THE Tetrarch, Mill Reef, Chief Singer and Canford Cliffs are some of the notable winners of the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, and the first pattern race for juveniles run each year in Britain is an undoubted favourite with Coolmore and its partners.

On Tuesday, Aidan O’Brien and the boys won the race for a tenth time, a run that started with Harbour Master in 1997, and continued with Fasliyev (1999), Landseer (2001), Statue Of Liberty (2002), Henrythenavigator (2007), Power (2011), War Command (2013), Caravaggio (2016) and Arizona (2019).

A son of Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), River Tiber was bred at the Morrin’s Pier House Stud, and was immediately installed as favourite for the Coventry Stakes on the basis of winning a five and a half-furlong maiden at Navan by a staggering 10 lengths. He then followed up at Naas. .

River Tiber was sold to M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch as a yearling for 480,000gns, and comes from a family well known for producing quality juvenile winners. River Tiber is the first winner for the unraced Arcano (Oasis Dream) mare Transcendence, and she had actually been purchased as a yearling by Magnier eight years ago. She sold twice at Tattersalls as a three-year-old, bringing 40,000gns in February and 120,000gns in December, Peter and Ross Doyle signing for her latterly.

Transcendence is half-sister to the stakes winning juvenile Mister Manannan (Desert Style) and his US stakes-winning full-sister Shermeen (Desert Style). The latter mare made a great start at stud, giving us Sudirman (Henrythenavigator who won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at two a decade ago. After selling to Barronstown Stud for 450,000gns she produced smart colts by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), the Listed Dee Stakes winner Star Of India, and the Group 3 Royal Ascot runner-up Roman Empire.

River Tiber’s grandam Cover Girl (Common Grounds) was successful in Scandinavia where she won six times, including a listed race in Norway. She bred a total of eight winners.

Smart performers

Delve further back into the pedigree and a plethora of smart performers can be found. The fourth dam of River Tiber is Paradise Bird (Sallust), and her sons included the Group 3 Norfolk Stakes runner-up Drayton Special (Lyphard’s Special). Daughters of Paradise Bird were headed by Sandhurst Goddess (Sandhurst Prince), and that stakes-winning sprinter is the taproot of such runners as Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Anthem Alexander (Starspangledbanner), successful sire Dandy Man (Mozart), classic winner Mother Earth (Zoffany) and Group 2 winner Night Colours (Night Of Thunder).

In addition to River Tiber winning the Coventry, Wootton Bassett sired the third-placed Bucanero Fuerte. As he now commands a fee of €150,000, it is worth remembering, and emphasising, that his 22 group winners to date have been conceived from nominations that cost between €4,000 and €40,000. His six Group 1 winners are Almanzor (now a Group 1 winning sire), Al Riffa, Audarya, Incarville, Wooded and Zellie.