THERE is hardly a superlative that has not been attributed to the dozen or so outstanding stallions that currently reside in Ireland and Britain. As a writer, it can be frustrating at times as you seek to find a word that can accurately pay tribute to their achievements.

Brilliant, outstanding, superb, magnificent, marvellous; these are just a small selection of the adjectives that are now overused, especially when attributed to horses that have done very well, but are just below the very, very best. One of the European sires who deserves any of these descriptions is Juddmonte’s Frankel (Galileo). The 18-year-old is at Banstead Manor Stud and has completed his third season covering at £350,000 (almost €420,000).

The recently released Weatherbys Return of Mares shows that this year Frankel had a book that comprised 202 mares, and among them were an incredible 49 from Godolphin, 30 from Juddmonte and 23 from Coolmore. Other leading breeders using him were the Aga Khan Studs, Cheveley Park, Derrinstown, Moyglare and Newsells Park.

When you dig a little further into the list, Group and Grade 1 winners keep leaping out at you. With apologies if any are omitted, the list contains – in alphabetical order rather than by ranking – Al Husn, Alpine Star, Althiqa, Believing, Capla Temptress, Castle Lady, Cinderella’s Dream, Daddys Lil Darling, In Italian, Laurens, Lillie Langtry, Makarova, Meditate, Mother Earth, Polydream, Porta Fortuna, Proviso, Quiet Reflection, Ramatuelle, Romantic Proposal, Rushing Fall, Sobetsu, Special Duty, Tahiyra, Tenebrism and Teona.

The list of mares covered does not indicate their pregnancy status. On the unlikely assumption that they all are in foal, then next year would see the birth of full-brothers and sisters born to Group or Grade 1 winners; Adayar, Audience, Chaldean, El Cordobes, Empress Josephine, Homeless Songs, Hurricane Lane, Lake Victoria, Lambourn, Minding, Minnie Hauk, Nashwa, Sea La Rosa, Siskin, Tuesday and Ylang Ylang.

Greatness

There are many measures of greatness, but some of the criteria that can be ascribed to Frankel are that he has twice been champion sire (he will be runner-up this year), he is the most successful active sire of classic winners in this part of the world, and his present tally of Group/Grade 1 winners stands at 44 since last weekend.

Ten of those Group 1 winners did so as juveniles, Giant Sequoia on Saturday joining an elite list that also comprises Chaldean, Lake Victoria, Inspiral, Grenadier Guards, Soul Stirring, Quadrilateral and Ylang Ylang. Unsurprisingly, successes such as these translate into sale ring rewards, and his five seven-figure yearlings at Tattersalls Book this month include colts out of Shambolic for 4,000,000gns, out of Crystal Zvezda for 2,000,000gns, and out of Get Ahead for 1,800,000gns.

For good measure, his daughters are responsible for Group 1 winners Lead Artist (Dubawi), Sparkling Plenty (Kingman), and Zarigana (Siyouni). Two daughters feature in The Chiquita Session of the upcoming Goffs November Sale, a winning offspring of champion sprinter Marsha, and a half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner State Of Rest. The Sceptre Sessions at Newmarket include the group-placed Coco Royale, Group 3 winner and recent Group 1 runner-up Believed, and another Group 3 winner in Maxux.

Giant Sequoia

On Monday this week, the White Birch Farm homebred two-year-old colt Julian Schnabel had his first blacktype victory in the Listed Prix Isonomy at Chantilly and thus became Frankel’s 200th stakes winner worldwide. Ee go back to last weekend and Giant Sequoia’s win in the Group 1 William Hill Futurity Trophy, bringing up a record-extending 13th success in the final Group 1 of the British flat season for Aidan O’Brien. He has used the race as a springboard to greater things for many colts in the past.

If the winning colours are not as familiar as those carried by regular Group 1 winners from Ballydoyle, it is because they are those of John Stewart’s Resolute Racing. He owns the colt in partnership with Coolmore and Westerberg, and he had the great thrill too of having bred Giant Sequoia.

Winner of three of his five starts, including the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh, Giant Sequoia made his debut in a midweek maiden at the Curragh in early June, and this meant that he became the first Resolute homebred to run in Europe. The race, in which he was third, was run two days before the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom, and seven years earlier Giant Sequoia’s dam, Pink Dogwood (Camelot), had run to a neck when second in the classic behind Anapurna.

Rare achievement

A listed winner of the Salsabil Stakes at Navan, Pink Dogwood also placed in both the Group 1 Irish Oaks and Pretty Polly Stakes. A classic win would have yielded a rare achievement for Pink Dogwood’s dam Question Times (Shamardal), as a year earlier her son Latrobe (Camelot) won the Group 1 Irish Derby.

Pink Dogwood raced for the Coolmore partnership and went to stud for them. In 2023 she was sold privately to John Stewart with three other mares. Coolmore retained her first foal, the three-year-old Chosen One (Dubawi), but she has been disappointing, beaten less than a length in a Down Royal maiden being the best of her eight runs. Pink Dogwood headed to America and has a yearling filly by Justify (Scat Daddy). She has come back to Europe, and this year visited Frankel (Galileo).

Frankel has worked on a couple of other occasions with this particular family, and his most recent classic winner is from the line. Benvenuto Cellini won the Group 1 Irish Derby in the summer, and he and his full-sister Giselle (Frankel), a listed winner and group-placed, are out of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Newspaperofrecord (Lope De Vega). This is a family that has been very good to Allan Belshaw who trades as Times of Wigan.

Magnier family

Sweetmans Bloodstock, David and Geraldine Magnier and family, has so far bred eight winners out of Pink Dogwood’s dam, the stakes-placed Question Times, and apart from Latrobe and Pink Dogwood, she is dam of the Group 3 Gladness Stakes winner Diamond Fields (Fastnet Rock), who in turn got another Group 3 winner, Aikhal (Galileo). Question Times is not finished yet and has a filly foal by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).

Question Times’s half-sister Sunday Times (Holy Roman Emperor) was a Group 3 winner and Group 1 Cheveley Park runner-up. She is dam of Newspaperofrecord. Giant Sequoia’s fourth dam Simply Times (Dodge) was bought as a yearling in 1995 at Ocala. She raced twice, collapsing half a furlong from the line on her debut, while one more start convinced connections to send her to stud.

Simply Times would go on to breed 10 winners, among them Group 2 Hungerford Stakes hero 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. She is the dam of Question Times.