IT is hard to believe that Let it Rain, who remains unbeaten after her victory in the Listed Ascot Championship Open NH Flat Race, could have ever been sold for just £16,000.

This was her sale price to Aidan Fitzgerald’s Cobajay Stakes as a two-year-old at the Goffs UK Spring Sale in 2021. The daughter of leading sire Kayf Tara (Sadler’s Wells) is from an outstanding female line, and while her dam Tazzarine (Astarabad) had little to show at stud then, a couple of placed horses, one of which was a point-to-point winner, there was always still a chance of a good runner emerging.

That runner turned out to be the filly for sale, and she is now being spoken of as a challenger for the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in March by her trainer Dan Skelton.

In addition to this, her pedigree page looks so much smarter. Let It Rain joins the chase winner Poniente (Shirocco) and the point-to-point winner Strike Hollow (Beat Hollow) as the three progeny of note to date for Tazzarine, while there are youngsters to follow by Kayf Tara (a three-year-old) and Mahler (Galileo), the latter being a yearling filly.

However, the pedigree goes into orbit after this. Tazzarine’s dam Belle Yepa (Mansonnien), won twice over hurdles and was second in the Listed Prix Finot Hurdle at Auteuil. She was a great success in the breeding shed, leaving behind eight winners, six of them being full-siblings.

Best-known

The best-known of that sextet is Whisper (Astarabad), a winner of 11 races and successful at Grade 1 level in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree, a race he won twice. Winner at the Cheltenham Festival of the Grade 3 County Hurdle, he won a Grade 2 chase and was runner-up in Grade 1 races at Cheltenham and Aintree, the RSA Novices’ and the Mildmay Novices’ Chase.

A second blacktype winner for Belle Yepa was Chuchoteuse (Astarabad) and his eight victories in France included two editions of the Listed Prix de Besancon Hurdle run at Enghien-Soisy. That is not the end of the success story. Two non-winning daughters of Astarabad (Alleged) and Belle Yepa have left their mark at stud.

The unraced Asta Belle (Astarabad) ended up in Ireland where she became a successful broodmare, her best runner being Lisnagar Oscar (Oscar), winner of the Grade 1 World Hurdle at Cheltenham after starting his career, like so many, as a graduate of the point-to-point field. Meanwhile, Mexcala (Astarabad), who was placed a few times over jumps, bred the Grade 2 French hurdle and chase winner Gex (Khalkevi) and he was runner-up in the Grade 1 Grand Steeplechase de Paris twice.

Well-connected

Belle Yepa was also well-connected. One of eight winning offspring of Grande Yepa (Yelapa), she was an own-sister to the dual Grade 3 chase winner Subehargues (Mansonnien) and he was placed at the age of four in the Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois Grand Steeplechase.

Kayf Tara, a stalwart at Overbury Stud for many years and now home to Golden Horn, gained four of his 10 victories in group 1 races, two editions each of the Ascot Gold Cup and the Irish St Leger.

Sire of a single stakes winner on the flat, Kayf Tara was for many years the leading National Hunt stallion standing in Britain. If my calculations are correct, Let It Rain is his 59th blacktype winner under National Hunt rules.

For the record, that stellar list of top-class runners includes the following Grade 1 winners, Thistlecrack (5 wins), Edwardstone (3 wins), Thyme Hill (3 wins), Special Tiara (3 wins), Identity Chief (2 wins), Tea For Two (2 wins), Lieutenant Colonel (2 wins), Ballyandy, Edwulf, Blaklion and Planet Of Sound.

French history-maker warrants a special mention

THE Prix Du Vallon Des Auffes at Marseille Pont De Vivaux was run in the week before Christmas. If you have never heard of the racecourse, don’t worry.

The place and the race will nonetheless have a place in the history of horseracing in France. It was the occasion of the 21st victory for the nine-year-old mare Zarica, a daughter of Rio De La Plata and the Quiet American (Fappiano) mare Zarnitza. Bred in equal partnership by Haras du Logis and Julian Ince, Zarica has become a household name in French racing circles.

Compiling 21 wins in a career spanning eight seasons is noteworthy if not quite remarkable, but what makes this special is that 12 of these wins have been achieved in 2023. This is a record for a calendar year in that country. Her trainer Julien Phelippon could scarcely believe that he had managed to do it in the final weeks of the year, but great credit to him to keep the mare fresh and keen during a racing career that has encompassed 79 starts.

Nine of those career outings were over jumps at the age of five, but she failed to oblige in that code, managing a few placed efforts instead. Her victories and many placed efforts have rewarded her owners with winnings and bonuses of some €325,000. Offered for sale as a foal and retained for €23,000, Zarica sold the following year at Osarus to the French Bloodstock Agency for €18,000.

A daughter of the once-raced Zarnitza, Zarica is one of that mare’s four winning progeny. The others, who won 10 races between them, include Zarica’s full-brother Light of Cristo (Rio De La Plata). This is a female line that has produced no shortage of top-class runners.

Summertime Legacy

Zarnitza had seven winning siblings, only one of which earned any blacktype. She was the smart Summertime Legacy (Darshaan), a Group 3 winner who placed in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary. As good as she was while racing, Summertime Legacy was a better broodmare. She bred the Group 1 winning juvenile Mandaean (Manduro), the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Wavering (Refuse To Bend), and the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile-placed Winters Moon (New Approach).

The latter mare has also done better as a broodmare and her star performer is none other than Earthlight (Shamardal), one of the best juveniles in Europe in 2019 when he won both the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and the Group 1 Prix Morny. He will have his first runners in 2024, and with his 65 yearlings sold averaging more than €100,000, there is much to look forward to when they hit the track.

Zarica’s third dam Exotic Treat (Vaguely Noble) bred the unbeaten Group 1 Derby winner Golden Fleece (Nijinsky). To say that this has been one of the best female lines in recent history would not be an understatement. Exotic Treat’s half-sister What A Treat (Tudor Minstrel) was the US champion filly in 1965, and she bred Be My Guest (Northern Dancer). Their dam rare Treat (Stymie) was a multiple stakes winner in the USA, winning 16 times in all.

The list of stakes winners descending from Rare Treat would take up a page of the paper to recount, and they have been successful globally. While Zarica could not hold a candle to many of them in terms of pure racing ability, her soundness and tenacity will have been matched by few of them, and she deserves her place in the limelight.

What a pity that Zarica has not earned any blacktype. Her sire Rio De La Plata (Rahy) did not achieve the levels of success his race record would have entitled him to reach.

Winner of the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two, it was to be another three years before he won at that grade again, doing so twice in Italy. He was runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas at three, and won up to the age of six.

At stud Rio De La Plata sired just a pair of pattern winners, Tahlie in the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham and Fort Payne in a French Group 3.