HOPEFULLY the sceptics are now finally silenced. With an unbeaten run of nine victories under his belt, each gained at a mile, Baaeed stepped into the ‘unknown’ this week, tackled 10 furlongs for the first time, and established himself as a true champion.

A resounding victory in the Group 1 Juddmonte International was his sixth at that level, matching the achievement of his sire, Sea The Stars (Cape Cross). He now lies one behind Stradivarius, winner of the Ascot Gold Cup three times and the Goodwood Cup on four occasions. The 17 sons and daughters of Sea The Stars who have won at the highest level have now amassed 33 wins in these races.

Baaeed’s success is a reminder, again and again and again, of the prowess of the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum when it came to breeding, and this story started four decades ago, in July 1982. Then it was widely reported, though never confirmed by any of the parties involved, that Height Of Fashion (Bustino), owned and bred by Queen Elizabeth, was sold for £1.5 million to Sheikh Hamdan.

Trained by Major Dick Hern, Height Of Fashion was unbeaten at two, her three wins including what is now the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, but then was merely a Group 3 contest. Nonetheless, the manner of her victories led to her being rated the joint best of her sex and age in Europe with Circus Ring.

At three she won her first two starts in the royal colours, her success in the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket being a new high. Her future looked rosy and she was sold in the aftermath of that win.

Bad luck

Height Of Fashion was not to win again, suffering bad luck in her next start, the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. The only filly in the line-up, she banged her head leaving the stalls and finished seventh of the nine runners behind Kalaglow. In her only other race she was said to have been suffering the effects of that scare, finishing last in the Yorkshire Oaks.

There was much comment at the time about her sale, it being something of a surprise. This was because of the Queen’s and her family’s long association with this female line. Height Of Fashion was a daughter of Highclere (Queen’s Hussar) who won the Group 1 1000 Guineas and Prix de Diane-French Oaks for her owner-breeder. The English classic was also won by Highclere’s grandam Hypericum (Hyperion) almost 30 years earlier.

Hypericum was bred and raced by Queen Elizabeth’s father King George VI, and she was one of the leading juvenile fillies when, trained by Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, she won two of her four races including the Dewhurst Stakes, and ran second in the Middle Park Stakes. The following year she won the 1000 Guineas despite throwing her jockey and bolting before the start.

Outstanding

While Height Of Fashion was disappointing as a racemare for Sheikh Hamdan, she more than made up for this as a broodmare. She would go on to become an outstanding producer, her eight winners all earning blacktype, and six of them being stakes winners. Her influence for the Shadwell group has been enormous, and approaching 40 stakes winners descend from her, almost one for every year since she was acquired by Sheikh Hamdan.

Height Of Fashion bred Nayef (Gulch), four times a Group 1 winner, a Group 1 sire and now with a growing reputation as a broodmare sire. She also bred the four-time Group 1 winner and successful sire Nashwan (Blushing Groom). He won the Derby, 2000 Guineas and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Furthermore, Height of Fashion bred the Group 2 winner Unfuwain (Northern Dancer), and he went on to become a Group 1 sire.

Height Of Fashion’s granddaughters include the 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Coronation Stakes winner Ghanaati (Giant’s Causeway), while she is third dam of Lahudood (Singspiel), Baaeed’s grandam. She was useful when she was trained in France by John Hammond, breaking her maiden when winning a listed race, but she blossomed when sent to be trained in the USA.

There she won three times, landing the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Stakes at Belmont and capping her career with victory over, among others, Passage Of Time in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Aghareed

At stud Lahudood is the dam of five winners, the most recent being the three-year-old Laasudood (War Front), a juvenile winner last year for Sir Michael Stoute and successful again this year for Richard Hannon. However, her best offspring is Aghareed, a daughter of Kingmambo (Mr Prospector).

Following in her dam’s hoofprints, Aghareed won the same listed race her dam, Lahudood, did in France, the Prix de Liancourt at Longchamp, but she did not take the path to the USA, instead she went to stud where three of her first five foals are winners, the third being three-time winner Kasbaan (Dansili). Aghareed has a number of young stock who could add further to her record as a broodmare.

Baaeed and his 2022 Group 1 winning full-brother Hukum (Sea The Stars) have together rejuvenated a branch of this family. Hukum is a year older than the four-year-old Baaeed, has only raced 15 times, and has been successful on nine occasions and placed three times. He is sadly side-lined since he won the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom in June.

Meanwhile, Baaeed has added his York win this week to victories in the Lockinge Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Sussex Stakes and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. He will be a highly-prized stallion recruit when his racing days are over, and Sheikha Hissa must be so thrilled that the bay is carrying all before him, enhancing her father’s legacy.

Sea The Stars was an unforgettable racehorse, and the John Oxx-trained champion, who stands at Gilltown Stud and whose tenth crop are this year’s two-year-olds, is a horse who needs no introduction. The late Sheikh Hamdan had good reason to like him too, as Sea The Star’s very first crop contained the brilliant Taghrooda. She won the Group 1 Oaks and the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes for Sheikh Hamdan.

This is a family that has served two royal households well, and continues to do so.