THE plan, presumably, to turn a quick profit on the resale of the Mastercraftsman (Danehill Dancer) mare Wild Mix didn’t materialise, and just as well.

Purchased by Peter Kelly through his Emerald Bloodstock for 7,000gns as an unraced three-year-old, Wild Mix was reoffered but didn’t reach her valuation. Covered instead by Harzand (Sea The Stars), the resulting offspring is the Group 3 Park Stakes winner Caught U Looking. Sold for €27,000 at last year’s Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale to Peter Nolan and her trainer Noel Meade, Caught U Looking now carries the colours of Tally-Ho Stud’s Tony O’Callaghan and breeder Sabina Kelly who kept a share.

Beaten six lengths by Ylang Ylang on her Curragh debut, Caught U Looking made no mistake next time out at Leopardstown, winning by five lengths, and with a two month break she continued on her winning ways back at headquarters in a race won in the past decade by the subsequent classic winners Qualify and Hermosa, and the classic-placed Concert Hall. Noel Meade sent out the winner in 2020, Elysium.

After the race, Meade expressed the hope that he would be able to keep the filly in his yard, as there would no doubt be handsome offers for the well-bred juvenile. The first foal of Wild Mix, Caught U Looking is followed by a yearling filly by Inns Of Court (Invincible Spirit) and a colt born this year by Supremacy (Mehmas).

Significant update

Since Peter and Sabina Kelly purchased Wild Mix, at the time a half-sister to the Group 3 winner Mix And Mingle (Exceed And Excel), the pedigree received a further significant update when the latter’s full-sister, Double Or Bubble (Exceed And Excel), became a dual Group 3 winning sprinter, successful in the Abernant Stakes at Newmarket and the Supreme Stakes at Goodwood.

Harzand moved from the Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud to Con O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud for this season, and it was odds-on that it would result in him suddenly getting a good one.

Caught U Looking is from the dual Derby winner’s fourth crop, and while the sire’s first crop contained the Scandinavian Group 3 winner Carlras, the listed runner-up French Fusion and the Grade 1 hurdle runner-up Dionis, that has been the sum total of his stakes horses – until now.

Already proving extremely popular with National Hunt breeders, Harzand is exceptionally well-bred, good-looking, and a day after Caught U Looking won at the Curragh, an Aga Khan Studs’-bred two-year-old son of his won at Vichy. Undoubtedly, we will be hearing much more about Harzand as the years progress.

Female line

Another attractive aspect of Caught U Looking is the depth of her female line. Her grandam Mango Lady (Dalakhani) won one of her three starts, and she was among seven winners from the stakes-placed Generous Lady (Generous). Racing for John McKay, Generous Lady won four races, after which she was sold for 100,000gns.

She struck gold with her first foal, High Accolade (Mark Of Esteem), winner of the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, and runner-up to Brian Boru in the Group 1 St Leger in the colours of Lady Tennant.

Generous Lady was herself a half-sister to a St Leger winner, in this case the Italian version. Jape (Alleged) also won the Group 3 Premio Guido Beradelli in Rome, and he and Generous Lady were two of the seven winners bred by the Canadian champion three-year-old filly, Northern Blossom (Snow Knight). Jape was seven times champion sire in the Czech Republic and Poland, and the leading broodmare sire in Poland on four occasions.