HOW appropriate that on the same weekend as the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was run, that the 2009 winner Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) should have a Group 1 double.

Sea Silk Road’s win in France is covered on these pages, and she was preceded on to the roll of honour by Just Fine. That well-bred five-year-old sold last year at the Tattersalls Horses-In-Training Sale, and the following is an excerpt from my report at the time on the sale.

“We are looking for good quality horses, Sir Michael [Stoute] recommended him very strongly, and he vetted extremely clean,” said Johnny McKeever after spending 300,000gns on Just Fine for Waterhouse Bott Racing.

The agent added: “I don’t know if there have been many Sea The Stars in Australia, but this horse’s level of form is pretty good. He will head straight down, have some time off and be given some time to acclimatise.” Just Fine was owned by the Queen, passing into the ownership of King Charles on the monarch’s death, but he was bred by Godolphin. McKeever added: “It is a while since I have bought one from the Royal Studs; Gai Waterhouse trained for the late Queen and will be thrilled to be getting a horse that she owned.”

Just Fine was a first winner for King Charles at Leicester, landing the same race in 2021 by Pied Piper, coincidentally also bred and owned by Queen Elizabeth. Gordon Elliott has won a couple of Grade 2 hurdle races with Pied Piper who was runner-up at Grade 1 level.

Buyers will soon have an opportunity to purchase Just Fine’s year younger full-brother Perseus Way (Sea The Stars) as the latter is catalogued at the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale later this month. This will be his second time into the sale ring at Newmarket as Ted Durcan paid 80,000gns for him at the 2022 February Sale there. He was a smart juvenile hurdler last season, and in addition to winning twice over timber all of his paced efforts were in graded races.

Last year, at the Goffs November Sale, David Redvers’ Tweenhills took on ownership of Just Fine’s dam, Bint Almatar (Kingmambo) for €48,000, carrying a colt foal by Earthlight (Shamardal). How that pedigree has changed since. Then the dam of four winners from five runners, the only blacktype under Bint Almatar was a recent addition from Perseus Way, and that was over hurdles. Now she is dam of a Group 1 winner, and has a yearling colt by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) waiting in the wings.

Immediate family

That is not the only win at racing’s highest level for the immediate family of Just Fine in 2023. Bint Almatar’s half-brother Master Of The Seas (Dubawi) recently added the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile to his tally of victories, now standing at seven, and a few years ago he was runner-up in the Group 1 2000 Guineas.

Just Fine is not alone in being a major winner down under for the family either. Bint Almatar’s half-sister Falls Of Lora (Street Cry) won the Group 3 UAE Oaks and she is the dam of Canada’s Grade 1 Summer Stakes winner Albahr (Dubawi), and Cascadian (New Approach). The latter has won three Group 1 races in Australia, and such is their lucrative racing programme that he has netted more than £4.5 million for connections.

There were shades of Groundhog Day about Master Of The Seas running second in a classic, as that was also the case with his dam, Firth Of Lorne (Danehill). Runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas 21 years ago, she did manage a stakes win, though it was a listed race at Nantes. Wait for it! Firth Of Lorne was the sole blacktype winner from Kerrera (Diesis), and that Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes winner ran second the following season in the Group 1 1000 Guineas.