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.

She added the Alabama Stakes at the weekend in Saratoga to wins in the CCA Oaks at the same venue and the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. In between those previous Grade 1 wins she was runner-up to Secret Oath in the Kentucky Oaks and to Mo Donegal in the Belmont Stakes. Her weekend success pushed her earnings over $1.7 million, some payback for the $350,000 invested in her as a yearling at Keeneland.

Not only has Nest become a Grade 1 winner, but last year her own-brother Idol (Curlin), a track record holder at Churchill Downs, won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, and it may be that there is more to come. Their half-brother Lost Ark (Violence) won on his two-year-old debut this year. He thus became the fifth winner for his dam, the three-year-old US stakes winner Marion Ravenwood (A.P.Indy).

As a stakes winner, Marion Ravenwood was emulating her dam Andujar (Quiet American), but the latter won at Grade 2 level and placed in the Grade 1 Go For Wand Handicap. Nest’s third dam, Nureyev’s Best (Nureyev), did not live up to her name, though she was a listed winner in France.

Nureyev’s Best was bred in the purple, being out of an unraced own-sister to Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner Majestic Prince (Raise A Native) and the English champion two-year-old Crowned Prince (Raise A Native).

Nest is a daughter of Curlin (Smart Strike) who stands at Hill ‘N’ Dale. Twice voted Horse of the Year, he won more than $10 million thanks to Grade/Group 1 wins in the Preakness Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic, Dubai World Cup and more. He is one of the leading sires in the USA.

Grade 1

Karakontie (Bernstein) is at Gainesway, and he sired his first Grade 1 winner when Spendarella won the Del Mar Oaks at the weekend. Though listed as a $220,000 yearling purchase, she is raced by and was bred by Gainesway. This was the filly’s fourth win in five starts this year, having been unraced at two, and her only defeat was no disgrace, finishing second to Inspiral at Royal Ascot in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes.

Spendarella is from the third crop of racing age sired by Karakontie, and she is the third stakes winner produced by her dam Spanish Bunny, a daughter of Unusual Heat (Nureyev). Spanish Bunny won at the age of four, and her other stakes winners are Spanish Queen (Tribal Rule) and Spendarella’s full-sister Spanish Loveaffair (Karakontie). Spanish Queen won the Grade 1 American Oaks from just five starts.

Two Puerto Rican stakes winners appear in the third generation of the pedigree, while Spendarella’s fifth dam bred Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap winner Bates Motel (Sir Ivor), a champion, and Grade 1 San Antonio Handicap winner Hatim (Exclusive Native).