SPICE Girls fans will recognise the origin of the name Zigazig Ah, winner of the richly-endowed Weatherbys Super Sprint Stakes at Newbury. It comes from their hit song Wannabe.

The two-year-old filly’s owner Phil Cunningham uses songs and lyrics as a theme for naming his horses, and Zigazig Ah is one of the latest. She is a homebred daughter of Cunningham’s own sire Rajasinghe. Like Starspangledbanner, the National Stud-based Rajasinghe is by Choisir (Danehill Dancer), though their race and stud records are streets apart.

That said, I have written that shrewd breeders should be using the Group 2 Coventry Stakes winner Rajasinghe, who won at Royal Ascot in the colours of Cunningham’s Rebel Racing. He has been at stud since 2019, was poorly supported by breeders, but has shown himself, thanks in the main to the belief of Cunningham, to be a winner-getter.

The statistics compiled from his small crops have shown that he is more than capable as a sire, with one in every two of his runners visiting a winners enclosure. More than half of his winners have done so at the age of two. That has led to an increase in the numbers of mares he has covered in more recent seasons, though they are still not at the levels his achievements deserve.

Five crops

While he stood for £5,000 in his first couple of seasons, this dropped to £3,000 in year three and has remained at that since. His first five crops, which includes this season’s juveniles, average just 20 foals in each. He has a slightly healthier 30 two-year-olds to race, but the unforgiving world of breeding and its fashions means that stock by Rajasinghe still face prejudice when it comes to being accepted for sales, and finding buyers willing to spend on them.

Until this year, his winners had just a single blacktype horse among them. Waiting All Night, another Cunningham homebred, was runner-up in the Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot, and while he was some six lengths off the winner, that was no disgrace when his conqueror was Naval Power. Waiting All Night was his sire’s first winner, and won four times in all.

Six-time winner and Cunningham homebred Run Boy Run, from Rajasinghe’s second crop, has earned nearly €400,000 from six wins, and he went down fighting behind Native Approach in a Group 3 at Meydan in February. The winner, on his next start, landed the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint. Another to win six races, and from her sire’s third crop, is the four-year-old improver Luna A Inbhir Nis, and earlier this month she was second to Rumstar in a Group 3 at Sandown.

Rajasinghe

The fourth stakes-placed winner for Rajasinghe, all of whom have been runner-up at that level, is Two Tribes. His earnings have topped €400,000, and he races for Cunningham who purchased him. JD Moore gave 6,000gns for Two Tribes as a foal. One thing you can say about stock by Rajasinghe is that they are sound, and he has a number who have raced more than 50 times. Spioradalta and Aisling Oscar have each won 10 races.

While Zigazig Ah is listed as a 13,000gns yearling purchase by Highflyer in Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, he was bred and races for Phil Cunningham. He raced her sire, and also did so with her dam, Rebel Surge (Kodiac). She was trained by Richard Spencer, such an integral part of the Rajasinghe success story. Rebel Surge was tough, racing 46 times, winning at the ages of two, four and five. On run number 43, she got what connections wanted most with her, blacktype for being third in a listed race at Newmarket.

At stud, Rebel Surge has made a fine start. Her first four offspring were all by Rajasinghe, but one was not named. The other three have raced and won, Giant on three occasions and I Follow Rivers twice. Zigazig Ah has won two of her three starts, having been runner-up on her debut. Cunningham sent Rebel Surge to Harry Angel (Dark Angel) in 2024, and she has a yearling son. After that it was back to the reliable Rajasinghe, and this spring she foaled a filly.

Shortened career

This is a female family that has lots of winners but few blacktype performers in the first four generations, but the fifth dam was Rappa Tap Tap (Tap On Wood). Her daughter, Pick Of The Pops (High Top), was runner-up in the (then) Group 2 Fillies’ Mile in a shortened career on the track. Zigazig Ah’s fourth dam bred four winners. Pick Of The Pops’ unraced daughter Atlantic Record (Slip Anchor) had six foals and four winners, one of her daughters being the Newbury listed winner Santa Isobel (Nashwan).

Zigazig Ah’s grandam Face The Storm (Barathea)is a winning half-sister to Santa Isobel. Numerically, Face The Storm is the most successful of the first four dams in the family as producers. She has seven offspring who won, and in addition to Rebel Surge, she had another smart runner in Roi De Vitesse (Chineur). This nine-time winner was second at two in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket.

Hopefully it is not too long until Rajasinghe has his first stakes winner, and at the age of 11 there is still lots of time for breeders and buyers at the sales to appreciate what he has done.