VAUBAN drew the curtain down on the first day of Royal Ascot when he ran away with the 14-furlong Copper House Handicap, giving Willie and Jackie Mullins a day to remember, as they had been among those in the royal procession that precedes racing.

A listed winner on the level in France at three, and a triple Grade 1 winner over hurdles, including the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, Vauban, a son of Galiway (Galileo), is from a branch of a German female family that is more familiar with success at the highest level on the flat, and he is bred on the same lines as the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner and Ballylinch stallion Waldgeist (Galileo).

Twenty-three starts for the Hurricane Run (Montjeu) mare Waldfest resulted in a single success at four. She was owned and trained by Philippe Decouz, one of the breeders of Vauban, Waldfest’s first foal. Waldfest was herself a first foal, and one of three successful offspring of the three-year-old winner Gifted Icon (Peintre Celebre). While this branch of the family is ordinary enough, in the next generation quality abounds.

Best stayer

Gifted Icon’s half-brother Masked Marvel (Montjeu) was the best stayer in Europe when he captured the 2011 Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster. At stud in France, he is emerging as a significant National Hunt sire. Masked Marvel was born a year before Waldlerche (Monsun), a Group 3 winner in France and now the dam of three group winners, Ballylinch’s Waldgeist, Group 2 winner Waldlied (New Approach) who sold for 2,200,000gns, and Group 3 winner Waldkonig (Galileo).

Nicky Henderson sent the eight-year-old Cacique (Danehill) mare Ahorsewithnoname out to gamely win the Ascot Stakes over two and a half miles. Last time we saw the mare she won a listed mares’ hurdle at Cheltenham, her first blacktype victory after knocking on the door. Currently in foal to Cracksman (Frankel), what a way for Ahorsewithnoname to say goodbye to racing.

Cacique will not be remembered as fondly as his siblings, though he did sire three Group/Grade 1 winners in his first crop, Prix Jean Prat winner Mutual Trust, Group 1 Hong Kong Vase winner Dominant, and the US Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes hero Slumber. Afterwards he failed to get anything near that class.

A Champion

Royal Champion (Shamardal) provided owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum with a double on the first day when he added the Listed Wolferton Stakes to success in the Listed Doonside Cup at Ayr. He is now the second dual listed winner out of the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks winner Emirates Queen (Street Cry).

Royal Champion is a half-brother to Outbox (Frankel) who he enjoyed his stakes wins in England and Qatar. Both geldings have pedigrees worthy of stallions, and their dam is a half-sister to none other than Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), one of the top half-dozen sires in the world.