ALPHA Racing is a high-end syndicate at Jessica Harrington’s stables in Moone, and they have enjoyed many great racing days. None have compared to that which they experienced on Sunday at ParisLongchamp when Barnavara (Calyx) won the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera.

A key figure in the Alpha Racing success story is bloodstock agent Patrick Cooper of BBA Ireland. He and the trainer have sourced great value purchases and turned them into racing and sale successes.

Established in 2018, the group’s first touch was with Cadillac (Lope De Vega), a €40,000 Goffs yearling buy who sold at the Goffs London Sale for £500,000. Another was with 65,000gns purchase Viareggio (Caravaggio) who sold on for 375,000gns.

This year Alpha Racing has seen the €110,000 yearling Saratoga Special (Mehmas) go to Ayr to win a listed race, but that three-year-old’s achievement has been blown out of the water by the journey enjoyed by Barnavara (Calyx), surely the most improved filly in training.

I congratulated connections after the win on Sunday, and asked Patrick Cooper where next for the three-year-old. “The Sceptre Session of the Tattersalls December Sale” was his instant retort.

As a Group 1 winner, Barnavara would, of course, have lots of appeal to breeders, and she is a filly with no Northern Dancer (Nearctic) blood. However, she would be equally appealing to someone looking for a high-class race filly, and could be even better in 2026.

Perhaps a wily buyer will send her back to Moone to continue her racing career. One thing is for sure; the €70,000 it cost to buy her as a yearling will be much less than any opening bid for her at Newmarket. Additionally, she has bagged about £440,000 so far.

Costly foal

Barnavara’s win on Sunday was a help when her Blackbeard (No Nay Never) half-sister come up for sale on Tuesday at Tattersalls. She had been a costly foal buy in December, falling to Liam Norris and William Huntingdon for 300,000gns.

This was a brave outlay, given that the only blacktype in the first two generations then was from a couple of group-placed efforts from Barnavara. At least the yearling filly returned a profit when Ralph Beckett bought her for 450,000gns.

Barnavara is the second Group 1 winner in two weeks for Coolmore’s Group 2 Coventry Stakes hero Calyx (Kingman) who died this year.

She is the third foal and winner for Alfea (Kentucky Dynamite) and that mare won twice at two in Poland. Bred by Andriy Milovonov and Viktor Tymoshenko, Barnavara is from the family of Lope De Vega (Shamardal). That dual classic winner and outstanding sire is out of her fourth dam.

The rise and rise of the Basilica

AIDAN O’Brien was quick to remind us that the Bob Scarborough-bred St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) took until his final start at two, in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, to win his first blacktype race.

He landed a Curragh maiden on his third outing, though he had a glowing home reputation, and later was third in the National Stakes behind Thunder Moon and his own stablemate Wembley.

In the Dewhurst, St Mark’s Basilica was the stable number two, after Wembley, and Frankie Dettori was in the saddle. Contrast that with what transpired at three, when he was unbeaten in four starts, all at the highest level. He won the French 2000 Guineas and Derby, the Eclipse at Sandown and a memorable Irish Champion Stakes.

Whatever Coolmore Stud’s St Mark’s Basilica’s first crop juveniles achieve this year, and they have already done a lot, you would expect them to be better in 2026.

With the usual proviso, ‘at the time of writing’, St Mark’s Basilica has 17 individual winners and three stakes winners.

Group 2 scorer Aylin was fifth in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac, and it was won by another of the sires’ daughters, Diamond Necklace. Now unbeaten in three runs, Diamond Necklace has quality in abundance on both sides of her pedigree, and becomes a third Group 1 winner for her dam, listed winner Prudenzia (Dansili). Hard to believe I am writing that her €1.7 million yearling price tag is now looking to be value!

Magic Wand

Prudenzia is the dam of Australian Group 1 winner Magic Wand (Galileo) and Group 1 Irish Oaks winner Chicquita (Montjeu), the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks runner-up Philomene (Dubawi), and this year’s Arqana €3 million yearling filly by Night of Thunder (Dubawi).

Magic Wand sold as a yearling for €1.6 million, Chicquita made €6 million at Goffs as a three-year-old, while Philomene, who was the 200th stakes winner sired by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), realised €1.625 million. Four other offspring of Prudenzia sold for seven-figure sums.

Diamond Necklace’s fourth dam was the stakes-placed winner Souk (Ahonoora) and, through a different branch of the family, that of her daughter Shouk (Shirley Heights), she is grandam of Group 1 winners Alexandrova (Sadler’s Wells) and Magical Romance (Barathea). Shouk’s winning half-sister Sitara (Salse) has also made her mark, being dam of the Group 1 Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling (High Chaparral).

Multinational aspect to Asfoora victory

ASFOORA put the disappointment of her Curragh run on Irish Champions Festival weekend behind her when she added the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye to her win in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes.

With Lebanese ownership, trained in Australia, an Irish jockey and winning in France, Asfoora (Flying Artie) exemplifies the global nature of our sport of racing. Last year the mare won a Group 1 at Royal Ascot.

With a plan to sell Asfoora at the upcoming Tattersalls December Sale now shelved, her owner would surely love to fill a gap on her race record, that of winning a Group 1 in her native Australia. She has a couple of Group 2 wins there. Asfoora is a seven-year-old homebred and runs for Akram El-Fahkri who breeds under the name of Noor Elaine Farm.

Asfoora is one of two winners, the first two foals, out of Golden Child, a daughter of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit). Placed once, Golden Child is among eight foals and runners for Predestined (King’s Best), and the only one who did not win. While none of the seven earned blacktype, one bred Title Fighter (Lean Mean Machine), a listed winner at Flemington.

Twelve winners

Predestined is a daughter of the stakes-placed Hard Rider (Maroof) and among her 12 winners. The dozen include Group 3 winner Big Chill (Artie Schiller), and listed winners Hard Stride (Street Sense) and Utah Saints (God’s Own), while Leather’n’lace (Street Cry) was group-placed, and Rough Justice (Wanted) stakes-placed. The dozen winners were from 14 foals, all but one of whom raced.

Asfoora’s sire Flying Artie, a son of Artie Schiller (El Prado), was the champion three-year-old colt in Australia in 2016-17, and the highest rated sprinter in the world at the same age. He claimed the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Ascot Vale Stakes, while at two he was placed in the Blue Diamond Stakes and the Golden Slipper. Asfoora is one of two Group 1 winners for the Blue Gum Farm sire.

The other is Artorius, successful in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes and Group 1 Canterbury Stakes, and who twice ran at Royal Ascot twice, running third and fourth in the Group 1 Jubilee Stakes.