YOU win a Group 1, after finishing second in four of them in succession, and then another comes along within a month. Such is the story of Calandagan, bred by the late Aga Khan IV and now racing in the colours of the Aga Khan Studs.

His latest success, in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, took the four-year-old gelding’s career earnings to €3.35 million, and makes him the outstanding runner sired by Coolmore’s Gleneagles (Galileo). That 13-year-old sire has just completed his tenth covering season in Tipperary, and his fee of €20,000 is a third of what he started out at. Five of his 28 group winners, from six crops that are three-year-olds or older, have won at the highest level, and Calandagan is the first to win more than once.

I have written before about the regret which must be felt that Calandagan suffered the unkindest cut of all at two following his third-place finish in a maiden, the only time in his 12-race career that he has been out of the first two. In hindsight, that was not a bad first run as the winner was Metropolitan who subsequently won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, and has just completed his first season at stud. On his next start, Calandagan raced to a 10-length win on the Chantilly all-weather.

Last year, a couple of Group 3 wins in France encouraged connections to launch a challenge for the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, and Calandagan was hugely impressive, winning by six lengths. His six runs since have all been in Group 1 contests, and he was runner-up in four of them – to City Of Troy in the Juddmonte International, to Anmaat in the Champion Stakes, behind Danon Decile at Meydan in the Dubai Sheema Classic, and to Jan Brueghel in the Coronation Cup. He firmly and finally got his first Group 1 win in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Impeccably-bred

Calandagan joins Mill Stream (July Cup), Highland Chief (Man O’War Stakes), Palladium (German Derby) and Loving Dream (Prix de Royallieu) as a top-table winner for the impeccably-bred, four-time Group 1 winner Gleneagles, one of four such winners for the stallion’s dam You’resothrilling (Storm Cat). That pedigree is referred to elsewhere in this week’s column.

Gleneagles’ small fee increase this year has been more than justified by events on the racecourse. This year’s winners also include Arrow Eagle, and his run of four wins in 2025 includes the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly, run in honour of the late Aga Khan IV. Five of Gleneagles’ half-dozen stakes winners this season are four-year-olds, and his stock improve with time.

Calandagan has been responsible for a major resurgence in his female family, though the bar for measuring success in families at the Aga Khan Studs is a great deal higher than for most. The dual Group 1 winner is the first stakes winner in three generations, though Canndal (Medicean), a son of Calandagan’s third dam, was runner-up in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby.

Best performance

While the Aga Khan Studs sold Calandagan’s second, third and fourth dams, and many of their offspring, they do retain his dam Calayana (Sinndar), and all but one of her offspring. Calayana ran at three and four, winning each year, and put up her best performance when second to the Group 1 winner God Given in the Group 3 Prix Minerve at Deauville. Her first foal Caliyza (Le Havre), a dual winner, was sold by her breeder for €100,000 at three, and again last year for 155,000gns, her value boosted by the emergence of Calandagan. What would she make now?

Calayana has three winners with her first three foals, and her three-year-old daughter Calamandra (New Bay) won on her debut in May and has finished a frustrating fourth in a pair of listed races on her only runs since. Connections can look forward to two younger offspring of Calayana, her two-year-old daughter Calasita (Zarak), and a yearling filly by Palace Pier (Kingman). Calayana is in foal to Siyouni (Pivotal).

While I mentioned that Calandagan has revitalised his branch of the family, I should point out that his fourth dam was the smart racemare Clodora (Linamix), winner of the then Group 2 Prix de l’Opera, and whose best winner was Clodovil (Danehill), successful in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas and a Group 1 sire.

Tornado blows Hot in Germany

DARLEY’S Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) had a stellar weekend, which was crowned when his three-year-old son Tornado Alert, a Godolphin homebred, won the Group 1 Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in impressive fashion at Munich on Sunday.

This was Too Darn Hot’s fourth winner at the highest level. He sired classic winner Fallen Angel in his first crop, while the Group 1-winning juvenile Hotazhell and Tornado Alert are from his second crop sired at Dalham Hall. Meanwhile, his son Broadsiding is a four-time Group 1 winner in Australia.

Too Darn Hot had an excellent weekend with three new stakes winners, taking his tally to 27, and 16 coming in pattern races. His juvenile daughter Fitzella is his second winner of the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes, while his three-year-old son Emit landed the Listed Marble City at Gowran Park.

This Group 1 German success is another feather in the cap for Sheikh Mohammed and his breeding and racing empires. This is a family that has a multi-layered story, going right back to Rimosa’s Pet (Petingo), winner of the Group 3 Musidora Stakes at York and Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Epsom when trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

She was foaled 49 years ago, and bred by Sir Charles Clore. He sold her at the 1979 Tattersalls December Sale for 200,000gns to Captain Tim Rogers of Airlie Stud, who stood the filly’s sire.

Nine winners

Rimosa’s Pet bred nine winners, but Rogers sold the mare in 1986 to Peter Tellwright, carrying a colt, later named Rock City (Ballad Rock). He won the Coventry, July and Gimcrack Stakes at two and finished second in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes. Rock City was born a year after Kerrera (Diesis), an easy winner of the Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes and runner-up to her Stoute-trained stablemate in the Group 1 1000 Guineas.

Kerrera was acquired by Sheikh Mohammed in one of his famous raids on untapped talent before she even raced, reputedly for a seven-figure sum. This was 1988, and while she was talented, Kerrera did not justify her purchase price with her racecourse performances. She had seven winners, while a couple of her daughters did well at stud. The best of these, and Kerrera’s top runner, was Firth Of Lorne (Danehill).

For a mare of her racing talent, Firth Of Lorne only managed to win one listed race at two, and the following year was second to Zenda in the Group 1 1000 Guineas. She continued the family tradition of breeding many winners, 10 in her case, and her son, Godolphin’s Master Of The Seas (Dubawi), won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita, and two other Grade 1s, one in the USA and one in Canada.

Highest level

Now, two daughters of Firth Of Lorne have each produced a pair of winners at racing’s highest level. Bint Almatar (Kingmambo), is not only dam of Tornado Alert, but her son, the Godolphin-bred Just Fine (Sea The Stars), won the Group 1 Metropolitan in Australia after he was sold by Queen Elizabeth for 300,000gns. Bint Almatar won three times, but her race record pales by comparison with her half-sister, Falls Of Lora (Street Cry).

A listed winner in England and successful in the Group 3 UAE Oaks, Falls Of Lora has produced a number of fine runners for Godolphin. Her son Cascadian (New Approach) won four Group 1 races in Australia, while Albahr (Dubawi) took the honours in Canada in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at two. It looked for a time as though Cascadian’s own-brother, Isle Of Jura (New Approach), would ascend to greater heights after he beat Goliath in last year’s Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, but he has not raced since.