BAAEED was one of the stars of the York meeting this week, but we shouldn’t overlook the achievement of the five-year-old Lanwades homebred Alpinista. The daughter of Frankel (Galileo) is one of that stallion’s seven Group 1 winners in 2022 – and there is plenty of time for more.

Five of the septet are fillies – Nashwa, Inspiral, McKulick, Alpinista and Homeless Songs, while Westover and Onesto have been flying the flag for the boys. Frankel is now firmly at the top of the stallion hierarchy, and he recently achieved the notable feat of siring his 100th stakes winner. He has since started the next century!

When Alpinista, a fourth-generation homebred for Kirsten Rausing, added the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud to her three wins in Germany last year at the same level, she was immediately being spoken about as a leading fancy for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Her win this week in the Group 1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks has only enhanced her chances for Europe’s best race.

It would be entirely appropriate if a filly from the family that descends from Alruccaba (Crystal Palace) won the Arc. It is a story of success, all generated by the influence of a Michael Stoute-trained, HH Aga Khan-bred two-year-old who ran out a two-length winner of the EBF Alfriston Stakes at Brighton for maidens on her second start in 1985.

Sound investment

Alruccaba was purchased at the end of her first season racing at the Tattersalls December Sale by Kirsten Rausing for 19,000gns, an investment made on her own behalf and that of her friend Sonia Rogers. At stud Alruccaba had eight winners, half of them stakes-winning daughters, and three of that quartet bred Group 1 winners.

Her non-winning daughter, Jude (Darshaan), was no back number at stud, breeding the Group 1 winners Yesterday (Sadler’s Wells) and her own-sister Quarter Moon (Sadler’s Wells), successful in the Irish 1000 Guineas and Moyglare Stud Stakes respectively, and their full-sister All My Loving (Sadler’s Wells) who was placed in the Oaks in Ireland and England. Quarter Moon is the dam of the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Diamondsandrubies (Fastnet Rock).

Last Second (Alzao) was the best produce by Alruccaba, winning the then Group 2 Nassau Stakes and Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes, and she was second in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. At stud she bred the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas winner Aussie Rules (Danehill), is grandam of Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Coronet (Dubawi), and third dam of the Group 1 St Leger winner Galileo Chrome (Australia).

The Group 3 Doncaster Cup was the best win for Alruccaba’s daughter Alleluia (Caerleon), who bred an even better stayer in Allegretto (Galileo). She travelled to France for her Group 1 victory in the Prix Royal Oak.

Influential

A third daughter, Alouette (Darshaan), has been the most influential of all. She won the Listed Oyster Stakes at Galway, and was third on her debut at two in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes. She has been outstanding at stud, her nine winners headed by the multiple Group 1 winners Alborada (Alzao), winner of the Champion Stakes twice, and Albanova (Alzao).

The latter mare, also homebred by Kirsten Rausing and trained, like Alpinista, by Sir Mark Prescott, won three Group 1 races in Germany, has four stakes winners among her nine successful offspring, and her grandson Eldar Eldarov gave Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) a landmark 150th pattern winner when winning the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot in June.

Which takes us to another of Albanova’s stakes-winning progeny, Alwilda (Hernando). Stakes-placed in England, thanks to some strategic planning she was sent out to win the Listed Silbernes Band in Koln at five. Now she is the dam of two winners with her first two foals, both fillies, and Alpinista is the first of them. Her second winner is the three-year-old Alpenblume (Kendargent), trained for Kirsten Rausing by her godson Tim Donworth, and successful three times in France this season.

US win is update for BBAG-bound yearling

SUCCESS at the weekend for the German-bred Dalika was welcome news for the team at Gestüt Ammerland.

The six-year-old daughter of Pastorius (Soldier Hollow) broke through at the highest level, winning the nine-furlong, Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes, and she did so in a new course record.

A winner in Germany at two, Dalika was sent to Chantilly that same season and was runner-up in the Listed Prix Herod at Chantilly. She was then bought to race in the USA and there she has won seven times and been placed many times. Another win will likely push her winnings to more than $1 million, and she is by some way the best runner for her sire who stands in France.

Pastorius won two Group 1 races at three, starting with the Deutsches (German) Derby, and at four was successful in the Group 1 Prix Ganay.

He is one of five top-level pattern winners for his sire Soldier Hollow (In The Wings), and that stallion also sired two Grade 1 winning hurdlers, Saldier and Arctic Fire.

Rated the best of his generation in Germany, Pastorius started his stud career in Germany but is now in France. Dalika is his only son or daughter to show any form at Group/Grade 1 level. Pastorius is sire of a trio of Group 3 winners, one each in France, Germany and Denmark, a pair of listed winners in Australia and Germany, and a listed winner over jumps in France.

The weekend victory was most welcome as it provides a timely, and significant, boost to the pedigree of Lot 133 at the BBAG Yearling Sale in September. Gestüt Ammerland will be offering a half-brother to Dalika, but this one is from the first crop of Ballylinch Stud’s Arc winner Waldgeist (Galileo). It is appropriate that the yearling’s dam was upgraded to such as sire as Waldgeist.

A winner herself, Drawn To Run (Hurricane Run) has made a perfect start at stud, producing five winners with her first five foals, and these include her three-year-old of 2022. They also include a full-brother to Dalika, Drawn To Race (Pastorius), and he won as a juvenile in France.

Drawn To run is one of five winners from Dawn Dane (Danehill), and while she showed little herself on the track, she is a half-sister to a pair of Group 1 winners in Corre Caminos (Montjeu) and Recital (Montjeu), winners of the Prix Ganay and the Criterium de Saint-Cloud respectively.

They also had another smart sibling in Racinger (Spectrum), a multiple pattern winner up to Group 2 level.