ANGEAL retained her unbeaten record when she held on by a head, and won for the third time in the Group 3 Prix Six Perfections at Deauville. Bred by Coolmore, the daughter of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) was sold to Chantilly Bloodstock last year in Book 1 of the Goffs Orby Sale for €110,000.

She was already a bargain, given that her sire’s covering fee in 2021 was €100,000, and this year was double that amount. She also has a distaff pedigree to savour. She is the third, and best, winner out of the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes winner Curvy (Galileo), and she captured the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 3 Gallinule Stakes at the Curragh. These triumphs, also with her third-place finish in the Group 1 Irish Oaks, more than justified M.V. Magnier spending 775,000gns for her as a yearling. She was trained by David Wachman.

Curvy’s appeal to the Coolmore team was obvious, as her half-brother Power (Oasis Dream) was embarking on a stud career with them, having won more than half of his nine starts. Those five wins included the Group 1 National Stakes and Group 2 Coventry Stakes at two, and the following season he added the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas. As a juvenile he was twice runner-up in Group 1s, beaten a neck by La Collina in the Phoenix Stakes and by half a length by Paris Hall in the Dewhurst.

Power and Curvy were the best of the progeny from the juvenile winner Frappe (Inchinor), and she bred a third smart runner in Thakafaat (Unfuwain). That filly carried Sheikh Hamdan’s colours to a Royal Ascot victory in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes, that year run at York during Ascot’s redevelopment. Frappe is a half-sister to three stakes winners, two of them Group 1 scorers for Ballydoyle.

Glatisant (Rainbow Quest), the third dam of Angeal, won the Group 3 Prestige Stakes at two, and her pair of Group 1 winners were born eight years apart. Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway) cost Demi O’Byrne 170,000gns as a yearling, won the 2005 Group 1 2000 Guineas, and one in 10 of his 71 stakes winners has been successful at Group 1 level.

His 150,000gns half-brother Pedro The Great (Henrythenavigator) won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes and died at the age of nine, having had some minor success as a stallion.

Watch them

Two debut winners to watch for when they step up to stakes class are Ultrafragola (Sottsass) and Formal (Dubawi). Both are home-breds.

Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm spent a substantial amount of money to secure a number of high-class racemares to send to his Sottsass (Siyouni) at Coolmore. Among them was the Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) mare Toinette, and this Grade 2 winner in America cost $800,000. She won eight times in all, five times in stakes company, and she placed in the Grade 1 John c Mabee Stakes at Del Mar.

That mating with Sottsass resulted in a filly, Ultrafragola, and appropriately she is trained by Jean-Claude Rouget who handled the career of her sire, also for White Birch. Making her debut at Deauville, Ultrafragola won her maiden by five and a half lengths, and is the first winner for Sottsass. Earlier on the same card, another by the stallion was just pipped.

Sottsass was a record-breaking, world champion three-year-old whose victories included the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Group 1 Prix Ganay. By the top French sire Siyouni (Pivotal) and out of a Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare, just like St Mark’s Basilica, Sottsass is a half-brother to Sistercharlie (Myboycharlie), winner of seven Grade 1 races, six of them in a row.

Sottsass also set a track record when defeating Persian King in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, a race whose previous winners include successful sires New Bay, Lope De Vega, Le Havre and Shamardal.

Formal win

The manner of Formal’s debut win at Newbury, accounting for the previously-raced favourite Glistening, suggests that Cheveley Park Stud have a smart prospect on their hands. The daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) is the second produce of the farm’s Group 1 Falmouth Stakes winner Veracious (Frankel). She was also placed three times in such company.

Veracious is from a family that has served Cheveley Park well for many years. They bred the first three dams of Formal, and all went on to become stakes winners, Veracious is a daughter of the Group 3 winner and Group 1 Coronation Stakes second Infallible (Pivotal), and she was also runner-up in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes, while the next dam, Irresistible (Cadeaux Genereux) won a listed race at Nottingham and was group-placed in Ireland.

Infallible is responsible for eight winners, and in addition to Veracious they include Mutakayyef (Sea The Stars) and Intimation (Dubawi). The latter mare won a Group 3 in France and the Listed Garnet Stakes at Naas, while Mutakayyef was even better.

Racing for Sheikh Hamdan and Shadwell, he twice won the Group 2 Summer Mile at Ascot, chased Ribchester home in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, and was third to Postponed and Highland Reel in the Group 1 Juddmonte International.

Irresistible was also a highly successful broodmare with seven winners, and her grandson Garswood (Dutch Art) was a leading sprinter and won the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest.