GIVEN the worldwide success of His Highness the Aga Khan as an owner and breeder, it was perhaps something of a surprise for many to realise that Tahiyra’s win on Sunday in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas was a first in the race for him. She was the 35th individual classic winner in her owner’s distinctive colours.

The champion European filly at two last year, when she won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, Tahiyra was narrowly beaten on her seasonal reappearance in the Group 1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. On Sunday at the Curragh, she left those watching in no doubt that she is already a strong contender for champion honours again this season, and her next aim will be the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Princess Zahra Aga Khan, in attendance at the Curragh, said after the race: “She was very brave and she kept at it and won beautifully. Looking at what she did today, and Paddington yesterday, I think we have a good set of Guineas there. To have a homebred like this is lovely to see.”

Tahiyra is bred in the purple, a fifth-generation Aga Khan homebred who descends from a family acquired by His Highness in 1977 after he purchased the Dupré bloodstock. She is the second multiple Group 1 winner for her dam, being preceded by another Dermot Weld-trained filly.

Tarnawa (Shamardal) had a memorable year in 2020, adding success in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf to victories in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and Prix de l’Opera. This year Tarnawa is in foal to Siyouni.

Glorious start

Tarnawa is the first foal out of Tarana (Cape Cross) who won a maiden over a mile at two, was runner-up in the Listed Trigo Stakes at three and, in training with John Oxx again at four, won listed races at Galway and Limerick. She was group-placed at up to 14 furlongs.

Tarana’s first three foals are now winners, two of them Group 1 winners, and what are the odds about her adding further to that glorious start? Her two-year-old is a colt, Tarafi (Frankel), while her yearling filly is by Lope De Vega, a son of Tarnawa’s sire Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway). Tarana is in foal to Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

Tarana is a daughter of the Listed Galtres Stakes winner Tarakala (Dr Fong) and the best of her five winners, while that mare in turn was the best of nine winners from her dam Tarakana (Shahrastani) who was runner-up at Galway in a listed race. As is common with many Aga Khan families, fillies are regularly culled and other breeders have an opportunity to benefit from their continuing success.

Other branches of this family have produced the likes of Group 1 winners Damson (Entrepreneur), Arcano (Oasis Dream), Gilt Edge Girl (Monsieur Bond) and the South African runner Whisky Baron (Manhattan Rain), as well as the Group 1 Prix Royal Oak victor Tizaaz (Lear Fan) for the Aga Khan.

ON the same weekend that Luxembourg became the 400th Group/Grade 1 winner trained by Aidan O’Brien, and that list includes 22 under National Hunt rules, Paddington started the celebrations, and teed the landmark success up with his win on the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas. The son of Siyouni (Pivotal) was also a record 12th win in the first Irish classic of the season for O’Brien.

Bred by Dayton Investments, and sold to Broadhurst Agency acting for M.V. Magnier as a yearling at Arqana’s October Yearling Sale for €420,000, his price at that sale was just bettered by one other. He first showed that this value was not unreasonable when, second time out, he won his maiden at the Curragh by five lengths, his trainer having sent him to Ascot to make his racing debut.

Eye-catching

Now he has run up a sequence of three wins this season, at Naas, the Listed Tetrarch Stakes at headquarters, and his weekend classic victory, His rate of progress is eye-catching, and a potential clash with Chaldean at Royal Ascot later this month is a mouth-watering prospect.

Paddington is just the fourth produce of Modern Eagle, a daughter of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), and he was preceded by Masterpiece (Mastercraftsman), a winner at two who was placed a couple of times at listed level. They are, in fact, the only named offspring of their dam whose three wins included the Listed Prix Belle de Nuit at Saint-Cloud in the Wildenstein colours.

This is a family that has a long association with the Wildenstein family. Paddington’s fourth dam was Madelia (Caro), and she was unbeaten in four starts at the age of three. That was in 1977 and three of her wins were at Group 1 level, the classics Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas and Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and also the Prix Saint-Alary. Trained by Angel Penna for Daniel Wildenstein, Madelia was the champion three-year-old filly in France.

At stud, half of Madelia’s foals were winners, and all five of them earned some level of blacktype. Best of these was Moonlight Dance (Alysheba), Paddington’s third dam, and 17 years after her dam had done so, she too won the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary. Moonlight Dance did not breed a stakes winner, though two of her seven winners were runners-up in Group 1 races.

Fencing Master (Oratorio) was a €400,000 yearling purchase by Demi O’Byrne and, at two, won first time out for Aidan O’Brien before being beaten a neck by his stable companion Beethoven in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. His form tailed off badly after that and he eventually ended up at stud in South Africa. He was born six years after his half-sister Millionaia (Peintre Celebre).

Classic-placed

Millionaia was runner-up on her first two starts before winning at Chantilly as a three-year-old. She returned to that track for her fourth and final start, and was beaten less than a length in a high-quality renewal of the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks. Two of her four winners did so at stakes level, and they were Paddington’s dam, and the Gowran Park listed winner Mighty Blue (Authorized). That mare was also group-placed for Joseph O’Brien, and placed in a Grade 2 mares’ novice hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Back to Madelia now. Moonlight Dance was her sole Group 1 winner, but she produced others who were not far off being able to match that achievement. Her son, the Henry Cecil-trained Claude Monet (Affirmed), won the Group 2 Dante Stakes, but he was down the field in the Derby won by Secreto from El Gran Senor.

Another of Madelia’s sons, Marignan (Blushing Groom), was second in the 1992 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, and his half-sister Magdalena (Northern Dancer) was placed in the then Group 2 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Magdalena’s descendants include last year’s Peruvian Group 1 winner Alsacia (Koko Mambo), the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile Stakes runner-up, Ready’s Echo (More Than Ready), and the German champion juvenile, Molly Max (Big Shuffle).

One of Madelia’s unraced daughters is deserving of mention. Moon Indigo (El Gran Senor) was sent to Japan where she is grandam of a pair of champion fillies, Adventure (Jungle Pocket) and her full-sister Tall Poppy, and she is the third dam of last November’s Group 1 Japan Cup winner, Vela Azul (Eishin Flash). Coincidentally, Ryan Moore was on board the latter, and was also in the saddle on Paddington at the weekend.