FORTY-TWO. That’s the number of Group or Grade 1 winners sired by Frankel (Galileo) since the unbeaten superstar racehorse went to stand at Banstead Manor Stud in 2013.

The most recent addition to that list is the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby hero Benvenuto Cellini, justifying the decision by Ryan Moore to stay loyal to the Epsom Derby favourite.

Officially declared a non-runner at Epsom, Benvenuto Cellini has outstanding stallion prospect written all over him, and he is continuing a sire line that is simply one of the greatest in the history of the thoroughbred. Galileo, Sadler’s Wells, Northern Dancer, Nearctic and the great Federico Tesio-bred Nearco (Pharos).

This win was also a milestone moment for Ballylinch Stud and their world-class Lope De Vega (Shamardal), as Benvenuto Cellini is the first Group 1 winner out of one of his daughters. He has been knocking on the door for some time, and among his top-level placed horses are The Lion In Winter (Sea The Stars), Persian Force (Mehmas), Sober (Camelot) and Impact Warrior (Saxon Warrior). Expect them to flow like a river from now on.

Success story

This is a success story that started without any fanfare three decades ago. Allan Belshaw, who races under the name of Times of Wigan, also includes the word Times in all of them.

In 1995 he bought a yearling filly with Bill O’Gorman at the yearling sales in Ocala. She was by a sire called Dodge (Mr Prospector), and would go to race twice. Simply Times would not emulate the achievements of a horse called Timeless Times whom O’Gorman had trained to win 16 times at two from 21 starts, and he placed on all but one of the remaining juvenile runs.

Simply Times collapsed half a furlong from the line on her debut, but thankfully she eventually got to her feet. One more start told connections to send her to stud, and she showed no lasting effects of the racing incident, going on to breed 10 winners, among them the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes winner Welsh Emperor (Emperor Jones). He was twice runner-up in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret.

The first foal out of Simply Times was a filly, Forever Times (So Factual). She raced 51 times and won six for Tim Easterby and Belshaw before heading to stud. Her daughter Question Times (Shamardal) was second in a listed race at Newmarket and sold for 50,000gns. She went on to breed three stakes winners, the Group 1 Irish Derby winner Latrobe (Camelot), Group 3 winner Diamond Fields (Fastnet Rock), and Latrobe’s listed-winning full-sister Pink Dogwood who placed in three Group 1s, the Irish and English Oaks and the Pretty Polly Stakes.

Retained

Belshaw retained the best racecourse performer out of Forever Times, Group 3 winner Sunday Times (Holy Roman Emperor). She won the Group 3 Sceptre Stakes at three, while at two she was half a length second in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. After foaling five winners for Belshaw, she sold for 1,800,000gns to M.V. Magnier. Heading that group of five was Newspaperofrecord (Lope De Vega) who sold as a yearling for 200,000gns, went to Chad Brown in the USA and was a Grade 1 winner at two and again at four, capturing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Just A Game Stakes.

Which brings us right up to date. Newspaperofrecord is now owned by Coolmore and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm. Her first foal is Giselle (Frankel). She won two of her five starts, a maiden at two and a listed race at three, was third to dual Group 1 winner Whirl in the Group 3 Silken Glider Stakes, and was not seen again after running fifth in the Oaks last year. As useful as she was, her full-brother is so much superior.

Runner-up on his first start, Benvenuto Cellini won at Killarney on his way to winning Leopardstown’s Group 2 Golden Fleece Stakes. He started favourite for and finished third in Group 1 Futurity at Doncaster. Impressive when winning the Group 3 Chester Vase, we all know what happened at Epsom, and now that disappointment is history.

High achievers

Surely no entity in the world can have a broodmare band of high achievers such as that owned by Coolmore, sometimes in partnership as is the case with Newspaperofrecord. Two stakes winners with her first two offspring have surely set her up for the future, and it is one in which she already has a two-year-old own-sister to the Irish Derby winner waiting, named Sweetly (Frankel), followed by a yearling son of Justify (Scat Daddy).

What do the dual Australian Group 1 winner Converge and the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner heroine Ylang Ylang have in common? They are both out of Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) mares. Now they are joined at the top table of racing by a colt from one of the best of Shamardal’s sons. This year’s Group 2 Dante Stakes winner Item is another out of a Lope De Vega mare. Frankel is currently in pursuit of Night Of Thunder in the race to be champion sire.

FOR the ninth time in a quarter of a century, Aidan O’Brien supplied the first three home in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

Benvenuto Cellini was followed by the Derby winner at Epsom, Christmas Day, while Pierre Bonnard was third. Just two lengths covered the first three, and the pair behind the winner share a major factor in common, both are sons of Camelot (Montjeu). It was in 2012 that he himself won the Irish Derby, following on from his success at Epsom.

Camelot has certainly shown himself over the years to be a sire to use if you are looking for a classic horse. Two of his sons, Los Angeles and Benvenuto Cellini’s relation Latrobe, are winners. This year he came agonisingly close to getting a third, instead of which it was Frankel who did so, his winner joining Westover and Hurricane Lane on the roll of honour.

Camelot is also responsible for the Irish Oaks winner Even So, the German Derby winner Sammarco, and the Irish-bred, South Australian Derby winner Russian Camelot. This notable list of winners does not include the four-time Group 1 winner Luxembourg, three-time Group 1 winner and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Bluestocking, and a pair of dual Group/Grade 1 winners in Santa Barbara and Sir Dragonet.

Recently, Camelot sired his 150th stakes performer on the flat, he is the father of 73 stakes winners, while the majority of them, 46 in all, are pattern winners. At the time of writing he is just ahead of Starspangledbanner in fourth place on the sires’ table, behind three greats in Night Of Thunder, Frankel and Sea The Stars. The race to be champion sire (which covers racing in Britain and Ireland) is hotting up.

It was by only three-parts of a length that Camelot failed to become the first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky in 1970, and the second since Bahram in 1935. His sire Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) has been a great classic influence, but it was Camelot’s speed which set him apart. He won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy at two and is Montjeu’s only classic winner over a mile, in the 2000 Guineas.