LAST year Earlswood won the mile maiden at Navan that on Tuesday was captured by Wexford Native on his racecourse debut.

The three-year-old son of Teofilo (Galileo) could well be even better than Earlswood who is certainly no slouch having won a trio of Group 3 races since. The manner of this week’s win, the post-race comments of Kevin Manning, and the tasty list of classic entries he holds would suggest that Wexford Native could be a bit special.

Owned by Jackie Bolger, and bred and trained by her husband Jim, Wexford Native is a third winning offspring of the unraced Yes Oh Yes, a daughter of Gone West (Mr Prospector) who was acquired by Bolger as a yearling for $250,000 at Keeneland. There may have been times since then that he might have questioned the investment, given that Yes Oh Yes never raced and Wexford Native is her seventh produce.

However, if Wexford Native were to go on to group, or even classic, success, Jim’s faith would be well justified. I wouldn’t be betting against that happening.

Yes Oh Yes’s first foal was a colt by Teofilo named Theodorico, and he won four times, including at two.

Jim Bolger acquired Yes Oh Yes a year after her half-sister, Aaroness (Distorted Humor), had sold for $550,000 at Keeneland. She too ended up at Coolcullen and was group-placed at three before heading back to America.

Having hit the heights of selling three times at Keeneland for $290,000 as a foal, $550,000 as a yearling and $335,000 as a four-year-old, Aaroness suffered the ignominy of realising just $2,500 last November back at the same venue.

Female family

While the first two generations of Wexford Native’s female family has failed to produce a stakes winner to date, the back pedigree is deep in terms of stakes winners. Third dam Lady Lady (Little Current) bred six winners, including a stakes winner at Churchill Downs, but through her daughters and beyond she has spawned 14 more blacktype winners, notably the Australian Group 1 heroes Delectation (Shamardal) and Artorius (Flying Artie).

Lady Winborne (Secretariat) is the fourth dam of Wexford Native. She only raced twice, winning a maiden and finishing third in the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes. Her place at stud was never in doubt as she was a half-sister to the brilliant Allez France (Sea Bird), one of the greatest racemares of all time. She won 13 of her 21 starts and was the first really important horse owned by Daniel Wildenstein.

Allez France

During her racing career Allez France was the pre-eminent filly in France, rivalled only by Dahlia (who failed to beat her all six times they met). The long list of big race victories enjoyed by Allez France includes the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Prix Ganay twice, the French 1000 Guineas and Oaks (Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane), Prix Vermeille and Prix d’Ispahan.

The best of Lady Winborne’s 13 winners was Al Mamoon (Believe It) who won the Grade 1 John Henry Handicap and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile, while her daughter La Gueriere (Lord At War) won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes, bred the Grade 1 winner Icon Project (Empire Maker), and is grandam of Munnings (Speightstown), Ashford Stud’s multiple Grade 1 sire.

This is a family that Coolmore is well acquainted with as another of Lady Winborne’s daughters is the third dam of Circus Maximus (Galileo).