THE ‘rags to riches’ story of Shadow Hunter shows no signs of slowing down, and she could have a year to remember in 2023.

Sold as a foal for just €5,000 at Goffs, the daughter of Arcano (Oasis Dream) failed to sell in the ring as a yearling when bidding reached £12,000, was traded for €38,000 as a breezer at Goresbridge, bought by the father and son team of Peter and Ross Doyle, won a listed race at two and was third to Quiet Reflection in the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes.

She sold again as a three-year-old to Sun Bloodstock at the Goffs London Sale for £180,000.

Sent to visit Frankel (Galileo), she produced a colt, her second offspring, who was purchased as a yearling by M.V. Magnier for 450,000gns, and he is the three-year-old Hans Andersen.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien, he beat Group 1 winner Al Riffa in a maiden last year, ran second in the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh, and now he has made a most impressive three-year-old debut, winning the Group 3 Ballylinch Stud Red Rocks 2000 Guineas Trial.

Hans Andersen is the 76th group winner or Frankel, and one of 108 stakes winners in all for the Banstead Manor Stud resident. Twenty-six of that cohort have been successful at Group 1 level, and stars of 2022 alone included Alpinista, Chaldean, Homeless Songs, Inspiral, Nashwa, Onesto and Westover.

Withdrawn

Hans Andersen has a two-year-old full-brother Alonzo (Frankel), and they are two of the first three living progeny of Shadow Hunter. She was catalogued last year at the Tattersalls December Sale and, like the case of White Birch’s dam, she was withdrawn. It is worth noting that last year another daughter of Arcano was responsible for the hugely exciting Group 2 winning juvenile Sakheer, while other smart performers out of mares by the Allevamento di Besnate sire are Dragon Symbol, Supremacy, Primo Bacio and Lemista.

Shadow Hunter’s dam was Sweet Irish (Shamardal), and she won as a three-year-old in Denmark. The best of Sweet Irish’s siblings on the racecourse was Super Sleuth (Selkirk), but she failed to win a race. She was third to Ghanaati and Cuis Ghaire in the Group 1 1000 Guineas, and runner-up in the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes, but Brian Meehan failed to get her to put her head in front in 10 starts.

Super Sleuth and Sweet Irish are daughters of the US stakes-placed Enemy Action (Forty Niner).

Go back to Hans Andersen’s fourth dam, Sun And Shade (Ajdal), and up pops a familiar name. She is the dam of Daggers Drawn (Diesis), a leading two-year-old when he won a pair of Group 2 races, the Champagne Stakes and Richmond Stakes.

CHANTAL Regalado-Gonzalez is no stranger to big race success, and she has a most promising colt in the John Murphy-trained three-year-old White Birch, winner at Leopardstown of the Group 3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes.

The owner has had Group/Grade 1 success with Qualify, Zhukova, Intricately, Iridessa and Thunder Moon.

Bred by Cheveley Park Stud who stand his sure, Ulysses (Galileo), White Birch has a number of previous sire residents of the Newmarket farm on his dam side too. Successful now in two of his three starts, White Birch sold as a foal to Tally-Ho Stud for 75,000gns, and, not surprisingly, was retained in the ring by the O’Callaghans as a yearling at 48,000gns.

After he ran out a six and a half-length winner of a mile maiden last November, he changed racing colours from those of Carolyn Murphy to Mrs Regalado-Gonzalez.

Second foal

White Birch is the second foal of his dam, Diagnostic, a daughter of Dutch Art (Medicean), and the first was the year older Anatomic, also a son of Ulysses. That gelding raced for Cheveley Park and won at two when trained by Sir Mark Prescott. Anatomic was sold last July to buyers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has won a few times out there, including this year.

All-weather

Diagnostic won four of her seven starts for William Haggas, in the Cheveley Park silks, and all of her victories were on the all-weather. She placed on three occasions too, and was actually catalogued for sale last year at Tattersalls, but withdrawn. That has proven to be a wise move. Diagnostic is one of a quartet of winners out of the unraced Holistic (Pivotal), three of them being by Dutch Art.

Holistic is a full-sister to a listed winner in England, Prescription (Pivotal), and that mare found her way to India where she is emerging as a superior broodmare, her star performers being the multiple stakes winner Norther Lights (Lethal Force), and last year’s dual classic-winning filly, Remediesofspring (Multidimensional).

The only one of the dozen living foals of Doctor’s Glory (Elmaamul) not to race, and the other 11 won, Holistic is a half-sister to five stakes winners. Others of note are the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes winner Cupid’s Glory (Pursuit Of Love), Group 3 winner Clinical (Motivator) who bred the Group 1-placed juvenile Lockheed (Exceed And Excel), and the English and French listed winner Courting (Pursuit Of Love), also dam of a stakes winner.

