SEPTEMBER has been a good month for the Wertheimer Brothers. They have won five stakes races in France, starting with victory for Aventure (Sea The Stars) in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille.
On Thursday week they had three pattern winners, Double Major (Daiwa Major) upping his prospects of a third Group 1 Prix Royal Oak victory with success in the Group 3 Prix Gladiator. He is by the sire of Admire Mars. The juvenile Nighttime (Wootton Bassett) won a third race on the bounce in the Group 3 Prix La Rochette, while another two-year-old Green Spirit (Kingman) remains unbeaten after taking the Group 2 Prix d’Aumale.
Green Spirit was achieving her most important victory two days after her stakes-placed half-sister Starifique (Sea The Stars) bred the listed French juvenile winner Ozone (Lope De Vega). Wertheimer colours are likely to feature prominently on Arc weekend.
Aga Khan Studs
Another owner-breeder operation to have a good weekend was that of the Aga Khan Studs. They won the Group 2 Solonaway Stakes at Leopardstown with Alakazi (Footstepsinthesand), a lightly-raced colt who is the first foal of Alaiya (Sea The Stars). The dam is a daughter of the Group 3 winner Alanza (Dubai Destination).
Meanwhile, in France Roshvar (Siyouni) took the Group 3 Prix du Pin, and became the second stakes winner for her listed-placed dam, Roshanara (Sea The Stars).
Gilltown Stud’s Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) got in on the act himself when his six-year-old Normandie Stud-bred Sweet William won the Group 2 Doncaster Cup for the second time. He is a half-brother to dual classic winner Hurricane Lane (Frankel).
Patrick Burns
What a broodmare Patrick Burns’ Titian Saga (Titus Livius) has turned out to be. All but one of her 10 foals have run, eight have won and the other placed, six were successful at two, and her current two-year-old Revival Power (Bungle Inthejungle) could well become her second Group 1 winner judging by the manner of her victory in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster.
This full-sister to Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes heroine Winter Power (Bungle Inthejungle) is also an own-sister to this year’s US winning three-year-old Ortley Avenue (Bungle Inthejungle) who placed second in a Grade 3 at Saratoga. Revival Power is a third pattern winner this year for her Rathasker Stud sire.
Classic picture
Bred by Coolmore Stud and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, Benvenuto Cellini (Frankel) put himself firmly in the classic picture for 2026 when he won the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes, following in the hoofprints of recent winners Auguste Rodin and Diego Velazquez. If any juvenile colt this season has the pedigree of a potential champion, this is it.
He is the 110th group winner sired by Frankel (Galileo), and stakes winner number 168. Benvenuto Cellini has contributed significantly to the perfect start at stud for his dam, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Newspaperofrecord (Lope De Vega). He is that mare’s second foal and second stakes winner this year, after the Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Giselle (Frankel).
St Mark’s Basilica
The St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) bandwagon keeps on rolling, and his tally of first crop two-year-old winners reached 15 on Tuesday.
He had a memorable weekend with two new stakes winners, the Yeomanstown Stud-bred Aylin, a 600,000gns yearling, winning the Group 2 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster, while the opening race of the Irish Champions Festival, the Listed Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes, was won by the unbeaten Diamond Necklace, herself a €1.7 million Arqana yearling.
They take to three the number of stakes winners in the 2023-foaled first crop by St Mark’s Basilica, who famously rounded off a perfect second season racing with victory in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes. One third of the dual classic hero’s winners to date have earned blacktype.
Aylin is a daughter of the listed two-year-old winner Angelic Light, while Diamond Necklace’s dam Prudenzia (Dansili) is the dam of Group 1 winners Magic Wand (Galileo) and Chicquita (Montjeu), 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).
Wrap up
The Group 2 Coventry Stakes winner Calyx (Kingman) is waiting for his first Group 1 winner, and a possible contender for that honour is the Group 2 Blandford Stakes winner Barnavara.
Bred by Andriy Milovonov and Viktor Tymoshenko, the three-year-old was bought by BBA Ireland at Goffs for €70,000, has earned some €250,000, and her four wins to date include a Navan listed race, the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes and now a Group 2. All her five placed runs have been in pattern races.
Barnavara’s dam Alfea, a daughter of Kentucky Dynamite (Kingmambo), won twice at two, in Poland. Her first three foals are all winners, and her fourth is set to star in Book 1 at Tattersalls. Lot 13, this daughter of Blackbeard (No Nay Never) cost 300,000gns as a foal, the best price for a foal by that dual Group-winning juvenile.
In July, Convergent, a son of Fascinating Rock (Fastnet Rock) who stands at Burgage Stud, was denied a Group 1 victory when beaten a short head in the Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby.
On his first start since, Convergent won a Group 3 at Leopardstown, part of a very successful weekend for the Karl Burke stable. He is one of a pair of winners out of Monty’s Miracle (Shamardal), and his full-sister Molten Rock (Fascinating Rock) was group-placed in Germany.