NAMED after a famous painter, Jan Brueghel was beaten on his reappearance this year, when second to Galen in the Group 3 Alleged Stakes. This was a first defeat for last year’s winner of the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster. The four-year-old redeemed himself with a battling victory in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Epsom, the first of three wins in the feature races over the two days of that meeting for Ballydoyle.

Bred in Co Wicklow by David and Diane Nagle at their Barronstown Stud, Jan Brueghel became the 101st Group 1 winner for Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) when he recorded his classic success. Galileo died in the year of Jan Brueghel’s birth. Winner of five of his six starts and unraced at two, Jan Brueghel is the second classic winner for his dam, the Group 2-placed Devoted To You (Danehill Dance).

Galileo on Danehill (Danzig) mares has been responsible for 18 of his century of Group and Grade 1 winners, while the sire on Danehill Dancer has given us stars such as seven-time Group 1 heroine Minding, Oaks and Breeders’ Cup winner Tuesday, Irish 1000 Guineas winner Empress Josephine, triple Group 1 winners Alice Springs and Circus Maximus, Derby winner Serpentine, French classic and Sussex Stakes winner The Gurkha, and Jan Brueghel’s Irish Derby-winning full-brother Sovereign.

Breeder of the Year

One of the earliest winners of the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Year Award, Diane and David have bred so many racing stars that even they may have lost count. Jan Brueghel’s full-brother, Group 1 Irish Derby winner Sovereign, only won twice, including a maiden at Galway at two, and now stands at stud in Argentina. Their dam Devoted To You carried the silks of Diane Nagle to a maiden success at Galway, before running second to Lillie Langtry in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes at Leopardstown.

Though she did not win again, at three Devoted To You was runner-up in the Group 3 Lodge Park EBF Park Express Stakes at the Curragh, and towards the end of that season she divided Famous Name and Choose Me when second in the Listed Trigo Stakes back at Leopardstown.

For many years, Devoted To You enjoyed regular matings with Galileo, and it additionally produced the classic-placed Dawn Rising, a Group and Grade 3 winner on the flat and over hurdles, and Grade 1 hurdle runner-up Triplicate. Devoted To You has a yearling filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).

Sovereign and Jan Brueghel are not the first classic winners in their immediate family. The third dam Morning Devotion (Affirmed) bred Balanchine (Storm Bird) who added the Group 1 Irish Derby to a prior success in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom, and a second-place finish in the Group 1 1000 Guineas. Balanchine won twice at two for Robert Sangster before attracting the attention of the Maktoum family. She was bought privately and sent to join the new Godolphin team. This was 1993.

Bold move

After her Oaks win, the decision was made to take on the colts in the Irish Derby. Balanchine justified the bold move and stayed on strongly to win by four and a half lengths from the Derby second King’s Theatre. Some three weeks later she contracted colic and was gravely ill, but her life was saved. She raced again at four, her best effort coming in the Group 2 Prix Foy when she finished a short-head second to the Arc winner Carnegie.

Dam of eight winners to date, Devoted To You is herself one of nine winners from a dozen starters out of the unraced Alleged Devotion (Alleged), four of which are stakes winners and seven of which were stakes performers. The Grade 3 winner Humble Eight (Seattle Battle) bred a couple of stakes winners for John Gaines, while one of Devoted To You’s unraced progeny, Luxury (Storm Cat,) is the dam of a pair of Group 2 winners in Japan.

Balanchine’s half-sister, Red Slippers (Nureyev), winner of the then Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes, bred the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner West Wind (Machiavellian), is grandam of the dual Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow (Helmet), and third dam of Coroebus (Dubawi) who won the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes and 2000 Guineas.

Irish mares dominate in Just A Game Stakes at Saratoga

DYNAMIC Pricing, a four-year-old Irish-bred daughter of Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), won her first Grade 1 in the USA when she beat a pair of mares, also bred here in Ireland, to land the Just A Game Stakes at Saratoga over the weekend.

Bred by Denis Brosnan’s Epona Bloodstock at Croom House Stud, Dynamic Pricing beat the Sandra Russell-bred Excellent Truth (Cotai Glory), a €1.6 million Arqana Sale purchase in December, and Special Wan (Belardo), bred by Jim Browne at his Kilnamoragh Stud. Successful on her only start at two, Dynamic Pricing won the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs last year. She is unbeaten on both her starts in 2025, winning Belmont’s Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes before taking the weekend feature.

With winnings now of almost $775,000, and the possibility of boosting it further were she to win the Grade 1 Diana Stakes, Dynamic Pricing is one of a pair of winning daughters of the Aga Khan-bred Shemda (Dutch Art). Sold at three having won that year in France for €100,000, Shemda was bought by Brosnan for 110,000gns a year later, this time carrying her first foal, a daughter by Showcasing (Oasis Dream). That filly, named Brown Mouse, sold as a yearling for 100,000gns, and came closest to winning when placing four times in Jersey as a four-year-old.

Shemda’s second foal was another filly, Hi Clare (Kodiac), and this £75,000 yearling won a couple of times. Dynamic Pricing made it three fillies in a row, and she cost Irish-born bloodstock agent Mike Ryan 170,000gns as a yearling, but that was off a €25,000 covering fee! The fourth and fifth progeny of Shemda are a yearling colt by Mehmas (Acclamation) and a full-brother to Dynamic Pricing born this spring. Shemda, not surprisingly, was covered again by Night Of Thunder.

Aga Khan Studs

Shemda is one of five winners out of the winning mare Shamooda (Azamour), the most recent of which is the triple Group 3 winner Shamida (Australia). Sadly, she died before having an opportunity to join the broodmare band at the Aga Khan Studs. Shamooda is a daughter of the 1993 Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner Shemaka (Nishapour). She had three stakes-winning daughters, headed by the Group 2 winner Shemima (Dalakhani).

The two listed winners out of Shemaka have both made their mark at stud. Shemaya (Darshaan) bred the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby runner-up Shamkiyr (Sea The Stars), and is third dam of the Group 1 Champion Stakes winner Bay Bridge (New Bay). Meanwhile, Shemala (Danehill) had a Group 3 winner and is grandam of Shakeel (Dalakhani). His two wins included the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at Saint-Cloud.

Night Of Thunder is now the sire of seven Group or Grade 1 winners, and this year he is off the mark as a classic sire when his daughter Desert Flower won the Group 1 1000 Guineas. The Kildangan Stud sire is having a year to remember with three top level winners, all fillies, and all from different crops. In addition to the pair already mentioned, his five-year-old daughter Choisya won the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes, but she was unplaced behind Dynamic Pricing in the Just A Game Stakes.