THE $8m investment by M.V. Magnier in Tepin (Bernstein) at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton November sale has taken some time to produce a dividend.

Twice a champion in the US, Tepin won 13 of her 23 starts, and made her mark at the highest level of racing in the US, Canada and England.

Bought by Robert Masterson as a yearling for $140,000, she won the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, adding to her five Grade 1 victories across the Atlantic. Those included the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, the Woodbine Mile in Canada, and she also was runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Mile when it was run at Santa Anita. With earnings of some $4.5m, and a jackpot sale price, Masterson was well rewarded for his original investment.

Tepin was sold carrying a filly, Tepin Thru Life (Curlin), and she never raced. Indeed, Tepin Thru Life was twice offered for sale and returned home, the last time in November, and she has two colts on the ground, a two-year-old Jasper Cross (American Pharoah) and his yearling full-brother. Tepin’s second offspring, Swirl (Galileo), was foaled in 2019 and she too never raced.

Produce number three for Tepin is the three-year-old filly Grateful (Galileo), and she brought her race record to two wins in four starts with her success in the Group 3 Darley Irish EBF Stanerra Stakes at Fairyhouse this week. Hopefully the tide has turned for Tepin and more can be expected of her, and her two-year-old son Delacroix (Dubawi).

Grateful is one of 255 group winners and 378 stakes winners sired by Galileo – staggering numbers. He is still awaiting his 100th Group/Grade 1 winner. Could Grateful become that landmark winner?

Shouldvebeenaring

Speaking of Group 1 winners, here is a colt who has the potential to win at that level. A four-year-old grey, in the image of his father, Shouldvebeenaring went into this season as a five-time winner, twice at listed level, and with some prominent runs in the very best of company.

He was denied victory in the Group 1 Haydock Park Sprint by a neck, and followed up with a fine effort when third to Kelina and Kinross in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret. He got back on the winning trail this week with success in the Group 1 Prix de Ris-Orangis at Deauville, and he will surely be aimed at Group 1s in the coming months.

This is another success story for Whitsbury Manor Stud, and Shouldvebeenaring is by their great sire sensation Havana Grey (Havana Gold), and out of a mare that the stud bought nine years ago for 12,000gns at Tattersalls. By and large Lady Estella (Equiano) has since produced sale stars and winners, with the weekend pattern winner being her best runner, while her winning daughter, the three-year-old Lady Pink Rose (Showcasing), sold for 115,000gns as a yearling. What excitement there could be if Whitsbury decide to sell Lady Estella’s yearling filly by Sergei Prokofiev (Scat Daddy) in the autumn.

Bought for £40,000 at Goffs UK by Peter and Ross Doyle as a yearling, Shouldvebeenaring is from the first crop by Havana Grey. He is one of five group winners in that initial crop, while the second crop was headed by his dual Group 1-winning son, Vandeek. That second crop also numbers five pattern winners, and they are in addition to nine other stakes winners. He is still awaiting a first two-year-old stakes winner in 2024, something that is only a matter of time given that he has almost 100 to choose from.

Lady Estella won on the all-weather over seven furlongs for Newsells Park Stud, and almost won a second time on the last of her 10 starts. She is one of nine winners from the unraced Lady Scarlett (Woodman), and they were headed by the Group 3 Prix du Palais Royal winner Rosso Corsa (Footstepsinthesand). Lady Scarlett had three stakes-winning siblings, Home Of The Free (Hero’s Honor), Poolesta (Hero’s Honor), and Desert Fox (Sadler’s Wells).

Lady Elgar

Readers may be more familiar with Poolesta and Desert Fox. The latter built on his third-place finish in the Group 1 Irish Derby and won the Listed Sha Tin Trophy in Hong Kong. His half-sister Poolesta was a listed winner at Leopardstown, placed in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, and won a pair of Grade 3 races in the USA. However, even these achievements were somewhat overshadowed by their once-raced sibling, Lady Elgar (Sadler’s Wells).

Sold as a three-year-old for 400,000gns, Lady Elgar beat one runner home when sixth on her only start for Michael Tabor and André Fabre. She has gone on to breed three stakes winners and the undoubted star is Grand Couturier (Grand Lodge). A 3,500gns yearling and €26,000 breezer, he won in France for Jean-Claude Rouget before heading to the USA where he won three Grade 1 races.

Caernarfon

One more potential Group 1 winner comes in the shape of Caernarfon, a four-year-old daughter of Cityscape (Selkirk). Haras La Providencia in Argentina and Overbury Stud agreed in 2014 to shuttle the newly-retired Cityscape there, and what a success that proved to be. Cityscape did something that his half-brother Bated Breath (Dansili) failed to do, and that was to win at Group 1 level.

Cityscape won six times, and at the age of six he landed the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Meydan, and he did so in record time. At two he chased home Jukebox Jury in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes, a race that was also run in record time, and as he got older, he got better, and was four times runner-up in Group 1 company.

But for the presence of Excelebration, Cityscape would have won both the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois and the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and had he done that he would surely not have gone to stud in 2014 at a fee of £5,000. He stood his last season at Overbury Stud in 2022. Cityscape already has six winners at Group/Grade 1 level, and another five at the next level. Most of his good winners have come from his sojourns to South America.

Seventh start

The Hunscote Stud-owned and bred Caernarfon won the Listed Montrose Stakes at Newmarket as a two-year-old on her seventh start of the year. While she failed to win at three, she was placed in the Group 1 Oaks, and now she has added a third win to her roll of honour with success in the Listed Pipalong Stakes. She is a full-sister to the Group 3 winner Dan’s Dream (Cityscape).

Still owned by Hunscote Stud, Dan’s Dream won twice, and in addition to her Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes success at Newbury, she was runner-up in three Group 3 races in Ireland, the Athasi Stakes and Ballyogan Stakes at the Curragh, and the Fairy Bridge Stakes at Tipperary. She has her first two foals in training at present.

Two years ago, there were a number of chances to get involved in this family presented at the December Sale, as Hunscote decided to sell Caernarfon’s dam Royal Ffanci (Royal Applause) in foal to Oasis Dream (Green Desert), and Caernarfon’s winning half-sister Oskana Astankova (Cable Bay), carrying to Ardad (Kodiac).

The latter realised 47,000gns to Dwayne Woods. Meanwhile, Ballylinch Stud purchased Royal Ffanci for 190,000gns and she had a filly, now a yearling, and this year the mare delivered a colt by Lope De Vega (Shamardal).