WHAT a weekend it was for the Wertheimer brothers, as they won three pattern races in France with homebreds, and were runners-up in a fourth.

Pride of place goes to their three-year-old colt Sosie, a son of Sea The Stars (Cape Cross). Making just his fifth start, and recording a third success, Sosie was Group/Grade 1 winner number 22 for the Gilltown Stud stallion, and the reaction following his success in the Grand Prix de Paris from Illinois was to shorten his odds for the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on the first Sunday in October. Sosie was runner-up in a listed race and third in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby on the only occasions he was beaten.

Sosie is the best of the four winners from the stakes-placed Sosia (Shamardal), and the other three comprise stakes winners Copie (Iffraaj) and Anasia (Intello), and the group-placed Sosino (New Approach). Sosia is one of four stakes performers out of Sahel (Monsun), a winning four-year-old, and two of these were sired by Sea The Stars. They were the Group 3 winner Soudania and the listed-placed Sahelian. As if this was not enough, their winning half-sister Intimhir (Muhtathir) produced the Group 3 UAE winner Star Safari, and he too is by Sea The Stars.

In spite of these successes, the best offspring of Sahel was in fact the Italian Group 1 winner Sortilege (Tiger Hill). Here is another example of a line clicking with a particular stallion, as she is the dam of the 2022 Italian Group 3 juvenile winner Sirjan (Zarak), and grandam of last year’s Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Straight, also a son of Zarak (Dubawi).

Sahel is an own-sister to no less than three Group 1 winners, Schiaparelli (Monsun), Samum (Monsun) and Salve Regina (Monsun).

Schiaparelli was the third Group 1 German classic winner for the Old Vic (Sadler’s Wells) mare Sacarina. His German Derby win was the first of five Group 1 victories, and he was following in the hoofprints of the 2000 Deustsches Derby and Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden winner Samum (Monsun) and the German Oaks winner Salve Regina (Monsun). The latter mare has four stakes-winning descendants, led by her US Grade 2 winning daughter Salve Germania (Peintre Celebre), and including the Group 3 German classic trial winner Sea Of Sands (Sea The Stars).

This is one of the best families in Germany, and three daughters of Sacarina have gone on to produce Group 1 winners, the most notable being Sanwa (Monsun), responsible for Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), the brilliant German Derby winner and now a successful Group 1 sire at Lanwades Stud.

Double Major

Last year racegoers were treated to a classic renewal of the Prix Royal-Oak over two miles, the final Group 1 event of the French season.

The sole three-year-old in the race, Double Major (Daiwa Major), winner previously on Arc weekend of the Group 2 Qatar Prix Chaudenay, proceeded to win on very heavy ground by an impressive seven and a half lengths. Now he has won for the first time this season, thanks to his victory in the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil, his fifth success to date.

Bred by Wertheimer et Frère, Double Major was entered for the Arqana Arc Sale last year but was not presented, having won his first Group 2 earlier in the day. He is the fourth foal and winner out of Dancequest (Dansili), successful as a three-year-old at Deauville and placed in a listed race at Longchamp. Her other winners include the Group 3 winner Flop Shot (New Approach) and the stakes-placed Veritas (Camelot).

There is a mouth-watering group of young stock out of Dancequest to look forward to. She has a three-year-old daughter Tyra (Lope De Vega), a two-year-old filly Rooba (Dubawi), a yearling colt Vegetarien (Lope De Vega), and a colt foal by Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact). Dancequest is a daughter of Featherquest (Rainbow Quest), and that winning mare left behind 10 winners from 15 foals, notably Plumania (Anabaa) and Balladeuse (Singspiel).

Left Hand

Plumania won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, while at stud the best of her winners was the French Group 1 and British Group 3 winner Plumatic (Dubawi). While Balladeuse’s best win was at Group 2 level, in the Prix de Royallieu, she is the dam of a Group 1 winner, the Prix Vermeille heroine Left Hand (Dubawi), and that mare was also runner-up in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks.

Left Hand is joined as a pattern-winning daughter of Balladeuse this year by the Group 3 Prix de Royaumont winner Aventure (Sea The Stars).

Double Major is a son of Shadai Farm’s Daiwa Major, a champion sprinter and miler in his native Japan at the ages of five and six. He also won the first leg of the Japanese Triple Crown, their 2000 Guineas. He is a son of the American stallion Sunday Silence (Halo), a major figure in Japanese breeding and the sire also of Deep Impact.

Daiwa Major went to stud in 2008, and Double Major is one of his nine Group 1 winners. Last year his daughter Ascoli Piceno won the Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. Eight of Daiwa Major’s top-level winners have been in Japan. That said, his best runner, Admire Mars, did venture outside Japan and is the only three-year-old to win the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile. Admire Mars, like his sire and grandsire, is a Shadai stallion.

Kingman’s Blush

A sensational weekend for the Wertheimer brothers was completed when the three-year-old Kingman (Invincible Spirit) filly Blush took her winning tally to four since March of this year with her success in the Group 3 Prix Chloe at Chantilly.

She is the second stakes winner for the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks winner Lady Of Shamrock (Scat Daddy), after Martel (Frankel), and this win will delight Shawn Dugan who in December spent €220,000 on their winning half-sister, the now four-year-old Eriu (Galileo).

Banstead Manor Stud’s Kingman is on a roll too and he had three pattern winners at the weekend. Blush is joined on that list by a pair of four-year-old colts, the unbeaten Group 2 Summer Mile winner Quddwah, and five-time winner Alsakib who captured the Group 3 Silver Cup Stakes.

The Godolphin-bred Quddwah races for Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, and he won twice in May last year but was not seen again for a year. Victorious on his seasonal bow this year in the Listed Paradise Stakes at Ascot, he was back to that venue for his latest Group 2 win. Should he continue to impress and stay sound, he could well be a stallion prospect, being the best of four winners for the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes heroine Sajjhaa (King’s Best).

Finally rewarded

The Al Wasmiyah Stud home-bred Alsakib (Kingman) has finally rewarded his owners with a pattern win, and become the fourth son or daughter of the two-year-old listed winner American Nova (Verglas) to do so. She was sold five times at public auction, transforming from being a €40,000 yearling to being purchased by Charlie Gordon-Watson for Al Wasmiyah in 2017 for 550,000gns. American Nova’s previous group winners are Sir Patrick Moore (Astronomer Royal), a Group 2 winner in Australia and runner-up twice in Group 1 contests, the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas winner Nyaleti (Arch) who was second in a Group 1 in Italy, and Group and Grade 3 winner Stellar Path (Astronomer Royal).