WHATEVER else he does in life, Co Kilkenny pharmacist James Cloney will never spend 14,000gns more wisely than he did at the Tattersalls July Sale in 2016. In search of a mare by Pivotal (Polar Falcon), he acquired, through BBA Ireland, a winner at three named Entreat who was being culled by her breeders, Cheveley Park Stud. She was then aged 10.

Entreat was in foal to Lethal Force (Dark Angel), who had just completed his third season at the Newmarket stud where his fee was £10,000. The decision to sell was quite a sensible one, given that when she was catalogued for the sale she had two runners, both of which were placed, and all four of her foals were by Dutch Art (Medicean). Just in time for the sale itself, Entreat’s first offspring, Suitor, who had been sold the previous year for 40,000gns, got his head in front in a 0-75 handicap at Newcastle. He would later go on to win over hurdles from Gordon Elliott’s Cullentra Stables.

The second foal from Entreat was Dutch Treaty (Dutch Art), and she accompanied her dam to the sale where she sold for 8,000gns. Though she was listed as being placed, her two runs saw her finish last of four on her debut, and she beat two home in a nine-runner maiden on her only other start. She has been a much better broodmare, her three winners including the US stakes-placed filly Annie’s Song (Camacho). Dutch Treaty was cleverly bought by Cloney five and a half years ago for 40,000gns.

Later in 2016, Cheveley Park sold Entreat’s third foal Plead (Dutch Art) after she won as a two-year-old, and bought her back a year and a half later, a move that was smart given what has unfolded in the family since. The Dutch Art yearling filly that Entreat had at the time of her sale was later named Exhort, and her five wins included a listed success in the Pipalong Stakes at Pontefract as a four-year-old, the race sponsored by Weatherbys and the TBA.

Cloney and his father-in-law Michael Nolan saw their investment in Entreat well rewarded when the colt she had by Lethal Force sold to Clive Cox as a yearling for £65,000. He would go on to be given the name Golden Horde, and he became his sire’s first and only Group 1 winner when he added Royal Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup at three to his juvenile triumph in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes. He was in the frame on four other occasions in Group 1 company, once to another Cloney-bred, and now stands at stud in France, where he has a stakes winner with his first crop.

After foaling Golden Horde, Cloney sent Entreat to Tally-Ho Stud to visit Mehmas (Acclamation). The result was a colt who was sent to Doncaster for sale, the breeders using Highclere Stud and Lady Carolyn Warren to consign him. He proved to be very popular, being the third highest-priced lot at the sale, and he sold to Oliver St Lawrence for £260,000. Line Of Departure won a listed race at Salisbury for Roger Varian, the best of his four victories.

Magical story

The sale of Line Of Departure put Cloney and Nolan in the spotlight briefly, but this was just the beginning of what has become a magical story. Entreat’s third produce for the breeders was a filly, named Heart To Heart (Zoffany) after she was purchased by M.V. Magnier in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale for 580,000gns. She did not possess the talent of her siblings, though Aidan O’Brien did manage to get a maiden win at two out of her at Navan.

Heart To Heart was followed by another filly, Three Island (Zoustar). Unsold in the ring at Tattersalls for 240,000gns, she nonetheless found her way to Japan. She is still racing there, and her four wins have amassed more than £420,000 for her connections.

For just the second time in her life at stud, Entreat did not have a foal in 2021, and what excitement there must have been when she had a colt on February 5th, 2022 by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj). He was among the first Irish-conceived crop by that Coolmore stallion, and from a fee of €100,000. He now stands for three times that figure, and little wonder.

Wootton Bassett’s current crop of three-year-olds includes Group 1 winners Henri Matisse, Twain, Tennessee Stud, and Camille Pissarro, and the last-named is on his way to becoming the best of Entreat’s eight winning offspring. He was already a star in the eyes of his breeders when he sold as a yearling for 1,250,000gns to M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.

Last year, Camille Pissarro was rated the best juvenile in France after he won the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, and this season he built on his placed effort in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas with a fine victory on Sunday in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby. His earnings are approaching his yearling purchase price, while his value is many, many multiples.

Princely sum

Last year, Cloney sold another daughter of Entreat for a princely sum. Named Moon And Sixpence, the now two-year-old daughter of Dark Angel (Acclamation) realised 900,000gns and was purchased by Hugo Lascelles for Lady Bamford. After missing another year at stud, Cloney was over the moon to welcome a son of Justify (Scat Daddy) this spring out of Entreat, who is now 19.

When Entreat was purchased, she already had an outstanding pedigree on her dam’s side. She was one of five winners from River Saint (Irish Saint), and by some way the best of these was Producer (Dutch Art).

He won eight times, all when trained by Richard Hannon senior, and while he won a couple of Group 3 races in England, he gained his most valuable success in Turkey where he travelled to win the Group 2 International Topkapi Trophy by a head from Chil The Kite.

River Saint was an important addition to the broodmare band at Cheveley Park Stud, even though she later failed to win in six starts for Sir Michael Stoute. She had cost the farm $525,000 when the main yearling sale at Keeneland was held in July. That was in 1997, and River Saint’s attraction at the time was that her half-sister Serena’s Song (Rahy) had two years earlier been voted the best three-year-old filly in the USA.

Serena’s Song

In a stellar career, Serena’s Song won 18 times, and 11 of these were at Grade 1 level. Not only was she a star on the track, but she became a top-class broodmare. She bred the Group 1 Coronation Stakes winner Sophisticat (Storm Cat) and a couple of Grade 2 winners, while her stakes-winning daughter Serena’s Tune (Mr Prospector) is the grandam of the 2015 champion older horse in the USA, Honor Code (A P Indy).

Another branch of this family is very much in the news. Serena’s Song’s full-sister, Serena’s Sister (Rahy), ran twice, but her lack of racing ability did not restrict her at stud. She bred a couple of stakes winners. Her daughter Princess Serena (Unbridled’s Song), bred the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince (Lope De Vega) and is grandam of Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Rizeena (Iffraaj) and the recent Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas winner Field Of Gold (Kingman).