OWNER-BREEDERS Gestüt Röttgen landed the Group 1 Preis der Diana-German Oaks for a fourth time when their three-year-old homebred Erle won on Sunday.

It was their first win in the race for 14 years, and that was Enora’s success in 2010. Enora (Noverre) is the grandam of the weekend classic heroine.

A daughter of Reliable Man (Dalakhani). Erle was stepping up from her success in the Group 3 Diana Trial, and the latter race was won last year by another filly who comes from this female family, Empore (Oasis Dream).

Erle is the second named produce of Kizingo (Oasis Dream), and her first winner. She is followed by Eleganz (Adlerflug), and she was something of an inspired purchase by Hugo Merry last year, the agent giving €300,000 for her at the BBAG September Yearling Sale. She was the top-priced lot at the sale. Kizingo had a colt foal this year by Protectionist (Monsun).

Highlighted in an advertisement on the back cover of the catalogue last year, featuring the draft from the multiple champion owners and breeders, Gestüt Röttgen, Merry had the final say for the Adlerflug (In The Wings) filly on behalf of Blue Diamond Stud. Stud owner Imad Al Sagar has sent his purchase to be trained by John and Thady Gosden.

Reliable Man

Let us start on this occasion with Erle’s sire Reliable Man. Thirteen years ago he announced himself when, having been unraced at two, he took his winning streak to three and won the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby. While he defeated 15 rivals, most failed to become household names.

Reliable Man atoned for his third-place finish in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris by winning the Group 2 Prix Niel, his warm-up race for the Arc in which he disappointed.

Kept in training, Reliable Man had a largely indifferent season at four, his best efforts coming when third in the Group 1 Prix Ganay on his seasonal reappearance, and running fourth in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes and fourth behind Danedream in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes for trainer Alain du Royer-Dupre. His stud prospects were certainly less attractive then, and a new plan was hatched.

Southern hemisphere

The grey was sent to be trained in Australia by Chris Waller.

Reliable Man was beaten less than two lengths in a blanket finish to the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes on his southern hemisphere debut, the race won by Pierro, and next time up won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick from Dundeel. His victory was marred by an injury sustained in the race and he was off to stud.

Reliable Man retired to stand at Westbury Stud in New Zealand, where he remains today, but he was a horse who did a ‘reverse shuttle’, standing for six seasons at Gestüt Röttgen, interspersed by three years in France. He last covered in Europe, at Röttgen, in 2022.

While he sired three Group 1 winners down under in his first two crops, Reliable Man’s visits to Europe failed to result in a Group 1 winner – until the weekend. All his four winners at the highest level have been fillies.

Italian Derby

Prior to the appearance of Erle on Reliable Man’s roll of honour, his best winners in Europe had been the Group 2 Italian Derby winner Ardakan, the Group 2 (now a Group 3 race) Diana Trial winner in Germany, Akribie, and a half-brother to Erle’s dam, Erasmus.

The last-named colt, born in 2015, won the Group 3 Preis des Winterfavoriten at two, earning him the title of champion two-year-old in his native country. He stood a few seasons in France.

Erasmus was the best of eight winners from the classic heroine Enora, and she was out of the triple winner and Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio runner-up Enrica (Niniski). That mare was a big success in the breeding shed, leaving behind 10 winners.

Incredibly, her son Ernesto (Reliable Man) was a stakes winner in Germany, second in the Group 3 German St Leger, and later won three hurdle races when trained by Ian Williams. This means that Erle’s first three dams have all bred a stakes winner by Reliable Man.

Though Ernesto was talented, he was not the best of four stakes winners out of Enrica. That honour falls to either Enora, or her half-brother Egerton (Groom Dancer). Four of his five wins were in group races, twice at Group 2 level, and he was runner-up in a couple of Group 1 races, the Grosser Preis von Baden and the Preis von Europe.

Special week for Lanwades Stud

KIRSTEN Rausing is one of the best breeders in the world, and her successes have been well documented in these columns. The list of successful stallions she has stood at Lanwades, and the top-class winners she has bred and raced, stand the test of time.

She is a lady who enjoys her statistics, and at the drop of a hat she can recite numbers of winners bred on the farm or sired by her stallions.

Recent years have been especially memorable, not least for winning the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and the winners with a Lanwades/Staffordstown/ St Simon imprint on them have been flowing with incredible regularity. This year is no different, and the number of winners bred has passed the 80-mark.

Recently, in the course of six days, Miss Rausing had five three-year-old fillies that she races and bred prove successful. Two were by the resident sire Study Of Man (Deep Impact), and all five came from just two female lines. While none of these wins were at stakes level, all were important for the future breeding plans of the various fillies.

Hot Thong

Sir Mark Prescott won with Heat Of Passion, a daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), and it means that she is winner number five for Here To Eternity (Stormy Atlantic). Mis Rausing has been associated with this family since Heat Of Passion’s third dam Hot Thong (Jarraar) was imported from Brazil nearly three decades ago. There she was a juvenile Group 3 winner, and at three she was placed in their Group 1 1000 Guineas.

Hot Thong only bred two winners, Convincing (Selkirk) and Heat Of The Night (Lear Fan). The former was one of the best juvenile hurdlers in Ireland almost 20 years ago for John Murphy, winning graded races at Leopardstown and Punchestown.

Heat Of The Night, in typical Miss Rausing style, found her listed-winning opportunity in Germany, and has bred six winners. One of these is Here To Eternity, and she is the dam of two Hong Kong Group 1 winners.

Hong Kong stars

Time Warp (Archipenko) numbered three Group 1 races among his nine wins in Hong Kong, twice taking their Gold Cup and also winning the Hong Kong Cup. His year younger full-brother Glorious Forever (Archipenko) also landed the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup. Their half-sister Heat Of Passion will be a worthy future addition to the paddocks at Lanwades.

In the same week that Heat Of Passion won for the first time, her half-sister, the unraced Heatwave (Leroidesanimaux), was responsible for the George Boughey-trained Heartwarmer (Holy Roman Emperor) who added a win to her sole two-year-old success last year. Heartwarmer is a fifth-generation homebred for Kirsten Rausing.

The other three winners, Allonsy (Study Of Man) who was recording her third win of 2024, the now dual winner this year All Agleam (Oasis Dream), and the first-time winner Almudena (Study Of Man), all descend from Alouette (Darshaan), and are members of Lanwades’ best family, the most recent star of which has been Alpinista (Frankel). This is a pedigree that has probably featured more often in these columns than any other.