HAVING not long ago featured as bargain of the week, I am thrilled to again mention Familiar Dreams in this column.

On her eighth bumper start for trainer Anthony McCann, she notched up her third and most important success when scoring at Fairyhouse in the Listed EBF Total Enjoyment Mares Flat Race, in spite of shouldering a 7lb penalty.

Given her pedigree, and obvious talent, it would not be a stretch of the imagination to believe that this improving five-year-old could actually successful switch to the flat itself, and be competitive throughout the summer. She is a credit to connections, and her trainer has kept her fresh and keen, and in addition to wining her last three starts, she has also been second on the same number of occasions.

When the then unraced Familiar Dreams was offered for sale at the 2022 Tattersalls July Sale, her owner and breeder, Meon Valley Stud, might well have anticipated that she would end up heading to the breeding shed, given the depth of quality in her back pedigree.

Instead, having cost Anthony McCann 4,000gns, she was given time to mature. Last year she raced five times, always showing ability, but failing to have her head in from where it matters most. However, one of her runner-up efforts was finishing second to the smart The Yellow Clay in the Listed Kevin McManus Bookmaker Champion INH Flat Race at Limerick.

At Cork in early January she finally delivered, followed up at Naas last month, and rounded out March with her listed success. She has earned almost €44,000 in prize money, and while she has a very strong flat pedigree, she traces to a classic-winner whose sibling remains one of the most influential sires in National Hunt history.

First crop

Familiar Dreams, from the first crop of the champion Postponed (Dubawi), has the 1979 Group 1 1000 Guineas winner One In A Million as her fourth dam. That mare has spawned many fine descendants, but her dam’s half-brother, Deep Run (Pampered King), was a 14-time champion sire, and one of the foundation stallions for Grange Stud in Fermoy.

Bred by the Lillingston’s Mount Coote Stud, One In A Million sold in 1977 for 18,500gns at the Houghton Sale in Newmarket. Putting that price in context, the sale averaged 14,159gns. Richard Galpin secured One In A Million for Egon Weinfeld, racing as Helena Springfield, and after her successful career on the track in the care of Henry Cecil, ridden on all her starts by Joe Mercer, she retired to Meon Valley Stud in Hampshire.

One In A Million won her first five starts, a pair of listed races at two and three group races the following year, but for her last start she was dropped back from a mile to contest the six-furlong July Cup, but was down the field behind Thatching. She won the 1000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes and Nell Gwyn Stakes at three.

Milligram

From eight foals at stud, One In A Million spanned the spectrum of success and failure with her progeny. Her first foal, Black Sprout (Nonoalco), failed to win a race in 35 starts, but half of her offspring did manage to win. Her daughter Milligram (Mill Reef) won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and eight years after her dam had done so, she too won the Group 2 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Another daughter of One In A Million, Someone Special (Habitat) gained her only blacktype when placed in the Coronation Stakes.

At stud, Someone Special outshone Milligram, four of her sons and daughters winning blacktype events. Star of that quartet was One So Wonderful (Nashwan) and she was the champion older mare in Europe thanks to her win in the Group 1 Juddmonte International. Others descendants of Someone Special include Group 1 Derby runner-up Hoo Ya Mal (Territories).

Milligram failed to breed even a stakes-placed performer among her five winners, but her descendants include the Group 1 Oaks winner Anapurna (Frankel), the dual Group 1 winner in France, Speedy Boarding (Shamardal), and the Group 2 Queen’s Vase winner Dashing Willoughby (Nathaniel).

National Hunt

Postponed embarked on a new stallion trajectory this spring, and will no doubt largely be supported by National Hunt breeders at Yorton Stud, where his fee is £4,000. This is some way from his starting fee at Dalham Hall Stud of £20,000, and Darley was more than justified in standing him at that price, given his race record. He won nine times and placed nine times in 20 starts, and this model of consistency got better with age. At four he won the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but he blossomed at five.

His victories in his penultimate season included the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, followed by successes in the Group 1 Coronation Cup and Juddmonte International. Postponed beat many of the world’s best horses and in that trio of top-level triumphs he had, as his immediate victims, Duramente, Found and Highland Reel.

Sadly, at stud, he quickly fell out of favour and to date has had just a single pattern-placed runner on the flat, the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes runner-up Almohandesah. Given his own late development, perhaps more will emerge in time, but he has made a very promising start with his runners under National Hunt rules, and Familiar Dreams is one of three of his progeny to get blacktype.