JUDDMONTE’S sponsorship of the Group 1 Irish Oaks was rewarded with a fine renewal, and they got some of the money it cost back when enjoying a few notable weekend wins. One stood out for me.

Babouche brought up a double for them on Sunday at the Curragh when the juvenile daughter of Kodiac (Danehill) won the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes, and joined her own-sister Zarinsk (Kodiac) as a pattern-winning daughter of Pavlosk (Arch). The latter mare, a stakes winner herself at York at three, has a perfect record at stud, her first six foals all having been successful.

At two, Zarinsk ended her four-race season with two wins, her debut maiden at the Curragh and the Listed Ingabelle Stakes on Irish Champions Weekend at Leopardstown. In between she was twice fourth in pattern company.

Six starts last year resulted in success in half of them, the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes and Group 3 Cornelscourt Stakes at Leopardstown, and the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at Fairyhouse.

Now part of the outstanding broodmare band at Juddmonte, her owner-breeders can look forward with great anticipation to the career of Zarinsk’s full-sister, and it is clear that trainer Ger Lyons holds Babouche in very high regard. Lyons also houses in his yard their half-sister Star Magnolia (Kingman), and she won her only start as three back in April, a seven-furlong maiden at Dundalk.

The three Lyons-trained fillies were all born after three colts who between them have won 15 times. Meanwhile, Pavlosk has gone on to have two more fillies, a yearling by Expert Eye (Acclamation) and a foal by Bated Breath (Dansili).

Pavlosk is the dam of six winners, and she is also 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.

Picture changes

While there is a baker’s dozen of stakes winners in the first three generations of this female line, there is no Group 1 winner, yet. One more generation back and that picture changes. Babouche’s fourth dam was the high-class Zaizafon (The Minstrel).

A Group 3 winner at two, Zaizafon numbered three stakes winners and four stakes-placed horses among her tally of nine successful offspring. Two of these stand out, and both became successful sires.

The pair were the full-brothers Zafonic (Gone West) and Zamindar. A 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. He beat Kingmambo in the Salamandre, but lost his unbeaten record to the same colt on his seasonal debut at three. In winning the Newmarket classic he beat Barathea and set a new course record.

Sad death

Zafonic burst a blood vessel on his final run in the Sussex Stakes, and retired to Banstead Manor Stud. He sired such as Xaar, Zafeen and Iffraaj at stud, but sadly died following an accident after he was leased to stand at Arrowfield in Australia, robbing the breeding world of an influential sire at the age of just 12.

The influence of Zaizafon continues today, and also descending from her is the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Announce (Selkirk), while last year’s Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner Ghostwriter (Invincible Spirit), recently third in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes), is also from this line.

Kodiac continues to reign supreme at Tally-Ho Stud at the age of 23. He is on the verge of joining a select group, and his next new stakes winner will bring that count to 100. Seven of his offspring have won at the highest level, and this season he is responsible for eight stakes winners. Kodiac has just completed the 2024 stud season at a fee of €35,000.

IT is well-night impossible to write about every juvenile winner that impresses, but there is no doubt that the future is very bright for the Aidan O’Brien-trained two-year-old colt, The Lion In Winter.

Bred by the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holding, he could not have been more impressive than he was when winning the Juddmonte Chaldean Irish EBF Maiden over seven-furlongs at the Curragh. That said, he was the stable’s second choice, but he beat a smart maiden in Currawood, and the form of the race would indicate that The Lion In Winter is well above average.

A graduate of Book 1 in last year’s Goffs Orby Sale, where M.V. Magnier purchased him for €375,000, The Lion In Winter is a son of Gilltown Stud’s Sea The Stars (Cape Cross). What a year that great sire is having, one that has provided him with his 22nd Group 1 winner when Sosie won the Grand Prix de Paris. Sosie is out of a mare by Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway), while The Lion In Winter is out of a mare by a son of Shamardal, Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega.

That mare is What A Home, bred by Tullpark and twice sold as a youngster. She realised €300,000 as a foal at Goffs, and 300,000gns the following year. Entrusted to the care of William Haggas, she won a maiden at Chester and followed up with success in a handicap at Doncaster. Kept in training at four, she failed to add any more wins, but she placed in a Group 3 in England, and in a listed race in France.

What A Home has only had three foals at stud to date, and The Lion In Winter is her sole colt. He was preceded by Sea La Venus (Sea The Stars), a disappointing three-year-old to date, and followed this spring by a filly foal, again by Sea The Stars. What A Home has one stakes-performing sibling, and that is Venus De Milo (Galileo).

Came close

Venus De Milo won a couple of Group 3 races at Cork, and came close in three Group 1s. She was beaten half a length by Chiquita, later sold for €6 million, in the Irish Oaks, finished second to The Fugue in the Yorkshire Oaks, and at four was runner-up in the Pretty Polly Stakes and placed in the Nassau Stakes. Venus De Milo is the dam of the Australian Group 2 winner Cleveland (Camelot).

What A Home’s grandam Inchmurrin (Lomond) was runner-up in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, won a Group 2 at Newmarket, and bred three stakes winners. Her son Inchinor (Ahonoora) was a multiple Group 3 winner, and he too was knocking on the door of a Group 1 win, chasing home Zafonic in the Dewhurst Stakes. A number of Inchmurrin’s daughters have left their mark, but I will highlight one.

Ingozi (Warning) was a listed winner and bred the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes winner Miss Keller (Montjeu). She is also the grandam of Harbour Law (Lawman), the 2016 Group 1 St Leger winner. To date, 10 stakes winners are listed under Ingozi in a sales catalogue.