THIS week I will be making a trip to Paddy Twomey’s yard to learn more about his plans for the year ahead.

He certainly houses some very exciting prospects, and one of those on show will hopefully be his classic trial winning three-year-old filly, A Lilac Rolla.

On a weekend when bad weather decimated the racing programme, it was great that Leopardstown got the go ahead to race. Ballylinch Stud was the day’s main sponsor and they gave their support to the Group 3 “Priory Belle” Stakes, won by the unbeaten Harry Angel (Dark Angel) filly, bred by John Cullinan at his Horse Park Stud.

Purchased by bloodstock agent Amanda Skiffington who was present to see the filly run, A Lilac Rolla won both her starts last year as a juvenile, within a fortnight of each other, at Cork and the Curragh. Now she has more than justified her €40,000 yearling purchase price at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, and she is a fascinating prospect for the future.

The eighth foal and sixth winner for her winning dam, Mejala, a daughter of Red Ransom (Roberto), A Lilac Rolla left Cullinan in profit when she sold, as he had purchased her dam for just 12,000gns carrying the Group 3 winner. Mejala has a two-year-old daughter by Shaman (Shamardal). There are no reported coverings of the mares subsequently. Mejala is also the dam of the stakes-placed Mutaaqeb (Invincible Spirit).

Mejala was culled from the Shadwell broodmare band when she was acquired by Cullinan, and she comes from a female line that has a long and successful association with the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. Three of Mejala’s half-sisters were stakes winners, Sudoor (Fantastic Light), Ethaara (Green Desert) and Mudaaraah (Cape Cross), and the first two are also stakes producers.

Sudoor bred the Group 3 Prix Noailles winner Raseed (Dubawi), but more significantly she is grandam of the dual Group 1 Jebel Hatta Stakes winner Alfareeq (Dark Angel), bred on similar lines to A Lilac Rolla.

Mejala is a daughter of the unraced Wissal (Woodman), an own-sister to the Group 2 Champagne Stakes winner and Group 1 Champion Stakes-placed Bahhare. However, the family’s best-known runner is their half-brother Bahri (Riverman), born just over three decades ago and the champion miler in Europe in 1995. Twice a winner at Group 1 level, he is best remembered for the second of those successes, gained in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, thanks to an enterprising ride from Willie Carson.

Shock

Bahri was considered to be inferior to the three-year-old filly Ridgewood Pearl who was favourite for the race. Lining up with a pacemaker, Bahri was drawn widest of all the six runners.

To the shock of onlookers, after the stalls opened Willie Carson took him to the outside rail to ride him under the trees. This was where the better ground could be found, while the other five runners, including his pacemaker, took the shorter and more conventional route against the inside rail.

By the time they had come to the turn, and Willie Carson had switched him back to the inside rail, Bahri had an advantage of three lengths, and he went on to win by six lengths from Ridgewood Pearl. Bahri also won the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Bahhare and Bahri were the best of the six winners from the frustrating Wasnah (Nijinsky). That filly was placed on five of her six starts, even running second in a listed race at Newmarket, but she failed to ever get her head in front. This was in contrast to her own dam, Highest Trump (Bold Bidder), winner of the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and rated the champion juvenile filly of 1974 in Ireland. The following her she was placed in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas.

Biggest success

Highest Trump proved to be a success at stud, half of her six winners achieving their biggest success at pattern level. Dance Bid (Northern Dancer) won the Group 3 Tetrarch Stakes, Listed Ulster Harp Derby and was placed in the Group 1 Irish Sweeps Derby, but his achievements were overshadowed by those of his much younger half-sister Winglet (Alydar). That Grade 2 winner in the USA has been influential at stud.

Winglet bred the champion US three-year-old filly Ajina (Strawberry Road) and among her three Grade 1 successes were victories in the CCCA Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Winglet is also grandam of the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup winner Zulu Alpha (Street Cry), and the four-time Grade 1 winner Quality Road (Elusive Quality). The latter is the sire of 15 Grade 1 winners and stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky at a fee of $200,000.

Harry Angel has now sired 10 stakes winners including Australian Group 1 winner Tom Kitten, group-winning sprinters Marshman and Al Dasim, and stakes winners Vicious Harry, Iconic Moment, Proverb and Cadeau Belle. He is standing this season at Dalham Hall Stud for a fee of £10,000.

Battle Cry

Thirty-five minutes before A Lilac Rolla staked her claim for possible Group 1 glory, Battle Cry led home a Ballydoyle 1-2 in another classic trail on the card, the Ballylinch-sponsored Group 3 “Red Rocks” Stakes. It was also a 1-2 for No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) and this was the stallion’s 35th pattern winner and 58th stakes winner. No Nay Never is covering this year for €150,000 at Coolmore.

Battle Cry was bred by Paul Shanahan’s Lynch Bages and he is the first foal out of the Dragon Pulse (Kyllachy) mare I’ll Have Another. She was a listed race winner in Germany and runner-up there in a Group 3 contest, and she was placed three times at stakes class in Britain. Trained by Mark Johnston for Paul and Clare Rooney, she earned £100,000 while racing, having been bought by Kevin Ross for £32,000 as a yearling, and she sold afterwards for 200,000gns.

I’ll Have Another was bred at the Barry’s Manister House Stud and she is the best of four winners from the winning mare Jessie Jane (Dylan Thomas). The latter mare is a half-sister to the Group 3 Chester Vase runner-up Icon Dream (Sadler’s Wells), and to the unraced Starfish (Galileo). What a broodmare Starfish has become, with five stakes-winning offspring.

Foresight

Starfish was bought privately as a broodmare prospect. She was from the first crop of Galileo, and what foresight Frank and Liz Barry displayed when they bought her from her breeder Tommy Stack. She is dam of nine winners with her first nine foals, and the tenth and last of her offspring is the unraced three-year-old filly Realt Na Ri. Hopefully she will be successful this year in the colours of Liz Barry and in the care of Jessica Harrington.

The five stakes winners for Starfish are the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes and Group 1 Matron Stakes winner La Collina (Strategic Prince), Group 3 winners Foxes Tales (Zoffany and his own-sister Astadash, and the stakes winner Entsar (Fastnet Rock) and Fox Chairman (Kingman). Liz Barry and her daughter-in-law Rebecca raced Astadash, trained by Jessica Harrington, and she won the Group 3 Denny Cordell Lavarack and Lanwades Stud Stakes at Gowran Park.