MANY thanks to Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice-president of sales, and their European representative Ed Prosser, for their generous hospitality on Saturday for the latest running of the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh.

The team in Kentucky is gearing up for the marathon, and hugely significant, September Yearling Sale which begins on Monday, September 9th, and, with the exception of Friday 13th, runs until Saturday 21st. The recent strong trade at the Saratoga Sale was a relief to any, and hopes are high that the strength of that market will continue at Keeneland.

The suction house adds its name to the six-furlong Phoenix Stakes, and this is a juvenile Group 1 race that year after year produces quality winners. The race was first run in 1902, and originally staged at the Phoenix Park. It used to be called the Phoenix Plate, and was known fondly to all as the 1500, and run over five furlongs.

Renamed the Phoenix Stakes in 1956, it was given Group 2 status in 1971, and promoted to a Group 1 in 1979. Run at Leopardstown in 1982, the race returned to the Phoenix Park over a new distance of six furlongs in 1983. Seven years later, the Phoenix Park racecourse closed, and the race went back to Leopardstown in 1991. It moved to the Curragh in 2002.

Aidan O’Brien has dominated the first European juvenile Group 1 race of the year since saddling Lavery to win in 1998, and has 17 victories recorded. Many pundits expected him to win this year with Whistlejacket, but instead the colt lost out for the purse of more than €200,000 to the only filly in the race, the Juddmonte-owned and bred Babouche (Kodiac). Five years ago, the same team won the race with the subsequent classic winner Siskin.

Memorable day

It was a memorable day for Babouche’s owner-breeder Juddmonte, as less than an hour earlier they were celebrating a milestone for their flagship sire Frankel (Galileo), and ironically it was provided by the Coolmore team. The Ballydoyle unbeaten juvenile filly Lake Victoria won the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket, and in so doing her sire Frankel posted his 100th group or graded winner in a record time of 3144 days, ahead of Danehill (also bred by Juddmonte), Deep Impact, Galileo and Dubawi.

Juddmonte’s Simon Mockridge said: “Frankel and his record-making achievements seem to know no bounds. He excels physically and mentally in all that he does, from racehorse to stallion, and simply in his day-to-day routine. What a privilege it is to witness this extraordinary horse in our lifetime.

“It goes without saying this significant milestone, and Frankel’s status as one of the sport’s elite sires, could not have been reached without the support of our breeders worldwide to whom we are extremely grateful.

“Frankel’s importance to the sport of horseracing cannot be underestimated, both as a household name that extends far beyond our industry, and to the thoroughbred breed. Frankel and his progeny are the jewels in the crown that is Prince Khalid’s legacy of dedication and passion, which has been rewarded beyond comprehension, The same commitment is felt by his family for Juddmonte and its horses.”

Frankel was champion sire in 2021 and 2023, and leading sire by earnings in Europe for the last three years. Last year he sired 11 Group 1 winners, 27 pattern winners and 42 stakes winners, all figures that were better than those achieved by any other stallion in the world. Almost one in eight of his runners wins a group race, while one in every six becomes a stakes winner.

Classic winners

His 34 Group and Grade 1 winners include European classic winners Chaldean (a Juddmonte stallion), Soul Sister, Westover, Homeless Songs, Adayar, Anapurna, Nashwa, Hurricane Lane and Logician, as well as the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Alpinista, European champion Cracksman, Australian Oaks winner Hungry Heart, Japanese Oaks winner Soul Stirring, and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Inspiral.

Just three weeks ago I wrote about the latest Keeneland Phoenix Stakes winner Babouche, under the headline that she “looks a bit special”. I didn’t expect to be proven correct so quickly. She is the fifth filly to win the Phoenix Stakes since Eva Luna in 1994, and that filly was followed a decade later by Damson, in 2007 by Saoirse Abu, and 13 years ago by La Collina. The latter’s owner Diana Vasicek was a Keeneland guest on Saturday, in company with Liz Barry, who bred the filly.

Eva Luna did not manage to breed a stakes horse, but she is grandam of the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Beacon, and a Turkish classic winner. Damson’s nine winners included another winner of that Group 2 juvenile race, Requinto, while one of her descendants is the current racing star Dubai Honour. His Group 1 wins include the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in France, and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Ranvet Stakes in Australia.

Doubled up

Saoirse Abu doubled up at Group 1 level when she won the Moyglare Stud Stakes, and she was classic-placed at three. She is the dam of six winners, one of which, Enfranchise, was a stakes winner at Gowran Park in May.

La Collina’s first six foals have yielded five winners, and two years after her big win at the Curragh she returned to her best at Leopardstown to win the Group 1 Matron Stakes.

When Babouche, a daughter of Kodiac (Danehill), won the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes, she joined her full-sister Zarinsk (Kodiac) as a pattern-winning daughter of Pavlosk (Arch). The latter mare, a stakes winner at York at three, has a perfect record at stud, her first six foals all winning. Zarinsk was twice successful at two, including the Listed Ingabelle Stakes on Irish Champions weekend. Last year she won half of her six starts, the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes and Group 3 Cornelscourt Stakes at Leopardstown, and the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at Fairyhouse.

Pavlosk has gone on to have two more fillies, a yearling by Expert Eye (Acclamation) and a foal by Bated Breath (Dansili). She was rested this year. As well as being dam of half a dozen winners, Pavlosk is one of six winners for her own dam, the French stakes-placed winner Tsar’s Pride (Sadler’s Wells). Three of the latter’s daughters became stakes winners.

Successful sires

Babouche is the first Group 1 winner in three generations of this female line, but that changes in the fourth remove.

Her fourth dam was Zaizafon (The Minstrel), a Group 3 winner at two who numbered three stakes winners and four stakes-placed horses among a tally of nine successful offspring. Two of these stand out, and both became successful sires. They were the full-brothers Zafonic (Gone West) and Zamindar.

Champion at two and three, Zafonic won the three Group 1 races at two, the Dewhurst Stakes, Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre, and the following spring added the Group 1 2000 Guineas. Victory in the Newmarket classic saw him defeat Barathea and set a new course record. Zafonic retired to Banstead Manor Stud, where he sired such as Xaar, Zafeen and Iffraaj. He died after an accident at Arrowfield in Australia, robbing the breeding world of an influential sire at the age of just 12.

Tally-Ho Stud’s Kodiac stands on the verge of joining a select group, and his next new stakes winner will bring that tally to 100. Eight of his offspring have won at the highest level, and the 23-year-old has just completed the 2024 stud season at a fee of €35,000.