IT started with Sassenach (Night Shift) back in 2000. The then four-year-old filly (technically a mare as she was in foal) carried the colours of David Tsui to success, Eddie Ahern in the saddle, as the even-money favourite for the one and five-furlong Murphy Jewellers Maiden at Downpatrick.

Michael Grassick trained the filly/mare, whose half-brother Far Cry (Pharly) won the previous year’s Group 3 Doncaster Cup and, a month after Sassenach was successful, her sibling chased home Royal Rebel in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup. A generation back and you have the Aga Khan family of classic winner Darjina (Zamindar), Dariyan (Shamardal) and more, including Almanzor (Wootton Bassett).

At stud Sassenach left eight winners, a pair of which were stakes winners in Ireland. Dress Rehearsal (Galileo) won the Listed Martin Molony Stakes at Limerick but stepped up a level in the USA and won the Grade 3 Orchid Stakes at Gulfstream Park. At stud she has had two stakes-winning daughters by Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), Traisha in England and Baby Pink in Ireland.

The first of Sassenach’s stakes winners was her second born, Fairy Of The Night (Danehill). She was trained for the Tsui family, as Sea The Stars would be later, by John Oxx, and her second victory was in the Listed Fairy Bridge Stakes at Tipperary. She, like her own dam, produced two stakes winners, and her son Muthmir (Invincible Spirit) earned half of his eight wins in stakes races. He won the Group 2 King George Stakes at Goodwood, a pair of similar races in France, and was Group 1-placed a few times. William Haggas trained him for Hamdan Al Maktoum.

Muthmir’s half-sister My Titania (Sea The Stars) was not so prolific and she raced just eight times in three seasons. However she won the Group 3 Park Stakes on her third and final start at two, and ran fourth, just over two lengths off the winner, in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes on the first of just two starts at three. Her ability was undoubted and, still in the ownership of the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holding, she has bred three stakes winners for them with her first three foals.

Important

It should not be underestimated how important a filly My Titania was to the Tsui and Oxx teams. She was a product of the first crop sired by the brilliant Sea The Stars (Cape Cross), and that same crop included a trio of Group 1 winners in Sea The Moon, Taghrooda and Vazira. It was to be the start of a glorious second career for the Gilltown Stud flagbearer.

All of My Titania’s progeny have been sent to be trained by William Haggas, who had earlier success with the family, and all three are still in training with him. Last Sunday My Prospero (Iffraaj) added the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam at Saint-Cloud to an earlier win this year, as a three-year-old, in a listed race at Sandown. He was also a fine third in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes, so his weekend win was certainly deserved.

His year-older half-sister, My Astra (Lope De Vega), is a listed winner and she was runner-up last time out at the Curragh when putting up a career-best performance in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes. Watch out for her as the year goes on. Meanwhile, My Titania’s firstborn, My Oberon (Dubawi), who was third last year in a Group 1 in France beaten a neck and a short-head, was group-placed last time out at Ascot. Gelded, he’ll no doubt be given a chance again at the highest level.

Footnote

As an added footnote to the family, the foal that Sassenach was carrying at the time of her victory was a full-sister to Fairy Of The Night, Night Fairy (Danehill). A winner, she bred the dual Group 3 winner Majestic Queen (Kheleyf), an €18,000 yearling buy by Brian Grassick Bloodstock who later sold to John Ferguson at the 2015 Goffs London Sale for £825,000. In turn, Majestic Queen is dam of last year’s stakes winner Maria Amalia (Dubawi).

Iffraaj (Zafonic) is 21 and stands at Dalham Hall Stud. This multiple Group 1 winner has been a great source of winners, notable for his unfailing tranche of juvenile each year, and he has sired 11 Group 1 winners including French champion two-year-old Wootton Bassett and European champion miler Ribchester. He is also the sire two other champion juveniles, and his progeny at that age group have won the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, Moyglare Stud Stakes, Fillies’ Mile and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.