IT has taken a little longer than expected, but one of my favourite stallions, Expert Eye (Acclamation), got his stakes winner, Snellen remaining unbeaten after the Listed Chesham Stakes.

The Lindsay Laroche-homebred is the first foal out of the stakes-placed Illumined (Sea The Moon), and she was purchased in utero by Daithí Harvey for 170,000gns in 2020. Given that this was just 10,000gns more than she cost as a foal, and that she won twice and placed three times from five starts, being third in a listed race at Goodwood, you could say she was well bought.

Laroche entrusted her training career to Gavin Cromwell and she has improved with every outing, and will arguably be best with time. She won a barrier trial at Naas, and 10 days before her Royal Ascot run she won at Limerick, despite running very green and hanging significantly.

Illumined is one of eight winners from the German stakes winner Nenuphar (Night Shift), and she has two stakes-winning siblings. They include Night Lagoon (Lagunas), a Group 3 winner in Germany. She bred the four-time Group 1 winner Novellist (Monsun), sold for $1.7 million as a broodmare, and then foaled Magical Lagoon (Galileo), last year’s Group 1 Irish Oaks and Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner.

John Deer

Saint Lawrence won the Wokingham Stakes for owner-breeder John Deer, and he also enjoyed great success with the five-year-old gelding’s sire Al Kazeem (Dubawi). Successful also in a listed race at Newbury and group-placed, Saint Lawrence is a half-sister to another Royal ascot winner, the 2019 Group 3 Albany Stakes winner Daahyeh (Bated Breath). She later won the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Deer bought Saint Lawrence’s dam Affluent (Oasis Dream), carrying Daahyeh, for 35,000gns.

The Gredley family failed to sell Burdett Road (Muhaarar) as a foal, but the three-year-old’s win in the Golden Gates Stakes boosted his earnings to £67,000. He is the first winner for the unraced Diamond Bangle (Galileo), herself an own-sister to dual champion Rip Van Winkle (Galileo).

The curtain fell on Royal Ascot with a second winner for Joseph O’Brien, the Barronstown Stud-bred Dawn Rising (Galileo) again showing his great versatility by adding the Queen Alexandra Stakes to a Grade 2 novice hurdle win last year.

The six-year-old gelding is a full-brother to the Group 1 Irish Derby winner Sovereign.