williamson’s story, and the colt is one of the star graduates of his and wife Janet’s Oak Tree Farm in Co Meath

Eldar Eldarov is one of three winners, all stakes performers, out of the three-time French stakes winner All At Sea, a daughter of the champion Albanova (Alzao). The other stakes performers out of All At Sea include Kingswood (Roaring Lion), and he was placed in this year’s Group 3 Gallinule Stakes. All At Sea’s yearling colt by Lope De Vega (Shamardal) sold last year for 300,000gns, and will be reoffered in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by Longview Stud.

This year All At Sea foaled a filly by Study Of Man (Deep Impact).

Winner of three Group 1 races in Germany, Albanova has four stakes-winning offspring and is grandam of the 2022 Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Alpinista (Frankel). Need I say more?