WHILE Sosie was giving Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) his 22nd Group or Grade 1 winner, other Aga Khan Studs stallions, past and present, were also in the limelight during the past week.

Bred and raced by Al Asayl France, the four-year-old Mont De Soleil became the sixth stakes winner of the year for his sire Siyouni (Pivotal), and his 77th in all. The most expensive stallion standing in France, Siyouni has three Group 1 winning sons at stud in Ireland, all at Coolmore, and they are Paddington, St Mark’s Basilica and Sottsass.

Mont De Soleil is the first winner for Kohinur (Dubawi) who won at four, and that mare is a daughter of the listed winner and Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks second Vita Nova (Galileo).

The unraced Treca (Darshaan), Mont De Soleil’s third dam, is out of another listed winner in Cortona (Caerleon), and she was runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas.

It was a case of success for yet another homebred with the victory for Caramelito in the Group 3 Prix Messidor at Chantilly. The five-year-old races for Patrick Sabban and is the 17th pattern winner for Zarak (Dubawi), who stands in France at the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval. This was win number seven for Caramelito, previously a listed scorer, and the gelding is the best of four winning offspring from Pretty Panther (Hurricane Run).

No stakes winner in the first four generations of this female line won above Group 3 level, though there is no shortage of winners. Pretty Panther won four times, was stakes-placed at Toulouse, and her half-sister bred Sivana (Goken), winner of the Listed Prix Yacowlef two years ago as a juvenile.

Harzand

The Aga Khan’s dual Derby winner Harzand (Sea The Stars) has had his focus shifted to siring National Hunt stock at Kilbarry Lodge Stud, but he sired his third stakes winner on the flat thanks to Shamarkand’s victory in the Listed Prix Frederic de Lagrange at Vichy.

This was the three-year-old colt’s fourth success, and he comes from a family that has been very good to his owner/breeder, His Highness the Aga Khan, for generations.

Shamarkand is a son of the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre winner Shamkala (Pivotal), and that mare’s dam and grandam were also stakes winners. Shamakiya (Intikhab) won a listed race and placed at Group 2 level, but that did not match the feats of her own dam Shamadara (Kahyasi). She won the Group 2 Prix de Malleret, ran second in the Group 1 Irish Oaks, and at stud she bred the Group 1 winner Shamdala (Grand Lodge), and is grandam of the US Grade 1 winner Shamdinan (Dr Fong).

The bargain that keeps on winning

ALVEDISTON is not a name that will immediately come to mind for you perhaps, but what a star he is. A few days ago, on the beach at Cuxhaven in Germany (Laytown is not the only racing on sand), he won his eighth race in a row.

Bred by James Wigan, the five-year-old son of New Bay (Dubawi) will not feature in any list of his sire’s best runners, but surely deserves credit for his soundness and willingness to race, and win, even at the lower levels. His is a riches-to-rags tale, but one with a happy ending. Listed as a foal sale for 135,000gns to Shadwell, Alvediston actually then raced in Wigan’s colours without success. He was sold as a three-year-old to Jane Chapple-Hyam, and she failed to get him to win, selling him on to German trainer Christian Von de Recke for a mere 2,000gns.

Alvediston is what one can call a fun horse to race, winning some €25,000 for his current connections, but what joy it must be for them to see him win with such regularity. His eight victories are mainly in Germany, also in Belgium, and on turf and the beach. He is the first foal out of Ebbesbourne (Teofilo), and having failed to sell as a yearling for only 19,000gns, she was put in training by James Wigan with Sir Michael Stoute.

Ebbesbourne won at two and three from only six outings, and notably finished second in a listed race at Newbury. Alvediston is followed by Bluebottle Blue (Zoffany) who failed by just a head earlier this year to win. Alvediston’s two-year-old full-sister is named Bowerchalke (New Bay), while Cathy Grassick spent 17,000gns to buy their yearling half-sister by Time Test, another son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), last December. This year Ebbesbourne had a colt foal by Pinatubo (Shamardal).

Alvediston’s third dam was Sulk (Selkirk), the champion filly at two in France after she won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac. She failed to win again, though she was runner-up in both the Group 1 Nassau Stakes and Group 1 Prix Royal Oaks, and placed also in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks. She bred the $900,000 yearling Ibn Battuta (Seeking The Gold), a listed winner in Abu Dhabi, and is grandam of the French and Italian Group 3 winner Dawn Intello (Intello).

Jancis on the road to stardom

WILLIE McCreey knows what it takes to win the Group 1 Matron Stakes, having won it in 2014 with Fiesolana. Now, a decade on, he believes he has a strong contender for the race again, though this time he could line-up with a filly who has only raced and won twice.

Jancis, a three-year-old daughter of Tamayuz (Nayef), has won both her starts this year over seven furlongs, most recently the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at Leopardstown, and it is the manner of her victories that has her trainer believing she could be a Group 1 filly. Should she go on to win at that level, she would highlight the value of a Chilean pedigree.

Owned and bred by Arturo Cousino, Jancis is the first foal out of Blame The Ruler (Ruler Of The World), and that mare carried Cousino’s colours to victory in France over a mile and a half as a three-year-old. Trained by John Hammond, Blame The Ruler only raced twice, finishing second on her debut.

Few chances

This is an immediate family that has had few opportunities, but all were taken. Jancis is the only produce of her dam, and Blame The Ruler was one of just two foals out of Blameless (Authorized).

The latter mare showed little for her owner/breeder Sheikh Mohammed in three starts in Ireland, but her only other produce was Acquitted (Night Of Thunder). He won six times in all and was best after heading down under, winning two listed races in Australia.

Blameless was a half-sister to a pair of blacktype horses, Desert Fire (Cape Cross) and Criza (Smarty Jones). The former was a Group 2 winner in Dubai, while Criza won in Argentina and was group-placed there. Their dam Crystal House (Golden Voyager) won twice at Group 1 level in Chile, where she was a champion at three. She was a daughter of a champion too in Cristalline (Northair), and a full-sister to a Group 1 winner.

This is an outstanding family in Chile, and descending from Cristalline are no fewer than eight Group 1 winners, all in that country. Maybe Jancis can add to it in Europe.