THE veteran Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) had a big part to play in the outcome of the Group 1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday, and he featured prominently also 24 hours later after the fillies’ equivalent.

Notable Speech was making his first start on grass when he won the colts’ classic, while Elmalka (Kingman) made her only start at two a winning one on Southwell’s all-weather, before narrowly missing out behind Folgaria and Regal Jubilee by two necks in the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes on her only start before Sunday’s big race. She won the Group 1 1000 Guineas by a neck in a blanket finish, about a length covering the first five home.

This was a great triumph for owner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, the winner’s breeder Godolphin, and trainer Roger Varian. It was also a poignant success for the trainer whose first Group 1 success when he took over from Michael Jarvis was with Elmalka’s dam Nahrain. That daughter of Selkirk (Sharpen Up) was a listed winner in England, placed in a group race at the Curragh, but the further she travelled the better she was.

In all, Nahrain won five times in a career that spanned just 10 starts. She crowned an exceptional three-year-old season with victory in Paris where she won the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, after which she travelled stateside to run second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs.

Kept in training at four, she showed a glimmer of her best form when third in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes, before adding the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes to her roll of honour.

Benbatl

At stud, Nahrain struck it rich with her first foal, Benbatl (Dubawi). With earnings of €6.7 million, he trails Rebel’s Romance (€7.5m) and Lord North (€7.3m) among the eight sons of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) who have earned at least €5 million for their connections. The others are Postponed, Prince Bishop, Monterosso, Mubtaahij and Lucky Nine.

A Group 2 winner in England, Benbatl won Group 1 races in three countries; the Caulfield Cup in Australia, the Dubai Turf in the UAE and the Grosser Dallmayr Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in Germany, while he was runner-up in the Cox Plate and the Jebel Hatta, both Group 1 races.

The source of the family’s success in this part of the world traces to La Mer (Copenhagen), a New Zealand-bred champion who was brought to Ireland by the late Captain Tim Rogers of Airlie Stud; quite a move at the time. La Mer raced from 1976 to 1979, trained by Malcolm Smith, and she won 24 of her 43 starts, and was in the first three on 11 other occasions. She was the 1979 Horse of the Year, and prior to that she was crowned the champion filly at two and three in New Zealand.

Not surprisingly, many of La Mer’s descendants found their way back to the southern hemisphere where she had been a star, her victories numbering 22 stakes races among them. Three were at Group 1 level, and they included the New Zealand Oaks. La Mer was responsible for seven winners, her daughter Cipriani (Habitat) being the only one to enjoy a stakes win.

Sonia Rogers

La Mer’s first foal Loughmore (Artaius) actually won in New Zealand and she is the grandam of Little Jamie (St Jude), a Group 1 winner there. However, in terms of lasting influence, La Mer’s daughter Lady Of The Sea (Mill Reef) has had the greatest impact. Bred by Sonia Rogers. Lady Of The Sea raced for Sheikh Mohammed and won a mile maiden at three, trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

Three daughters of Lady Of The Sea produced stakes winners, one of them being the Turkish-bred No Comment (Thunderbolt) who won four races and is the dam of Group 2 Bosphorus Cup winner Maximus Boy (Maximus Dream). Another daughter, the then Group 3 Matron Stakes winner Clerio (Soviet Star), went to New Zealand and produced a stakes winner, and is grandam of the Australian Group 1 winner Our Rokkii (Roc De Cambes).

However, best of all of Lady Of The Sea’s eight winners was Bahr (Generous). Unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile, including the Listed Washington Singer Stakes, she was transferred from Barry Hills to Saeed bin Suroor, and at three won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Group 3 Musidora Stakes at York, and was runner-up to Shahtoush in the Group 1 Oaks.

In addition to being responsible for Elmalka’s dam Nahrain, Bahr is also the dam of the stakes winner Baharah (Elusive Quality), grandam of Go Bears Go (Kodi Bear), and third dam of Far Above (Farhh).

Only defeat

Ironically, Elmalka’s sire Kingman (Invincible Spirit) met his only defeat in eight starts in the 2000 Guineas, quickly making amends when he won the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas.

The leading miler later added the Sussex Stakes, Prix Jacques Le Marois and St James’s Palace Stakes to his tally of victories. The classic winner’s first crop included Persian King, and that colt gave his sire his first Group 1 winner in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

Elmalka is Kingman’s second European classic winner, though Zardozi won the Group 1 VRC Oaks in November, and the latter is one of two winners at that level in Australia for the Banstead Manor stallion. Persian King went on to win both the Prix d’Ispahan and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and his first crop are set to race this year.

Five-time Group 1 winner Palace Pier’s first crop are yearlings, and he was the star of Kingman’s second crop, one that also included Domestic Spending who was successful three times at Grade 1 level in the USA.

Sadly, injury cut short that gelding’s racing career.

A member of that same crop is the dual Group 1 winner Kinross, another who has shown his best form since being gelded.

Japanese Group 1 winner Schnell Meister is the sole Group 1 winner in Kingman’s third crop, there is none to date from the foal crop of 2019, but the following year’s foals yielded three Group 1 winners, Commissioning (Fillies’ Mile), Feed The Flame (Grand Prix de Paris) and Sauterne (Prix du Moulin de Longchamp).

Selkirk

Finally for now, a word about Elmalka’s broodmare sire Selkirk (Sharpen Up).

With a pedigree entirely free of Northern Dancer, this Group 1 winning miler sired 17 individual winners at the highest level, showed his great versatility by getting winners at all distances, and on a number of occasions he was the leading sire standing in Britain.

Selkirk died at Lanwades, owned by a great friend of the Rogers family, Kirsten Rausing, at the age of 25 in 2013, and is buried there.

Elmalka shares with Kinross the fact that they are both by Kingman and out of Selkirk mares. They are far from being the only Group 1 winners out of mares by the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Selkirk.

Add to that group the five-time Group 1 winner Inspiral (Frankel), Prix Marcel Boussac heroine Albigna (Zoffany) who sold to Coolmore for €3,700,000 last year, Benbatl, three-time Group 1 winner Redkirk Warrior (Notnowcato), Prix Ganay winner Dariyan (Shamardal), French classic winner Star Of Seville (Duke Of Marmalade), successful sire Mount Nelson (Rock Of Gibraltar), and leading fillies Termagant (Powerscourt), Simply Perfect (Danehill) and Quiff (Sadler’s Wells).