GRAIL Seeker, a four-year-old daughter of Iffraaj (Zafonic), gained her second Group 1 triumph on Saturday when striking in the TAB Telegraph Stakes, run over six furlongs at Trentham, New Zealand. She won by two and a half lengths.

Successful in four of her 11 starts, she has now won consecutive Group 1 races after capturing the Tarzino Trophy at Hastings in September last year.

Bred by Jamieson Park, Grail Seeker is one of eight winners, the first eight foals, out of the Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Starwish, and the second by the Darley sire. Starwish also has a stakes-winning son, Deep Image (Testa Rossa), an eight-time winner. The ninth foal out of the mare has raced and been placed this season.

Grail Seeker, who also won the Group 2 Wellington Guineas, is the latest star in a family that is well-renowned in New Zealand. Her unraced dam is a daughter of Stella Cadente (Centaine), and this winner of five races headlined her racing career with victory in the Group 1 Australia Stakes, and was placed in the Group 1 Sydney Coolmore Classic. Seven of her 10 foals raced and six won, topped by Brilliant Bisc (Elvstroem), a listed winner.

A mention is due for Stella Cadente’s stakes-placed daughter Moon Fever (Fusaichi Pegasus). Though she was a useful racemare, she was a better broodmare, and her winners include Group 3 Hong Kong winner Dashing Fellow (Duporth), and Australian stakes winner and Group 1-placed Aeronautical (Encosta de Lago).

Eau D’Etoile

As good as all of these achievements have been, they pale by comparison with those of Grail Seeker’s fourth dam, the New Zealand-bred Eau D’Etoile (Sir Tristram). Placed in both the Group 1 Queensland and New Zealand Oaks, and a Group 3 winner, at stud she bequeathed three Group 1 winners, a champion two-year-old, and many more Group 1 -winning descendants. Her son Filante (Star Way) won a pair of top-level contests, and Kenny’s Best Pal (Bletchingly) landed the Group 1 Australian Guines.

However, it is her daughter, Bint Marscay (Marscay), who deserves to be highlighted. After her win in the Group 1 Golden Slipper, she was crowned the champion two-year-old in Australia. The best of her three group winners at stud is Bollinger (Dehere), the Group 1 Coolmore Classic hero, while her grandson, Benicio (More Than Ready), triumphed in the Group 1 Victoria Derby.

Grail Seeker is one of 13 top-flight scorers by Iffraaj, and that pantheon includes his high-class stallion son Wootton Bassett and the dual champion miler Ribchester. Iffraaj’s most recent European Group 1 winner is Audience, and last year she provided a racing highlight with her thrilling victory in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.

Kildangan Stud

Iffraaj retired to stud in 2007 and was based at Kildangan Stud for his first eight seasons. His fee was as low as €6,000 in his fourth year, but he moved to Dalham Hall after standing his last season in Ireland for €25,000.

Since then, his fee moved to a high of £40,000 in 2018, but has declined since, and he surely is exceptional value this year at £10,000.

Though Iffraaj never won a Group 1 race, finishing runner-up in the July Cup, this triple Group 2 winner over seven furlongs was bred to be a stallion, his grandam being Park Appeal (Ahonoora). Champion filly at two in England and Ireland in 1984, she won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and Moyglare Stud Stakes. She became an influential broodmare, being the dam of champion sire Cape Cross (Green Desert), and grandam of Diktat (Warning), the champion older sprinter in Europe in 1999, and winner of both the Group 1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup and Prix Maurice de Gheest.

ANYONE who was not a fan of growing the programme of races for mares under National Hunt rules must nowadays feel quite sheepish. The number of mares in training, and winning good races, only enhances both the racing scene, and further strengthens the breeding programme.

Years ago, a mare such as Allegorie De Vassy (No Risk At All) would by now have been at stud, but instead the eight-year-old is still racing, with success, and connections will likely take in the Opera Hat Chase at Naas (a race she has won) on her was to the mares’ chase at Cheltenham.

On New Year’s Day at Fairyhouse, she demolished her rivals when winning the Grade 3 Yellowford and Drumlin, John and Chich Fowler Memorial Irish EBF Mares Chase, her fifth win over fences and seventh success in all.

All of Allegorie De Vassy’s victories over fences have been in blacktype races, two of them Group 2 contests. Last year, she was runner-up to Limerick Lace in the Grade 2 mares’ chase at Cheltenham, but at Fairyhouse she turned the tables in no uncertain manner. Twice a winner over hurdles, following her move from France, Allegorie De Vassy won a Grade 3 at Fairyhouse over the smaller obstacles.

She is a daughter of leading sire no Risk At All (My Risk), responsible for Epatante and Allaho. Allegorie De Vassy would not look out of place in the winners’ enclosure at the Curragh or Royal Ascot. Her sire was a dual Group 3 winner and all of his victories were in blacktype races. At two he won the Listed Prix Isonomy at Saint-Cloud, and was later placed behind Golden Lilac and Planteur in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan.

No Risk At All retired to stud in 2013 and has gone on to become an exceptional National Hunt sire.

His daughter Epatante, winner of the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle and two editions of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, and his sons Allaho, a four-time Grade 1 winner including the Ryanair Chase twice, and the Grade 1 Henry VIII Novices’ Chase winner Esprit Du Large, are from his first crop, one that contained no fewer than 10 blacktype jump winners from just 86 foals. The Haras de Montaigu stallion, due to cover at €20,000 for a second time this year, has now amassed a total of 37 blacktype winners.

Smart runner

Allegorie De Vassy is a daughter of Autignac (Solon), a winner over jumps and a half-sister to six-time Group 1 winner Laurens (Siyouni). Autignac is a broodmare in Japan, sent there after the birth of her first foal. Her second produce is Susan Asher (Siyouni), a three-time winner in Japan. No matter what she achieves over jumps, it is possible that Allegorie De Vassy could produce a smart runner on the flat in time.

Laurens won the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at two, and over the next couple of seasons added victories in the Prix de Diane-French Oaks, Matron Stakes, Sun Chariot Stakes, Prix Rothschild and Prix Saint-Alary. She was also runner-up in a pair of Group 1 races, the 1000 Guineas and Lockinge Stakes. One of three winners from Recambe (Cape Cross), Laurens is out of a winning half-sister to the Hong Kong Derby and Hong Kong Classic winner Salford Mill (Peintre Celebre).

One of their dam’s half-sisters, Profit Alert (Alzao), bred the listed winner and Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and Prix Jean Prat runner-up Shifting Power (Compton Place), but she was not the best of these siblings at stud.

That honour falls to the twice-raced Ribot’s Guest (Be My Guest), who bred the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera winner Kinnaird (Dr Devious), and the Group 3 Chester Vase winner Mickdaam (Dubawi). Kinnaird is responsible for a couple of stakes winners, notably the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes hero Berkshire (Mount Nelson), and is grandam of Ivawood (Zebedee) who won a couple of Group 2 juvenile races, and was placed in the Group 1 English and Irish 2000 Guineas.