Champion

The current two-year-olds by the champion Ulysses, winner of the Group 1 Juddmonte International and Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at four, are his third crop of racing age. His first crop included Piz Badile who also won the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes a year ago and was runner-up in the Group 1 Irish Derby, the stakes winner Mighty Ulysses, and a trio of stakes-placed runners.

Last year Holloway Boy, from his second crop, gave Ulysses another stakes winner when capturing the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, while his placed efforts included running second in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood, the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes at Newmarket, and third in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Stakes at Doncaster.

NEVER Ending Story was well-named, and she continues her climb up the racing ladder with her weekend success in the Group 3 Ballylinch Stud Priory Belle 1000 Guineas Trial Stakes at Leopardstown.

This was the Coolmore-bred, three-year-old daughter of Dubawi’s third victory, adding to her win at the same venue in last year’s Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes, and Aidan O’Brien also sent her to ParisLongchamp on Arc weekend when she ran third in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac. All her wins have been over seven furlongs.

Never Ending Story is another chapter in the ongoing tale of success for the female line that has been developed through descendants of the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea (Miswaki).

Before we look at some of the best winners which have Urban Sea as their source, we shouldn’t forget that she was a half-sister to the classic winner King’s Best (Kingmambo), and to the dams of the French and German Derby winners, Anabaa Blue (Anabaa) and Anzillero (Law Society).

You would have to be an alien not to know that Urban Sea’s four Group or Grade 1 winners are Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), Sea The Stars (Cape Cross), My Typhoon (Giant’s Causeway) and Black Sam Bellamy (Sadler’s Wells). Her three sons in that quartet are all Group 1 sires, Galileo and Sea The Stars being exceptional. Now Urban Sea’s daughters and their offspring are producing at the highest level.

Four of the 11 foals bred by Urban Sea were fillies, including the aforementioned My Typhoon. She sold to Live Oak Stud as a foal for an astounding 1,800,000gns at Tattersalls 21 years ago, went on to win nine times in the USA, finally gaining her coveted Grade 1 win for connections in the Diana Stakes at Saratoga.

My Typhoon was foaled five years after Melikah (Lammtarra), and she had set a new Deauville record price for a yearling at 10 million francs, won the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket on her debut, before finishing runner-up in the Group 1 Irish Oaks. Melikah bred three group winners, her son Masterstroke (Monsun) being third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and she is the third dam of the Group 1 Derby winner Masar (New Approach) who will have his first runners this year.

Record prices

All Too Beautiful (Sadler’s Wells) also sold for a record price of 1,100,000gns as a foal, the year before My Typhoon beat it, Demi O’Byrne acquiring her for Coolmore. She won a listed race at Navan, a Group 3 in York and she was second in the Group 1 Oaks. All Too Beautiful bred a pair of stakes winners, including Wonder Of Wonders (Kingmambo) who was second in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom, while she is grandam of Sir Dragonet (Camelot). That colt’s Group 1 wins were gained in the Cox Plate and Tancred Stakes.

Urban Sea’s final filly was Cherry Hinton (Green Desert). She didn’t win in five starts, but her placed efforts included being runner-up in the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes at Naas. Twice she was unplaced, both in Group 1 races, the Oaks and Coronation Stakes. She has been an outstanding broodmare with four pattern winners and two stakes-placed horses among her seven successful progeny.

Bracelet

Two of Cherry Hinton’s daughters won at Group/Grade 1 level. Bracelet (Montjeu) was first and she landed the 2014 Irish Oaks and the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot from just six starts. Four years later and Athena (Camelot) captured the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks, while at the Curragh she ran third in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes. Now Athena has hit the jackpot with her first foal, Never Ending Story, while the Coolmore partners have a two-year-old full-brother and a yearling full-sister by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

Bracelet’s full-sister Wading won two of her three starts, notably the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes as a juvenile, and she has made a good start at stud, her winners headed by another Rockfel Stakes winner in Just Wonderful (Dansili) who was runner-up in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks and third in the Group 1 Matron Stakes. Athena had a Group 3-winning full-sister in Goddess (Camelot), and that Group 2 runner-up on a couple of occasions sadly died at the age of three.

SOMETIME ago I suggested that Classic Empire, who stands at Ashford Stud in Kentucky at just $15,000, could well have a classic winner this year, with the then Grade 1 Kentucky Derby hopeful Angel Of Empire. That dream came a significant step closer at the weekend.

