FROM Sir Delius claiming his third Group 1 win in Australia on April 13th, to Gilded Prize confirming her talent and becoming a real classic hope in the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre seven days later,

Banstead Manor Stud-based Frankel (Galileo) sired four pattern race winners, with Oxagon outlining his classic credentials with victory in the Group 3 Craven Stakes, and the four-year-old Damysus recording his second Group 3 success,

Let’s take a look at the classic hopefuls, Gilded Prize and Oxagon, both homebred, and where better to begin than with Juddmonte’s French winner. Trained by Francis Graffard (is there no end to the emerging talent in his yard, in addition to the established stars?), Gilded Prize is unbeaten in three starts. A debut winner on the Chantilly all-weather in November, she was back there in late March to win again before tackling turf for the first time in the Cleopatre.

Graffard immediately felt that Gilded Prize’s likely target would be the Oaks at Epsom, and she was halved in price for that classic after her win. Minnie Hauk, Soul Sister and Anapurna are other daughters of Frankel to win the Oaks, and the first two are out of mares by Dansili (Danehill), as is Gilded Prize. One wouldn’t bet against that cross delivering for a fourth time. Gilded Prize is the third foal out of Grand Jete (Dansili), and the second winner. Her first offspring, Ephrata (Ghostzapper), sold for 200,000gns after being placed a number of times at two, went on to win three races in Canada, all at Woodbine. Grand Jete’s second foal, a colt by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), was never named, and she has a two-year-old filly Dorrin (Frankel) and her yearling full-brother.

Flourished

Grand Jete started her racing career in France, where she won a maiden at the fourth time of asking. She was somewhat disappointing after that, but connections still sent her to Chad Brown in the USA where she flourished.

She won her first three starts, including a Grade 3 at Monmouth Park, and then raced three times in Grade 1 company. She dead-heated for second in the Beverly D Stakes, ran third in the Flower Bowl Stakes, and was unplaced at the Breeders’ Cup.

Grand Jete is the best of seven winners from the Group 2 winner Modern Look (Zamindar), a half-sister to the triple Australian Group 1 winner Foreteller (Dansili), and to the stakes-winning dam of Group 2 winner and Group 1 sire Showcasing (Oasis Dream). Modern Look’s dam Prophecy (Warning) won the 1993 Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes.

Cheekpieces seem to have worked the oracle for the Gosden-trained Oxagon, who put himself right in the picture for the English and Irish 2000 Guineas with a win on his seasonal debut in the Craven Stakes. The Gosden father and son team won the same race last year with Field Of Gold.

Nawara Stud

Racing for Prince Faisal, who bred him under his Nawara Stud banner, Oxagon won a Sandown novice on his second start at two and was runner-up in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes. Three and a half lengths behind Gewan when fifth in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, Oxagon then was hugely disappointing in the William Hill Futurity after racing too keenly.

Oxagon is the second winner out of the Godolphin-raced Endless Charm (Dubawi). She was bred by a partnership that included New England Stud and Mount Coote Stud, and was acquired privately.

Endless Charm won on her only start at two, and finished last on her sole outing the following spring. She was eventually culled by Godolphin, purchased by Nawara Stud for 300,000gns in foal to Pinatubo (Shamardal). The colt she was carrying was never named.

Contrast the price Endless Charm realised with what her daughter Exquisement (New Approach) who sold for last year. Placed twice in France, she was snapped up for 1,000gns and now she is a half-sister to a Group 3 winner with classic aspirations! Surely some keen-eyed agent or stallion master has been on her tail for acquisition.

Endless Charm’s three runners have yielded two winners and a placed horse, and she has a two-year-old colt, Farasan (Teofilo), and this spring foaled a filly by Camelot (Montjeu).

MARK Dreeling and his veterinary surgeon wife Barbara Fonzo have already produced one of the fairytale stories of 2026. They are the breeders, as Coole House Farm, of the Karl Burke-trained Alparslan (Dandy Man) who holds entries in the Irish and English 2000 Guineas.

At the weekend Alparslan showed that he had trained on from his two-year-old season, taking the Group 3 Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes, a race that year after year throws up high-class winners who often get their chance at stud. This year’s field of eight included Group 1 winner Zavateri, the Ballydoyle ‘talking horse’ Albert Einstein, the UAE 2000 Guineas winner Title Role, listed winner Ardisia and three other winners.

This win could not have come at a better time for Dreeling and Fonzo, as on May 22nd they will offer Alparslan’s two-year-old half-brother by the much sought after Minzaal (Mehmas) at the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale. He is the second foal out of the winning Toronado (High Chaparral) mare Laciredeski, and the second to be offered for sale at Fairyhouse.

Federico Barberini

At the 2024 yearling sale, the Monasterevin-based Coole House Farm sold Alparslan for €75,000 to bloodstock agent Federico Barberini, and he made the perfect start to his racing career for owner Mohamed Saeed Al Shehhi. He bolted up in a seven-furlong Leicester novice, and such was the impression he made that he was sent off favourite for the 16-runner Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes over six and a half furlongs. He was hugely impressive, taking home a winners’ purse of €135,500.

For the final start of his juvenile season, Alparslan was pitched in at the deep end, in the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes, and he ran sixth. This was no disgrace when you consider that the first five home were the European champion Gewan, Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Gstaad, Group 3 winner Distant Storm, Zavateri and Oxagon.

Breeding horses for some 30 years now, Dreeling and Fonzo have enjoyed racing and sales successes from a small band of mares, currently six in numbers. They know the family of Alparslan as they had his grandam on the farm for a client. That mare is Sciolina (Oratorio). She had five foals, four of which won, and only two were fillies, one of which was not named.

Some Respect

Sciolina’s first foal, Alparslan’s dam Laciredeski, joins triple stakes winner Some Respect (Gleneagles), Group 1 runner-up Erosandpsyche (Sepoy) and Vestigia (Footstepsinthesand) on the winners roster. Sciolina was a smart racemare in Italy, numbering a pair of listed races among her seven victories. When it was no longer possible to breed from Sciolina, Fonzo suggested that they go in search of Laciredeski. She was found and purchased.

Laciredeski sold as a yearling for 27,000gns to Richard Hughes, but after failing to race she was offloaded at a Tattersalls Ascot Sale for £600 as a two-year-old. She was purchased by a Dutch owner, and won three races as a four-year-old in Germany and Belgium.

Alparslan is from the penultimate crop of Dandy Man (Mozart), a great favourite of Joe Foley at Ballyhane Stud, and a horse who was hugely beneficial for breeders with limited funds throughout his life.

His ability to get winners, and early types, was almost unmatched, and for this reason breeders loved him. He got sales horses too, and Alparslan is his sixteenth pattern winner.