DECLAN Phelan in Tullogher House Stud is understandably a happy man. Each morning when he checks the stock on his farm his eyes fall on a two-year-old daughter of the Irish National Stud’s Free Eagle (High Chaparral). She is no ordinary Free Eagle though – she is a full-sister to the Group 1 Investec Derby runner-up Khalifa Sat.

“I am not sure what the plan for her is at present. She is sound for racing and breeding. Maybe if someone came along with enough money she could be sold”, he told me this week. Declan is especially proud of the fact that a small breeder could produce a horse of Khalifa Sat’s quality, and that he did so from an aged mare.