ETERNAL Pearl won the Listed Aphrodite Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday, and her victory came two days after Onesto landed the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris and Raclette scored in the Group 2 Prix de Malleret on the same ParisLongchamp card.

Why do I lead with a listed winner over a pair of group winners, all from the same crop born in 2019? Well, this Haras de Saint Pair-bred three-year-old has put her sire on the cusp of greatness, becoming the 99th individual stakes winner sired by Frankel (Galileo). To help appreciate the quality of these winners, 67 have won at group level, and an additional 32 have done so at listed level.

Furthermore, Onesto is a benchmark 25th Group 1 winning son or daughter of the unbeaten three-time European champion who was successful all 14 times he lined up to race, and 10 of these victories were at Group 1 level. Onesto was bred by Diamond Creek Farm from the unraced Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) mare Onshore, bought by that entity for 320,000gns as a three-year-old.

This latest win is already an update for the just-published Arqana Yearling Sale next month, as Camas Park and Glenvale Studs will offer a yearling half-sister by Gleneagles (Galileo) to the latest Group 1 winner as Lot 75 on the opening day. Onesto has a year-older full-sister in the USA, a two-year-old half-sister by Australia (Galileo), and a filly foal by American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile). This is a family that owes much of its success to the breeding policies of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah.

Sangster’s Sookera

Onesto’s fourth dam is the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Sookera (Roberto), acquired from Robert Sangster when Juddmonte was being established. She won three times in just five career starts, also capturing the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, and she was runner-up in what was then the Group 3 Moyglare Stud Stakes. Sookera had seven winners at stud, the best of which, So Factual (Known Fact), won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and he too was a Royal Ascot winner, landing the Cork and Orrery Stakes.

One of Sookera’s non-stakes-performing daughters, however, has gone on to achieve a footnote in breeding. Kerali (High Line) is responsible for seven winners, notably the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle winner Kerawi (Warning), and Hasili (Kahyasi).

A listed winner at two, Hasili is dam of Group and Grade 1 winners Banks Hill (Danehill), Heat Haze (Green Desert), Intercontinental (Danehill), Cacique (Danehill) and Champs Elysees (Danehill), as well as Dansili (Danehill), a Group 2 winner and influential sire.

Historic

Furthermore, Banks Hill and Heat Haze themselves are both dams of a Group/Grade 1 winners, while Cacique and Champs Elysees are both Group/Grade 1 sires. Hasili is one of three mares ever to breed five Group or Grade 1 winners, though Toy came within half a length of making her dam the fourth mare to do so when she was runner-up in the Group 1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks at the weekend.

This is an outstanding female line, and not down solely to the achievements of Hasili. Her full-sister, the stakes winner Arrive (Kahyasi), is the dam of Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Promising Lead (Danehill), while their unraced half-sister Dissemble (Ahonoora) bred a pair of top-level winners, notably Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes), three times a Grade 1 winner in the USA and Canada.

Hasili and Arrive also have an unraced full-sister, Kalima (Kahyasi), and while she was not as successful as some of her siblings, she still bred Jet Away (Cape Cross), a listed winner in England, a Group 3 winner in Australia, and now at stud in Ireland where he has become a Grade 1 National Hunt sire.

Well-related

Not surprisingly, both the 99th stakes winner, Eternal Pearl, and the Group 2 winner, Raclette, are well-related. Eternal Pearl, a 700,000gns Godolphin yearling buy, is the first stakes winner out of the listed winner Pearly Steph (Oasis Dream). She, in turn, is one of three stakes winners from Group 3 winner Pearl Banks (Pivotal), a daughter of the Group 1 Prix Vermeille heroine Pearly Shells (Efisio).

This year Pearly Steph foaled a colt by Belardo (Lope De Vega) and was among the mares covered and put safely in foal at Coolmore by No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), while Pearl Banks visited Galiway (Galileo), having had a filly in the spring by Kingman (Invincible Spirit).

Raclette, meanwhile, is one of three winners, all stakes performers, out of Emollient (Empire Maker), and that mare won four Grade 1 races in the USA. Emollient’s third dam was the champion juvenile Coup De Genie (Mr Prospector), an own sister to Machiavellian.