WHAT an absolute superstar Godolphin has in Rebel’s Romance, the six-year-old son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) and the Street Cry (Machiavellian) mare Minidress. Sadly, he cannot join the list of some 15 sons of Dubawi at stud, having been gelded before he ever ran.

The homebred raised his lifetime earnings to north of €11 million with his latest elite level success, this time taking the honours with a second victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, two years after he set a new course record when annexing the race at Keeneland. This latest win was number 15 in a 22-race career, and he has been a true globetrotter, enjoying success in six different countries.

Rebel Romance’s most valuable win was in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March, after which he added the Champions & Chater Cup in Hong Kong, before finishing third to Goliath and Bluestocking in the Group 1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. He got back to winning ways in the Group 1 Preis von Europa in Germany before heading to Del Mar.

In 2022, Rebel’s Romance was twice successful in Group 1 races in Germany, his first victories at the highest level, and he landed the Grosser Preis von Berlin and Preis von Europa on his way to taking his first Breeders’ Cup Turf. Incredibly, on six of the seven occasions in which he was beaten, Rebel’s Romance has finished outside the places.

Memorable year

This has been a memorable year for Rebel’s Romance’s dam, the stakes-placed Minidress. Her four-year-old son Measured Time (Frankel), who won three of his four starts last year in Britain, added the Group 1 Jebel Hatta to a win in the Group 2 Al Rashidiya Stakes at Meydan. Since then, he has gone on to land the Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes at Saratoga, and run second at the same track in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes.

Measured Time and Rebel’s Romance are two of the four winners, all the runners, from their dam, another being the Irish stakes-placed Petticoat (Cape Cross). Minidress has a yearling full-brother to Rebel’s Romance. She is a daughter of Short Skirt (Diktat), successful in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes and St Simon Stakes.

Short Skirt was purchased for Godolphin for 1,400,000gns after running third in the Group 1 Oaks. Her best runner, among five winners, is Minidress’s own-brother Volcanic Sky (Street Cry), a Group 3 and listed winner at Meydan.

Argentine-bred

Rebel’s Romance carries the Ire suffix, while the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner, Full Serrano, flew the flag for Argentina. He is the fourth winner at racing’s highest level for his sire, Full Mast (Mizzen Mast), and race fans in this part of the world will remember him as the winner of the 2014 Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc day.

Bred and raced by Juddmonte, Full Mast beat Territories and Gleneagles at Longchamp in one of the closest finishes ever seen for the race, with just a length covering the first five home.

His fourth crop of racing age are three-year-olds, and include this year’s classic winner Giustino. He won the Gran Premio Polla de Potrillos, the Argentine equivalent of the 2000 Guineas, and he and Full Serrano make up half of the Group/Grade 1 winners Full Mast has sired.

Full Serrano is one of a pair of winners for the unraced Serra Do Mar (Jump Start). That dam is an own-sister to the champion two-year-old filly, Seresta (Jump Start), and she won all but one of her seven starts in Argentina, including a Group 1, and is now dam of a pair of blacktype winners in Japan.

More Than Looks

The Grade 1 winner More Than Ready (Southern Halo) became one of the most successful sires in the USA, his 21 crops yielding 230 stakes winners – a phenomenal number.

While he had many champions among them, his four-year-old son More Than Looks is not one, yet, though he won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile. He was sixth in the race a year ago, only two lengths off the winner, Master Of The Seas.

Unraced at two, More Than Looks won a Grade 3 last year, one of his four wins in eight starts. He has improved considerably this year, twice finishing second to Carl Spackler in Grade 1 races, before running the race of his life at Del Mar. Perhaps 2025 will bring out the very best in him.

More Than Looks is the sole winner from Ladies’ Privilege (Harlan’s Holiday), and she was a minor stakes winner at two. Her full-brother Takeover Target (Harlan’s Holiday) was twice victorious at Grade 2 level, and the pair are among six winners produced by Vanquished (Empire Maker).

While she won at three, Vanquished was one of the lesser performers out of Critical Crew (Dr Blum). That mare was responsible for nine winners, 14-time winner Critical Ete being the best. She won two Grade 1 races.

Straight No Chaser

Speightster was humanely euthanised in the first week of February, 2022, after kicking the wall of his stall and fracturing a hind leg, This happened in Ontario, where the stallion had moved six weeks earlier for the breeding season.

A Grade 3 stakes winner by champion sprinter Speightstown (Gone West), he had moved after five seasons at WinStar, and connections revealed that he had attracted a book of more than 40 mares at the time, a large number for the country.

Bred and raced by WinStar Farm, Speightster looked ideal for Canada. His dam was an own-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year and multiple champion Dance Smartly (Danzig), the dam of two outstanding runners there, and a half-sister to leading sire Smart Strike (Mr Prospector). Speightster was unbeaten at three and won the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park. He retired to WinStar at a fee of $10,000.

He was a top-10 freshman sire in 2020 by earnings, and fifth-leading second-crop sire with more than $4.28 million in progeny earnings. At the time of his relocation, he was making an impact in Canada, his daughters Dreaming Of Drew winning the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and Aubrieta successful in the Glorious Song Stakes, both at Woodbine. While he was getting stakes winners, none were at graded stakes level.

His five crops have now given up 13 stakes winners, two of them graded winners. Straight No Chaser, successful in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is his best by a longshot. He gave his first indication of class at four when he won a Grade 3 at Pimlico, and while he did not run at two, he has only made 10 starts in three seasons racing. This year he has run three times, won twice, and those successes include the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.

His big year comes a decade after his half-sister Hangover Saturday (Pomeroy), the only other stakes performer in two generations of the family, won a restricted stakes as a two-year-old. While there are various graded stakes winners in distant removes of the family under the third dam, it is the fourth dam Big Dreams (Great Above), who was responsible for the star performer, the dual champion sprinter Housebuster (Mt Livermore).