WHILE the opening page of Breeding Insights this week focuses on new Group 1 winners, Royal Ascot 2024 is also about others who cemented their already lofty reputations.

The cachet for a stallion career of being a winner at the meeting is huge.

The trio of repeat Group 1 winners are all assured of stud careers, though when that happens is still an open question. Auguste Rodin is odds-on to retire at the end of this season, Rosallion is even-money to do so, though a third season on the racecourse could not be ruled out, while Kyprios could grace the racecourse for a few more years should he stay sound and enthusiastic.

A stunning first-crop son of Darley’s Blue Point (Shamardal), Rosallion landed his third Group 1 when winning the St James’s Palace Stakes, one of three features on the opening day at Royal Ascot. Held up, Rosallion quickened inside the final furlong to catch Henry Longfellow in the shadow of the post and won going away by a neck.

At two, Rosallion won three of his four starts, including the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp. He also won the Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot by four lengths, rated as the deepest two-year-old race of last season by Timeform. Second on his reappearance in the Group 1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, Rosallion went one better at the Curragh when winning the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas. His career now totals five wins from seven starts.

Blue Point last year became the fastest first-crop sire to record 50 individual winners. As well as Rosallion, his initial crop included the Grade 1 Breeder’s Cup hero Big Evs, and that colt returned this season with an easy victory in the Listed Westow Stakes last month at York. On Tuesday he finished third to Asfoora and Regional in the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes.

Homebred

An Irish homebred for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, Rosallion has a winning half-sister in Needle Lace (Golden Horn). Once purchased by Sam Haggas’ Hurworth Bloodstock for 1,000gns, she sold after winning at four and carrying her first foal by Sioux Nation (Scat Daddy) for 200,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock.

Rosallion’s dam, the unraced Rosaline (New Approach), is a half-sister to 2023 Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes winner Triple Time (Frankel), now standing at Dalham Hall for £10,000. Triple Time is not the only Group 1 winner out of the outstanding matron Reem Three (Mark Of Esteem).

Ajman Princess (Teofilo) won the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet eight years ago and was runner-up at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes. Her three-year-old son Inisherin (Shamardal) won this year’s Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock Park and slammed the field to win yesterday’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.

Triple Time and Ajman Princess are among 10 winners and runners from the stakes-placed Reem Three, six of whom are stakes winners, while another, Imperial Charm (Dubawi), was placed in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary.

Among the list of stakes winners out of Reem Three is Rosaline’s full-brother Ostilio (New Approach). The list of stakes winners is completed by Group 3 Ascot winner and Group 2-placed Cape Byron (Shamardal), stakes winner and pattern-placed Third Realm (Sea The Stars), and last year’s listed winner Captain Winters (Lope De Vega).

Back on track

Brilliant winner of the $4 million, Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf last November, Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact) regained his winning ways when taking the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday. He comes from an outstanding female line, and is by a superlative sire.

By a multiple Japanese champion in Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), Auguste Rodin is out of a Group 1 winning daughter of Coolmore’s great Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). After he won the Group 1 Vertem Futurity, Aidan O’Brien said Auguste Rodin was “probably the most exciting horse we have ever had”. He is the first foal of the triple Group 1 winner Rhododendron, and she has since produced a yearling colt and a colt foal, both by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

Rhododendron won the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at two, the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera at three and the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes in her final season. Her full-sister Magical (Galileo) was even more prolific, her seven Group 1 wins putting her among the elite trained at Ballydoyle. Rhododendron and Magical, along with their group-winning own-brother Flying The Flag (Galileo), are the best of five winners from Halfway To Heaven (Pivotal), a three-time Group 1 winner following victories in the Irish 1000 Guineas, Nassau Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes. Halfway To Heaven is the best of 10 winners produced by Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes (now Group 1) winner Cassandra Go (Indian Ridge). Cassandra Go is the grandam of the US Grade 1 winner Photo Call (Galileo), and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, Victoria Road, a son of Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact).

Kyprios

Moyglare Stud’s Fiona Craig is clear, Kyprios (Galileo) is bred to be as good as he is. One of just three horses ever to regain the Group 1 Gold Cup crown at Royal Ascot, he took his tally of wins to 11 with his second Group Cup victory, and his number of successes at this level to five.

The emergence of Kyprios meant that he became the third Group 1 winner for Polished Gem (Danehill). His other wins include the Group 1 Goodwood Cup, Prix du Cadran and the Irish St Leger. Prior to Kyprios, Polished Gem’s best offspring include the dual Group 1 Irish St Leger winner Search For A Son (Galileo), and the Group 1 winner and successful young sire Free Eagle (High Chaparral).

Add to that list Group 2 winners Custom Cut (Notnowcato), Sapphire (Medicean) who was also a Group 1 runner-up, Group 3 winner Valac (Dark Angel) who is also a blacktype winner over jumps in Australia, stakes winner and group-placed Falcon Eight (Galileo), and the stakes winner and group-placed Amma Grace (Galileo). From a family that has a long history with Moyglare Stud, almost matching the time since the farm was founded. Polished Gem has an impeccable record as a producer – ten foals, runners and winners. Eight of these won stakes races. Her son Rich History (Dubawi) stands at Kedrah House.

Trusted Partner

Polished Gem is a winning daughter of Danehill (Danzig) and the classic winner Trusted Partner (Affirmed). Both her dam and grandam, Talking Picture (Speak John), produced 11 winners each. This wasn’t a case of quantity over quality, as there are few families about that have enjoyed so much high-class success, and all of it nurtured by the one farm. Talking Picture was acquired by Moyglare when her racing days ended, and that champion filly was born more than half a century ago.

Talking Picture earned her title of champion two-year-old filly in the USA with victory in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes over six furlongs at Saratoga. She later had six daughters by the Triple Crown winner Affirmed (Exclusive Native), with the five who ran all earning blacktype, four of them being successful at that level.

The quartet were Group 2 winner Easy To Copy, Grade 3 winner and Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes-placed Low Key Affair, stakes winner Epicure’s Garden, but the best of them was Trusted Partner. The highlight of the latter’s career came when she won the Group 1 Goffs Irish 1000 Guineas. Her 11 winners at stud are headed by the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes winner Dress To Thrill (Danehill) who failed by less than a length to reel in Quarter Moon when second in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at two.

Trusted Partner bred a second Grade 1 winner, but that was under National Hunt rules. Archive Footage (Sadler’s Wells) capturing The Ladbroke at Leopardstown.