SO many stakes winners and so little space. The period under review was full to the brim with blacktype races, and I will make an attempt to cover as many as I can over these four pages.

Where to start? It is hard to look past paying tribute to a couple of Coolmore stallions, past and present. Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) takes pride of place thanks to the third Group 1 win for his three-year-old daughter Porta Fortuna, while the five-year-old Whitebeam won her second Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga. They, and the dual Group 1 winner Tenebrism, are the three top-level winners to date for the stallion.

The dual Group 1-winning sprinter Caravaggio moved in late 2022 from Coolmore’s Ashford Stud to take up duties at the Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan. In his first season at stud there, he covered 128 mares. The son of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), unbeaten at two when he won the Group 1 Keeneland Stakes before adding the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup the following year, stood at Coolmore for his first three years at stud, before moving to Ashford.

Also successful in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes and the then Group 2 Flying Five Stakes among seven career successes, Caravaggio has done well at stud, with 17 stakes winners from his first three crops in Europe and shuttling to Australia. They also include the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas winner Maljoom, Group 2 Debutante Stakes winner Agartha, and Grade 2 US winner The Grey Wizard.

Caravaggio started his stallion career off at a fee of €35,000, which was raised after two seasons to €40,000. His first season in the USA saw him stand for $25,000, but on the back of his first runners it was raised to $35,000 for his second and final season there. His first year’s fee in Japan was the equivalent of about €17,000.

Porta Fortuna

One of Caravaggio’s weekend winners has been reviewed here previously, Porta Fortuna, after she won the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. At two she was successful at Newmarket in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, and she returned to that track to land the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes. In addition to these three victories, among six to date, she hit the crossbar four times in such contests, finishing runner-up in the Group 1 1000 Guineas, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, and the only time she was out of the first two was when dead-heating for third in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes. What a racemare.

Porta Fortuna is trained by Donnacha O’Brien, bred by his parent’s Whisperview Trading, was owned by his mum Annemarie when she won her first start, is a son of Caravaggio, who was trained by his father Aidan, and is the first foal out of a mare, Too Precious (Holy Roman Emperor), who was trained by his brother Joseph. The filly’s third dam Kantikoy (Alzao) was purchased by Annemarie in 2003 at Goffs for €10,000.

Kantikoy is an unraced half-sister to the Group 3 winner and classic-placed Kithanga (Darshaan), herself dam of the Group 1 St Leger winner and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up Milan (Sadler’s Wells). Kantikoy’s unraced daughter Delicate Charm (High Chaparral), Porta Fortuna’s grandam, bred a full-brother to Too Precious, Numerian (Holy Roman Emperor), runner-up in the Group 1 Doomben Cup and Group 1 Australian Cup. He won a listed race at Naas, and a Group 2 in Australia.

Whitebeam

Despite having won last year’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga, and now capturing that feature for a second time, Whitebeam is making her debut in this column, though her family has been referenced many times. The Juddmonte team visiting Ireland this weekend, for their sponsorship of the Group 1 Irish Oaks, will hopefully be pleased to see their most recent star runner so prominent in the reviews.

Whitebeam is one of a pair of winners for Sleep Walk (Oasis Dream), and was trained in England by father and son team, Roger and Harry Charlton, before being sent to Chad Brown in the USA.

Sleep Walk was also trained by Charlton senior and he placed her well to win three of just five starts. In fact, the Roger Charlton connection stretches back to Whitebeam’s grandam Scuffle (Daylami) as he handled her training career, which consisted of three victories and a stakes-placing.

Scuffle has enjoyed enormous success at stud, her seven successful offspring including four stakes winners. They are headed by the Group 1 St Leger winner Logician (Frankel) and his half-sister Suffused (Champs Elysees).

The latter was a three-time Grade 3 winner in the USA and she travelled to Canada to run second in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes.

Meanwhile, Logician’s full-brother Collide (Frankel) was a stakes winner in France, and another sibling, Okeechobee (Time Test), in April added to the family’s success story when he won for the fourth time in just six starts, landing the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown.

Gleneagles

Before I run out of space on the page, I bring you back to the mention of a second Coolmore stallion to note. Gleneagles (Galileo) was a headline story last week following his son Palladium’s Group 1 victory in the mile and a half Deutsches (German) Derby. Now the European champion miler has shown his great versatility by siring a second Group 1 winner within a week, this time the six-furlong July Cup hero, Mill Stream.

Bred by Jimmy Murphy’s Redpender Stud, the four-year-old Mill Stream’s victory also provided his half-brother Asymmetric (Showcasing) with a nice update, That Group 2 Richmond Stakes winner, who placed in the Group 1 Prix Morny, has just completed his first season at Ballyhane Stud. The pair are the first two foals out of Swirral Edge (Hellvelyn), and both made a mark at the sales.

Asymmetric sold for 150,000gns as a breezer, and Mill Stream was purchased by Stroud Coleman for 350,000gns in Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale. Their two-year-old half-brother Tasalla (Mehmas) did best of all, selling last October in Book 1 for 390,000gns. A winner at two and three, Swirral Edge is one of six winners from six runners for Pizzarra (Shamardal). The best of that quintet is the listed winner and group-placed Fashion Queen (Aqlaam), now the dam herself of the multiple Italian stakes winner Noble Title (Siyouni).

Strengthened

Jimmy Murphy’s belief in this family has been strengthened, as he owns the three-year-old daughter of Pizzarra, Zarra Ellis (Eqtidaar), and she won her maiden last month in Cork. Murphy bought her as a foal for 55,000gns.

Pizzarra was placed and was the only one of the nine runners out of Pizzicato (Statoblest) not to win. The eight successful progeny included a pair of blacktype winners, both fillies, and both have gone on to breed stakes winners.

Wunders Dream (Averti) won the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes and the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes as a juvenile. She went on to breed the Newmarket listed winner Inyordreams (Teofilo).

Three years after the birth of Wunders Dream, along came her half-sister, Grecian Dancer (Dansili). Her best win was in the Group 3 Ridgewood Pearl Stakes, while at Royal Ascot she placed in the Group 2 Windsor Forest Stakes. Her best winner has been Muffri’ha (Iffraaj), a Group 3 winner in England and in the frame in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan, and she in turn is responsible for this month’s listed Sandown winner Al Mubhir (Frankel).

Pizzicato won twice and was one of six successful offspring of Musianica (Music Boy). That half dozen came from seven runners, and two were top-class in Hong Kong. Mensa (Rudimentary) won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and he was champion there. His half-brother Firebolt (Flying Spur) was a Group 3 winner in England and runner-up in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint.