WHAT a year Siyouni is having and recent weeks have been nothing short of phenomenal in terms of results. Last weekend his four-year-old daughter Etoile won the Grade 1 E.P.Taylor Stakes at Woodbine for trainer Chad Brown and owners Peter Brant of White Birch Farm, MV Magnier’s wife Emily and Linda Shanahan, wife of Paul. This victory made a sizeable contribution towards the 750,000gns she cost last year at the Tattersalls December Sale.

At the time of that sale this €160,000 Arqana yearling buy, bred by the trio of Dominique Ades Hazan, Geraldine Henochsberg and Patrick Fellous, was the winner of the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre and placed at that level. Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, she had progressed from winning twice at Cagnes-Sur-Mer to being a Group 3 winner, and she was only a length behind the victorious Channel when finishing fourth in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks. The potential was there and now it has been unlocked in Canada.