TWO Grade 1 races in the USA at the weekend were won by a pair of sophomore fillies, both siblings to Grade 1 winners but from contrasting female lines, and by sires with very different profiles, one who stood this year for $175,000, while the other commanded just $10,000.

Nest is the better of the pair, one of the leaders of her generation in the USA. Indeed, for many she is the best three-year-old filly, and the claims are well made. A Grade 2 winner last year in three starts, Nest has run six times this year, five of them Grade 1s.