WHAT a great card at the Curragh on bank holiday Monday, with all four stakes winners worth mentioning.

The first two-year-old blacktype race of 2024 here was the Listed Gain First Flier Stakes, and Aidan O’Brien sent out the winner for the third successive year, following Blackbeard and His Majesty. Two weeks earlier Whistlejacket was beaten at the Curragh on his debut, but this time he comfortably beat his field to become a second stakes winner for his dam, Adventure Seeker (Bering).

A son of No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), Whistlejacket is a stallion in the making, being a full-brother to the 2022 European champion juvenile, Little Big Bear (No Nay Never). That four-year-old has started his new career at Coolmore at a fee of €27,500, thanks to winning the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at two and finishing runner-up last year in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. Both colts are among six winners from their French stakes-winning dam.

Adventure Seeker, a homebred by the Wildenstein’s Dayton Investments, won on her three-year-old debut over 10 furlongs, while her listed success at Longchamp was over half a furlong more. She was runner-up to the Group 1 Prix Vermeille heroine Galikova in the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre.

At the Wildenstein dispersal in 2016, Adventure Seeker was sold at Goffs for €125,000 to Brendan Bashford on behalf of the Hyde family. She is out of a daughter of All Along (Targowice) who was rated the champion older horse in Europe and champion turf filly in the USA, both in 1983.

Her total of nine wins included two Group 1s in France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Prix Vermeille, two Grade 1s in the USA, the Washington DC International and the Turf Classic, and the Grade 1 Rothman’s International in Canada.

Whistlejacket was a landmark 60th stakes winner for No Nay Never, 35 of which have been at pattern level. This year the sire covers for €150,000 at Coolmore.

Bright Stripes

One of the more established sires at Coolmore, Starspangledbanner (Choisir) had his 40th stakes winner on the same card, when the Andy Oliver-trained Bright Stripes won the Listed Tetrarch Stakes. Seven of those have been Group/Grade 1 winners, the same number as No Nay Never.

Bred by Damian Burns’ Diomed Bloodstock and sold through Lodge Park Stud for just 22,500gns as a yearling to his trainer, Bright Stripes was winning for the second time in six starts. He was successful in a seven-furlong maiden at Naas last year before being narrowly beaten in the Group 3 Killavullan

This is a family with what looks on paper to be a light pedigree, but Dutch Rose (Dutch Art) is bringing it to prominence. Her son Bright Stripes is the first stakes winner in the family in five generations. You have to go back to Jaffa Line (High Line) who won the Group 3 Prestige Stakes in 1990 to find the next stakes winner, and she was a daughter of, and one of seven winners from, three-time winner Jacquinta (Habitat), the fifth dam of Saturday’s stakes winner.

Dutch Rose was one tough racemare. She raced 29 times, won seven, and her eight placed efforts saw her finish a length second in the Listed Pipalong Stakes. She earned over €100,000. Three of her first four foals are now winners, and they include Sunsprite (Kodiac), three times successful at two and stakes-placed that year.

Gregarina

With 15 starts under her belt, three victories and six placed runs, the then four-year-old Gregarina looked well exposed when she was offered for sale at Arqana last December. Unsold in the ring, the daughter of De Treville (Oasis Dream) was signed for by Blandford Bloodstock at €210,000 in a private sale. Transferred to Joseph O’Brien, she started her five-year-old season with a victory in the Group 3 Athasi Stakes, with her stable companion and favourite Jumbly well beaten.

If Greragina’s sire is somewhat unfamiliar, don’t worry. The Sumbe stallion stands for just €3,000, was a winner from seven to 10 furlongs, but never in a stakes race, and was runner-up in the Group 3 Prix des Chênes at two and the Group 3 Prix de Guiche at three. He has had very small books of mares, but has done well with his limited number of runners.

In addition to the Curragh group winner, his son Fortune was placed in the Group 3 Prix Noailles, while a first crop daughter Diadema was runner-up in a listed juvenile race. De Treville is bred in the purple, being a half-brother to the champion, and Group 1 sire, Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).

Gregarina is a full-sister to the dual two-year-old winner Gain It (De Treville), and they are daughters of the two-year-old winner Gagarina (Galileo), a half-sister to Attima (Zafonic) who was winner of a pair of Grade 2 races on the west coast of the USA.

White Birch

Finally, one of the most significant victories on the Curragh card was that of White Birch (Ulysses) in the day’s feature, the Group 2 Coolmore Stud Sottsass Irish EBF Mooresbridge Stakes. The race has been a springboard for Group 1 successes for such as Broome, Magical, Minding, Found and Fascinating Rock in the past decade, and White Birch could now fulfil all the promise he has shown.

A dual Group 3 winner too, runner-up in the Group 2 Dante Stakes and third to Auguste Rodin in the Group 1 Derby, White Birch could become the first Group 1 winner for his sire, Ulysses (Galileo). That stallion stands at Cheveley Park Stud, and they are also the breeders of White Birch, a 75,000gns foal purchase by Tally-Ho Stud.

White Birch and three-time winner Anatomic (Ulysses) are the two winners from Diagnostic (Dutch Art), winner of four races and one of four winners from the unraced Holistic (Pivotal). While Holistic never faced a starter, 11 of her siblings won, five of them at group and listed level.