“IT has to be Brave for Royal Ascot” was my rather bold statement after Comanche Brave (Wootton Bassett) won the Weatherbys-sponsored (for the 32nd time), six-furlong Group 2 Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh on Guineas weekend. He was heading for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes where he finished seventh of the 18 runners, less than three lengths behind the winner, Almeraq.

Comanche Brave had been to Ascot a year before, and in 2025 was third in the seven-furlong Group 3 Jersey Stakes, a race that was won by his dam Ishvana (Holy Roman Emperor) more than a decade earlier. That Curragh win was the only blacktype victory for the four-year-old colt, until last Saturday, He is a Group 1 winner following his defeat of Venetian Sun in the July Cup, and is likely to tackle some of the world’s premier sprints.

Clearly improving with almost every race, Comanche Brave earlier this year shoed that he was a worthy Group 1 contender when not disgraced behind the phenomenal Hong Kong champion Ka Ying Rising at Sha Tin in April. Ar stallion prospect, Comanche Brave is the 22nd Group or Grade 1 winner for Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), and the late sire recently passed another landmark. His tally of stakes winners now stands at 91 – and counting.

On a weekend that saw a couple of the Ballydoyle stars this year having to settle for second-best in Group 1 races, the Donnacha O’Brien-trained Comanche Brave brought cheer to Annemarie and Aidan O’Brien as they bred the July Cup winner through Whisperview Trading. The colt has passed the €1 million mark in winnings, helped by valuable placed efforts in both Saudi Arabia and Meydan.

Shrewd purchase

Comanche Brave is the best of three winners for his dam Ishvana who won the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot in Annemarie O’Brien’s colours. She had previously been second in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas. One of her other winners is Tracing (Galileo), a shrewd purchase by Kevin Blake a few years ago and a dual winner producer.

I imagine that there have been lots of transatlantic telephone calls in recent days in search of Ishvana’s five-year-old daughter Three Five Three (Churchill). She sold for $8,500 at Fasig Tipton last December, having cost €200,000 as a yearling.

She never raced due to an injury early in her training career. She has a yearling colt by Grade 1 winner Gufo (Declaration Of War), but was sold not in foal last December.

Ishvana is out of Song Of The Sea (Bering), another Annemarie O’Brien special, bought two decades ago for €23,000 as a five-year-old by Kieran Murphy.

Her daughter Ishvana is a full-sister to Holy Alliance (Holy Roman Emperor), and the two could not be more different when it came to racing ability, or more accurately non-ability in the case of the latter!

Compensated

Holy Alliance beat one other in two juvenile starts at the Curragh, and was nearly 10 lengths off the winner on her only other outing at Dundalk.

That lack of ability has been compensated for at stud, and her roll of honour is headed by Mountain Bear (No Nay Never).

He won Dundalk’s Listed Star Appeal Stakes at two and travelled to Santa Anita where he was second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf. He also ran third in Goodwood’s Group 2 Vintage Stakes.

Mountain Bear was disappointing at three until he contested the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland, and finished third behind Carl Spackler. He sold for 330,000gns to join Wesley Ward, but is only a shadow of his former self now.

Song Of The Seas had five winners, and she was a half-sister to six. If you go a little further back, you will come across a great Ballymacoll Stud female line.

Comanche Brave is the first Group 1 winner in three generations of his dam line, but under his fourth dam you unearth racing treasures like Islington (Sadler’s Wells), Hellenic (Darshaan), Mountain High (Danehill), Greek Dance (Sadler’s Wells), and Fiorente (Monsun).

THESECRETADVERSARY (St Mark’s Basilica) is not averse to making a significant contribution by means of his racing career. He became the first stakes winner for his sire when taking the Listed Churchill Stakes at Tipperary last year, and now has given trainer James ‘Fozzy’ Stack a landmark first European Group 1 win. Stack did win the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks a few years ago with Aspen Grove.

Royal Ascot was memorable for St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni). He sired the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes winner King Of Cloughan and Group 3 Jersey Stakes-winning three-year-old colt Thesecretadversary, and these wins came hot on the heels of the unbeaten Diamond Necklace landing the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, making her a dual French classic winner this year and a three-time Group 1 winner. The Coolmore stallion, costing €40,000 this year which was down from €65,000 when he retired in 2022, is also sire of this year’s Group 2 Derby Italiano winner Venetian Prince, and last year’s Group 2 May Hill Stakes winner Aylin.

Cayton Park

Bred by Coolmore and Cayton Park Stud, Thesecretadversary sports the colours of Cayton Park’s Gaynor Rupert. She owns the impressive Drakenstein Stud in South Africa. In addition to his Group 1 win and his Jersey Stakes success, Thesecretadversary last year showed his precocity when running second as a maiden in the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot. His career will now be carefully orchestrated, given that both of his owners are in the stallion-making business.

Thesecretadversary is the second foal and first winner for Too Soon To Panic (Gleneagles), a listed winner at Gowran Park of the Victor McCalmont Memorial Stakes for the same owners, breeders and trainer. Her dam, Scream Blue Murder (Oratorio), was a Group 3 sprint winner at the Curragh, trained by Tommy Stack, and she was another to race for Gaynor Rupert and Sue Magnier. Her five winners include two other stakes-placed winners by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

Six dams

The next four dams, all listed winners, were bred by the late Queen Elizabeth. That means the first six dams of Thesecretadversary are all stakes winners, a rare feat in breeding. There is a second pattern winner in 2026 in the family, and the other appears under third dam Holly Blue (Bluebird). She is grandam of Sun Goddess (Sioux Nation), the Group 3 Albany Stakes second who came back to the Curragh and won the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes.

The best winner out of Holly Blue, Gibraltar Blue (Rock Of Gibraltar), won a maiden on her debut for Tommy Stack and then headed to South Africa where her three Group 2 wins included the Ipi Tombe Stakes and Guineas at Greyville. She was Group 1-placed and has done well with four stakes-placed winners.