WINNER of four of her seven starts, including a listed race over six furlongs on her final outing, Mistrusting (Shamardal) was bred by Rabbah Bloodstock but carried the Godolphin colours when trained by Charlie Appleby.

Down the field just once, when tried at group level, Mistrusting has been something of a revelation at stud, and at the recent Meydan meeting two of her offspring recorded pattern race successes. The four-year-old gelding, Mysterious Night (Dark Angel), was first off the mark on the day, capturing the Group 2 Al Fahidi Fort over seven furlongs, and a little more than an hour later her three-year-old Star Of Mystery (Kodiac) added the five-furlong Group 2 Blue Point Sprint to her juvenile success in a listed race at Newmarket.

Mysterious Night is already a winner at the highest level as he won the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine at two, and he was also a Group 3 winner in France and placed a few times in Group 2 events in England. Mysterious Night is an own-brother to Althiqa (Dark Angel), and she won both the Grade 1 Diana Stakes and Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes in the USA.

Mistrusting can now boast of producing two Grade 1 winners among her three pattern winning offspring, and all of her first five foals have been in a winner’s enclosure somewhere. Her sixth produce is a two-year-old son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), and last year she was covered by the Darley flagbearer again. Mistrusting is the first, and best, of just three foals out of Misheer (Oasis Dream). All ran and two won.

Rabbah Bloodstock

Misheer was bought by Rabbah Bloodstock for 70,000gns in 2008, and at the time there were no blacktype at all in the first two generations of the family, though the pedigree compilers had included the fact that her dam, All For Laura (Cadeaux Genereux), finished fourth in a pair of listed races. Misheer raced for Saeed Manana and was trained by Clive Brittain.

The filly raced six times at two and proved herself to be among the best of her age and sex as a juvenile. Misheer won a listed race at York prior to adding the Group 2 Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cherry Hinton Stakes, and she was runner-up to Special Duty in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, while also taking the same finishing position in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Five-star potential in the Park

GIDLEIGH Park is a five-star hotel, and could also be a five-star horse. The equine version is a six-year-old son of Walk In The Park (Monsun), and the best of a pair of winners from the Presenting (Mtoto) mare Lindeman.

Bred by Colman O’Flynn, Lindeman sold for £140,000 as a four-year-old nearly 17 years ago, quite a price then, but she could boast of being closely related to the great Denman (Presenting).

Lindeman won one of her two starts in bumpers, at Cheltenham, and one of her three runs over hurdles. At stud she has been somewhat disappointing, but Gidleigh Park could change that picture.

The gelding is now unbeaten in four starts, once in a Chepstow bumper, and now three times over hurdles. His latest victory on Cheltenham Trials day came in the Grade 2 Classic Novices’ Hurdle, but whether Gidleigh Park will win there in March is a moot point. It might be safer to suggest that he could, like his relation Denman, be winning there in time, but over fences.

Lindeman is one of five winners out of the point-to-point and hurdle winner Southcoast Gale (Strong Gale), while her unraced own-sister Gales Present (Presenting) bred a Grade 2 Cheltenham winner in Vienna Court (Mahler). The family really bursts into life and quality under Gidleigh Park’s third dam, Polly Puttens (Pollerton).

Nine winners

Unplaced in four starts, Polly Puttens hardly put a foot wrong at stud, and her nine winners are headed by Denman.

What a star he was, graduating from the point-to-point sphere where he was a winner, to be successful 14 times over hurdles and fences. He first demonstrated his class winning the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle at Cheltenham before he was runner-up in the Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle. It was the only time a horse finished in front of Denman in his first 15 outings, a run of victories that saw him back at Cheltenham to add the Grade 1 RSA Chase and Gold Cup to his tally.

After that Denman won once more, though he was second in three consecutive Gold Cups. Other racing highlights were his victory at Leopardstown in the Grade 1 Lexus Chase.

One Grade 1 winner in a family is admirable, but Denman’s full-brother, Silverburn (Presenting), a year his junior, won a pair of Grade 1 races, the Tolworth Hurdle and Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase. Far Horizon (Phardante) came close to giving her a third Grade 1 winner when Nicky Henderson sent him to Punchestown for the Champion Bumper, where he was beaten by Liss A Paoraigh.

Polly Puttens also made quite an impact through her daughters. Six-time winner Potter’s Gale (Strong Gale) was the best of her fillies on the track, winning seven times, and at stud she bred the Grade 2 bumper winner Kayf Grace (Kayf Tara), and is grandam of the Grade 3 bet365 Gold Cup winner Potterman (Sulamani).

Full-siblings

Miss Denman (Presenting), a full-sister to Denman, is responsible for Polly Peachum (Shantou) who came agonisingly close to a Grade 1 win at Cheltenham, only denied by Glens Melody, but she was successful in four listed contests. Polly’s Present (Presenting) is another of Denman’s full-siblings and her son Hearts Are Trumps (Oscar) landed a Grade A hurdle win at Fairyhouse.

The Presenting influence continues thanks to the listed bumper winner Didtheyleaveuoutto, a son of the stallion who is one of many winners bred by Polly Puttens’ daughter Pretty Puttens (Snurge).

With such a weekend of high-class action on the track, let me just say that, for the record, Walk In The Park is so far responsible for one listed winner on the flat, and 38 individual blacktype winners under National Hunt rules.

Alexander’s filly success story continues

KENNY Alexander, along with a worldwide audience, is looking forward to the first foal from Honeysuckle. It is sure to be a highlight of the spring.

Alexander has specialised in racing fillies and mares, with enormous success, and the latest addition to his list of blacktype winners is Jade De Grugy. This well-connected daughter of Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) won her only start over 12 furlongs on the flat in France at three, but it was almost 14 months before she reappeared, at Leopardstown, and won from Willie Mullins’ yard.

Now Jade De Grugy has made it two from two over the smaller obstacles, adding the Grade 3 Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse to her bow. She remains unbeaten, joining Honeysuckle and Minella Melody as a winner of this race in the Alexander colours. Next stop is Cheltenham, and there will be much more heard of this five-year-old.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the dam of Jade De Grugy, the unraced Diane De Grugy (Ballingarry), is a half-sister to the superb two-mile chaser Sire De Grugy (My Risk). A first sign of his class was displayed when he won the Grade 2 Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton Park in 2011, but it was to be over fences that he became a star.

Top-class

Sire De Grugy emerged as a top-class performer with a win in the Grade 2 Celebration Chase, a race he was to win twice, in 2013. In the following National Hunt season he established himself as the leading two-mile chaser in Britain, winning the Grade 1 Tingle Creek Chase, Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase, Grade 1 Clarence House Chase and the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase. He continued to run at the highest level without ever fully recapturing that form, winning a race in each of the following three seasons, among them a second Tingle Creek Chase.

Doctor Dino’s record as a stallion is well rehearsed in this column, but Jade De Grugy is yet another mare to advertise his prowess as a sire. Others by the multiple Group/Grade 1-winning globetrotter are Dinoblue (Grade 1), Royal Margaux (Grade 1), La Bague Au Roi (Grade 1), and Grade 3 winners Pearl Of Wisdom, Under Control, L’Aubonniere, Ladyville, and Gin On Lime.