WHAT a couple of days for Godolphin who have been making quite a splash at the yearling sales in Ireland and Britain. In the space of a little over 24 hours, they won two of the season’s most important juvenile contests, the Group 1 bet365 Fillies’ Mile with Desert Flower, and the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes with Shadow Of Light.

While the team has been acquiring some of the best bred yearlings on offer at the sales, both of these Group 1 winners are homebreds. Shadow Of Light (Lope De Vega) suffered his sole defeat in five starts at the hands of Cool Hoof Luke in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes, and we have not seen that winner since. We have seen Shadow Of Light twice since, and he also won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.

No matter what happens to Shadow Of Light’s future racing career, he must surely have already earned himself a future place on the Darley stallion roster, one that already is home to the colt’s half-brother, the champion and dual Group 1-winning two-year-old Earthlight (Shamardal). Both colts are from the same sire line, and Earthlight is represented this year by his first runners, 15 of which are winners. Group 3 winner and Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes runner-up Daylight is his flagbearer currently.

Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega (Shamardal) is having an exceptional year, even by his exacting standards. His son, and future Ballylinch stallion, Look De Vega won the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, his daughter Rouhiya took the honours in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, while Program Trading and Carl Spackler are Grade 1 winners in the USA, the latter on his two most recent outings.

Group 1 juveniles

Sheikh Mohammed chose to restrict Shamardal in 2016 to mares owned by his family and associates. The crop conceived that year, racing in 2019. contained no fewer than three Group 1 winning juveniles. Earthlight is the first foal out of the Group 1-placed New Approach (Galileo) mare Winters Moon who was also bred by Sheikh Mohammed. She raced just seven times, and won on her debut at two before finishing third in a pair of pattern races, notably behind Together Forever in the Group 1 Dubai Fillies’ Mile.

Winters Moon’s next three offspring were all fillies, one of which is a minor winner. The emergence of Shadow Of Light has put the family firmly back in the limelight, and Godolphin can look forward with anticipation to the two youngest progeny of Winters Moon, a yearling colt by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), and a full-brother to Shadow Of Light who was born this year.

Winters Moon is a half-sister to the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner Mandaean (Manduro) and to the same year’s Group 1 Montjeu Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary winner Wavering (Refuse To Bend). The latter is dam of Life In Motion (Sea The Stars), and she came close to becoming a Group 1 winner last year, beaten a short neck in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild.

Summertime Legacy

Mandaean, Wavering and Winters Moon are three of the eight winners from Summertime Legacy (Darshaan). Bred and raced by Sheikh Mohammed’s brother Maktoum Al Maktoum, she won the Group 3 Prix des Reservoirs and was placed in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary. Summertime Legacy was easily the best of seven winners from Zawaahy (El Gran Senor), one of five winners out of Exotic Treat (Vaguely Noble).

The best of these five was the Vincent O’Brien-trained Golden Fleece (Nijinsky), unbeaten in a career that consisted of just four starts, with his most notable victory coming on his final run in the 1982 Group 1 Epsom Derby. As a yearling, Golden Fleece was bought for $775,000 by Robert Sangster. He was sent to Ballydoyle where his sire Nijinsky (Northern Dancer), the Canadian-bred winner of the Triple Crown in 1970, was also trained. Golden Fleece stood at Coolmore for just one season. but died from complications after intestinal cancer surgery in March 1984.

Kildangan Stud’s Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) is another sire who is having a year to remember. His three-year-old son Economics attempts to remain unbeaten in 2024 when he runs at Ascot today, and last time out he recorded his first Group 1 victory in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes. Meanwhile, Night Of Thunder’s juvenile daughter Desert Flower took her unbeaten run to four when she added the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile to an earlier win in the Group 2 May Hill Stakes.

Memorable year

This memorable year has also been marked by Fairy Godmother winning at Royal Ascot, while in the sale ring Night Of Thunder sired his first seven-figure yearling. Two days after Desert Flower’s big win, Night Of Thunder had his 16th stakes winner of the year.

Desert Flower stamped her superiority when powering clear to a five and a half-length victory in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket’s Future Champions Festival. She looks a top prospect for next year’s 1000 Guineas at the same venue. Trained by Charlie Appleby, victory was never in doubt as Desert Flower surged clear of the field in the final furlong.

Following two impressive performances on Newmarket’s July course on her first two starts, including a six and a half length win in August, Desert Flower headed to Doncaster in September where she successfully stepped up into pattern company to land the May Hill Stakes by a length and a half. Owned and bred by Godolphin, Desert Flower is the second foal out of the Group 2-winning mare, Promising Run (Hard Spun), and she is also responsible for Aablan (Dubawi) who landed the Group 3 Solario Stakes last year from just three starts.

Global traveller

Promising Run was quite a global traveller. Twenty-one of her 24 starts were in blacktype races. She won twice at two, including the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes, and all her subsequent wins were abroad. She was successful three times in Group 2 races in the UAE, and in Turkey she won their valuable Group 3 Istanbul Trophy. Promising Run is the best of nine winners out of Brazilian Group 1 winner, Aviacion (Know Heights).

Aviacion was the most important winner for Arbulus (Liloy) who raced unsuccessfully in France. However, she was a very good broodmare, and Arbulus’ other winners include Cerutti (Ghadeer), four of his eight wins being at Group 3 and listed level, and Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Persane (Tampero). Arbulus is also grandam of the Group 1 Argentine winner Eddington (Contested Bid).

The other stakes winners in this family, which appear under the fourth dam Buck The Tide (Buckpasser), are the multiple Indian stakes winner the Proletarian (Conquering Hero), and the 19-time US winner Watchman’s Warning (Carnivalay), a stakes winner there at Penn National and in Philadelphia.