IT was a case of oh so near in 2017 for Nunnery Stud’s Tasleet.

Closely related to champion sprinter Battaash (Dark Angel), Tasleet was one of the fastest sons of Showcasing (Oasis Dream), and was a group winner at three and four, a listed winner at two, and placed three times in Group 1 sprints as a four-year-old.

Tasleet retired to stud in 2019, and his first runners hit the track last year. He enjoyed a dream start when Bradsell won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, ran fourth in the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, and those performances were backed up when 14 other members of that first crop won at least once. This year he increased his tally of winners to 23, and sired another stakes winner.

Trained by William Haggas, Tasleet scored three times at two, including the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury and he was placed in his other three starts that season, including a second to champion Shalaa in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, and another second in the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes at Newmarket. Tasleet started his three-year-old season with victory in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes, but then an injury prevented him from running in the classics.

He was back to winning form the next year when he landed the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes over six furlongs. At Royal Ascot, Tasleet was beaten a neck by The Tin Man in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, and in the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup he was second to Harry Angel, with The Tin Man third and Blue Point fourth. Tasleet ended that season with another second, in the Group 1 British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot, ahead of Caravaggio, Harry Angel and The Tin Man.

Profitably

His second stakes winner is American Sonja, bred at Whatcote Farm and sold to Timmy Hillman as a foal for 22,000gns. The filly washed her face when resold from Castledillon Stud at Tattersalls Ireland the following September for €30,000, where she was snapped up by Con Marnane. He breezed the filly, highly profitably, and sold her for 95,000gns to Peter Trainor.

Now racing for Mark Dobbin, and trained by Joseph O’Brien, American Sonja won a couple of times in Ireland, including at two, before O’Brien found a suitable listed race to run her in abroad, and she duly won the Prix Volterra over a mile at ParisLongchamp last Sunday.

American Sonja is out of Gumhrear (Kodiac), an unplaced filly that Whatcote Farm Stud sourced for only 3,500gns as a three-year-old. She had previously been an 80,000gns yearling at the same venue. She more than rewarded the investment when her first foal, Kodi Dream (Coach House), sold for 32,000gns as a foal, and he is a three-time winner. American Sonja is her second winner, while Cathy Grassick paid 50,000gns for their half-sister by Mohaather (Showcasing), as a foal last year.