Brad Cox trains Angel Of Empire, and after the three-year-old colt won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, the trainer said he is looking forward to five weeks’ time and the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs. The Arkansas Derby is a race won by many of the best colts in the USA, and Classic Empire himself won it two years after American Pharoah.

A son of Pioneerof The Nile (Empire Maker), Classic Empire sold as a yearling for $475,000, and 15 months later was crowned champion juvenile colt, having won all but one of his five starts, culminating with victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, defeating Not This Time and Practical Joke. Raced four times at three, he won the $1 million Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and was second in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes, beaten a head.

Classic Empire’s first crop, now four-year-olds, includes seven stakes winners, three of them at graded stakes level. Classy Edition is one of that group, and she was unbeaten at two in three starts, including a pair of minor stakes, and only raced twice last year and was runner-up in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes. Now at four, she has won both her outings his year, most recently the Grade 3 Royal Delta Stakes.

Stakes winner

Angel Of Empire is the sole stakes winner to date from Classic Empire’s second crop. He won two of his three starts at two, was runner-up in a stakes race on his first run in 2023 before winning the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes. Now he has taken another, important step forward. He runs for the Albaugh Family Stable who paid $70,000 for him as a yearling, and his earning went through the million dollar barrier last weekend. He was bred in Pennsylvania by Forgotten Land Investment and Black Diamond Equine.

Angel Of Empire is the first runner out of Armony’s Angel (To Honour And Serve), a placed half-sister to Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile winner Conquest Big E (Tapit), and the stakes winner Aquapazza (Stormy Atlantic) who at stud has produced the stakes-placed Infringement (Temple City). Armony’s Angel foaled a Classic Empire colt last year.

Armony’s Angel’s dam Seeinsbelieven (Carson City) was successful at two and again at four, and is one of seven winners produced by the stakes-placed Coragil (Metfield). The best of that group were Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff winner Softly (Binalong), and Grade 3 winner Coragil Cat (Forest Wildcat). By coincidence, Softly is also grandam of the Brad Cox-trained Victory Formation (Tapwrit), and he won the Smarty Jones Stakes this year, beating Angel Of Empire!!

Forte wins

If Angel Of Empire is to win the Kentucky Derby, he will have to beat Forte, and last weekend he won the Grade 1 Florida Derby, though not in the style that most hoped he would. Last year’s champion juvenile colt in the USA has still won six of his seven starts, earned some $2.4 million, and now has four Grade 1 wins under his belt.

Last season the champion was a triple Grade 1 winner. A son of Violence (Medaglia D’Oro), he ended the year by adding the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to earlier wins in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. Forte twice passed through the ring at Keeneland, selling for $80,000 as a foal and for $110,000 the following September.

Forte is the first foal out of Queen Caroline (Blame), and the second is a two-year-old colt by Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) who sold for $850,000 last year. Four of Queen Caroline’s six wins, gained at three and four, were in stakes races at Indiana Downs and Laurel, and she comes from a decent, if not exceptional, female line, her dam Queens Plaza (Forestry) being a stakes-winning juvenile at Monmouth who went on to produce six winners.

10 victories

Skip back to Forte’s fourth dam, Jeano (Fappiano), and her 10 victories included Grade 3 wins at Keeneland and Gulfstream Park, though five years after she won for the last time she sold for a mere $5,000. None of Jeano’s seven winners were above average, she had a stakes-placed winner in France and Singapore named Prinz Oskar (Dayjur), but her unraced daughter Contrive (Storm Cat) was a success as a producer.

Thanks to her daughter Folklore (Tiznow) becoming champion juvenile filly, Contrive sold for $3 million in 2005. Folklore went on to add the Grade 1 Matron Stakes to her win in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Stakes, and she later became the grandam of three-time Japanese champion Contrail (Deep Impact).

Forte is the third champion in his female line in the last two decades. Folklore’s stakes-placed half-sister Delightful Quality being the dam of Essential Quality (Tapit), the first Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner to capture the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, and he now is standing his second season at Jonabell under the Darley America banner for $75,000.

Come Dancing

That is not the end of the Grade 1 winners coming from this line. Jeano’s unraced daughter Never A No Hitter (Kris S) bred the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes winner Tizahit (Tiznow), and the best of her progeny is Come Dancing (Malibu Moon). Her nine victories are headed by the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga, and she was runner-up in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes.

Forte is the best son of Violence, winner of the Grade 1 Cashcall Futurity at two, and his five other Grade 1 winners include Volatile, the Argentine champion Fiel Amigo, and Dr Schivel.