I AM a devoted fan of many stallions, as only a man with no mare himself can be, but I do have a particular fondness for a sire who stands just a few fields away from where I live.

What a year 2023 is proving to be for Derrinstown Stud’s Awtaad (2023 fee €5,000), and this year he has made the breakthrough at the highest level not once, but twice.

His first-crop son Anmaat, bred by the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Flat Breeders of the Year, Ringfort Stud, won the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan, and now Anisette, a three-year-old filly from his third crop, has been successful in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks.

Anisette remains unbeaten in three starts this year, and is the second group or graded winner by Awtaad (Cape Cross) out of a Teofilo (Galileo) mare, following the Group 2 Prix Chaudenay winner Al Qareem. Her rate of progression is astonishing, and it would be no surprise to see Anisette vie for championship honours by the end of this year. She is the 10th blacktype winner for the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas winner.

Improved

Listed as sold to Mark McStay’s Avenue Bloodstock as a yearling for 26,000gns at the Tattersalls Somerville Sale, Anisette improved with every one of her three starts at two, finally obliging two days after Christmas.

McStay then acquired her privately and she was transferred to Leonard Powell in the USA. She won on her debut in an allowance at Santa Anita, added the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at Del Mar, and has successfully graduated to the highest level.

Anisette is the second winner for her dam Tutti Frutti, and her recent success will bring even more attention to the upcoming sale of her yearling half-sister by Make Believe (Makfi). She is Lot 1444 in Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Tutti Frutti had four winning siblings, the best of which was the Group 1 Nassau Stakes heroine Sultanina (New Approach). An unraced sibling, Puff Pastry (Pivotal), bred the stakes-winning juvenile Choux (Exceed And Excel).

They are out of Soft Centre (Zafonic) who won the Listed Lupe Stakes at Goodwood, as did her dam, Foodbroker Fancy (Halling).

The latter bred three stakes winners and a stakes-placed horse, and they were all of her winning progeny. Last year, one of that trio of stakes winners, French Dressing (Sea The Stars), sold for 925,000gns, and she is dam of Group 3 Royal Ascot winner Mohaafeth (Frankel).