SOMETIMES one gender provides more stars in a family than others, with the balance probably in the main in favour of colts. In the case of the Group 1 Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes winner, Cinderella’s Dream (Shamardal), it is a real case of girl power.

There are nine blacktype winners in the first three generations, and all but one are fillies. The Group 2 Champagne Stakes winner Iberian, himself a son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), is the odd-man out. Cinderella’s Dream is one of two to win at racing’s highest level, and the other to do so is the ill-fated Just The Judge (Lawman), whose life was cut short at an early stage of her career as a broodmare after she had just three offspring.

The Falmouth Stakes success for Cinderella’s Dream was her first European Group 1 win, though last year she shone abroad, winning the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks, and later finishing second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar. She won the Listed UAE Oaks at the start of her three-year-old season. The only time she has been out of the first two in 12 starts was when seventh in the Group 1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Homebred by Godolphin, the four-year-old Cinderella’s Deam is from the 16th and final European crop sired by Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway), and is one of his 29 Group or Grade 1 winning progeny.

That final crop also includes the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner Inisherin, and it is interesting, in terms of the quality of his winners, that Shamardal’s number of pattern winners, which stands at 89, is five more than his tally of other stakes winners.

A decade ago. John Ferguson spent 800,000gns on a filly foal by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) out of the Group 3 St Simon Stakes winner High Heeled (High Chaparral) at the Tattersalls December Sale. She was, not surprisingly, the top lot at the sale that year, and one of four foals to bring half a million guineas or more. Three of that quartet were Dubawi fillies, and the other was a Shamardal colt. The top lot was sold from West Blagdon Stud.

High Heeled

Later named Espadrille, the sale-topping filly was the fourth offspring of her dam, High Heeled, who was yet to produce a winner, having herself been purchased by James Wigan as a three-year-old at Tattersalls for 600,000gns. A four-time winner, High Heeled won a listed race at York and had been placed a number of times in group company, notably chasing home Sariska and Midday in a vintage edition of the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom.

Wigan purchased High Heeled in partnership with George Strawbridge, and they moved her from Barry Hills to John Gosden, keeping her in training at four. She made her seasonal reappearance in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom where she again finished third, this time to Fame And Glory and the Oaks winner Sariska. However, she failed to add to her winning tally and went to stud. There she is the dam of five winners, nothing special, and a number of high-profile sales horses.

Her best runner is Pabouche (Dubawi), and she was a 450,000gns foal purchase by John Ferguson on behalf of Godolphin. Pabouche was well-placed to win a listed race in Germany at three. Espadrille did not manage to earn any blacktype, though she had racing talent. Winner twice in her first three starts, once at two, she was well-beaten on her only other outing in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.

Four offspring

At stud Espadrille had just four offspring before her early death at the age of just eight.

Three were fillies, and the first of the trio, a daughter of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), was never named. Cinderella’s Dream is her second produce, and she also has a three-year-old filly, named Blue Laced (Farhh). She won in January on her fourth outing, having placed a few times at two, but has not run since. Espadrille’s fourth and final foal, a two-year-old son of Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), remains unnamed.

High Heeled’s full-sister Bella Estrella (High Chaparral) was a listed winner at Killarney eight years ago from five starts, and two years ago her son Iberian (Lope De Vega) won the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and was beaten a length into second place by Haatem in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes. He and Cinderella’s Dream are bred on a very similar cross.

Meanwhile, High Heeled’s twice-raced half-sister Faraday Light (Rainbow Quest) was responsible for Just The Judge.

A €50,000 Goffs yearling who morphed into a 4,500,000gns four-year-old, she won the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas and Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, while she placed in top-level events such as the 1000 Guineas where she was runner-up, the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Turf at Santa Anita. Just The Judge’s daughter Nash Nasha (Dubawi), a €1 million foal, was a stakes winner in Germany.

Grand Prix win induces tears aplenty

HIGH Chaparral features in the family of Cinderella’s Dream, and is even more prominent in that of Sunday’s Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Leffard. In the three-year-old colt, we may finally have found a successor to his sire Le Havre (Noverre). Most of that sires best runners were either fillies or geldings.

The females included Group/Grade 1 winners Wonderful Tonight, Villa Marina, La Cressonniere and Avenie Certain, while his only other top level-winning male was the gelded Suedois. Dual Group 1 winner Wonderful Tonight and Leffard are both out of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) mares.

Le Havre died in 2022, and he was the horse who helped put trainer Jean-Claude Rouget’s name firmly in lights, his win in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby helping Rouget to a first trainers’ title in France.

Le Havre raced for Gerard Augustin-Normand after being sourced at Arqana as a yearling by Rouget for €100,000. Runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, Le Havre was injured when winning the French Derby, and retired to stud. Augustin-Normand has gone on to become one of France’s most important owners and breeders, and he credits Le Havre with being the horse who lit that flame.

Leffard was also sourced as a yearling by Rouget, for whom victory in the weekend’s Group 1 was hugely emotional, given his ongoing health battles. He cost a little more than Le Havre, €150,000 from Haras du Cadran at Arqana, and Rouget sold him on to Augustin-Normand and Atonio Caro. An attraction for Rouget was the fact that he had enjoyed prior success with two of Leffard’s siblings, one of whom, Sippinsoda (War Front), was a listed winner and runner-up in the Group 3 Prix Chloe.

Let’s Misbehave

Leffard is the fourth winner for his unraced dam Let’s Misbehave, and that Montjeu mares’ siblings are headed by High Chaparral, her three-parts brother by Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer).

A dual Group 1 Derby winner, and successful six times at racing’s highest level, High Chaparral’s full-sister Chenchikova (Sadler’s Wells) is the dam of Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks and Nassau Stakes winner Fancy Blue (Deep Impact).

Let’s Misbehave was sold in 2022 carrying the now two-year-old filly Noble Honour (Siyouni) for €920,000 at Arqana.

How disappointing that the filly was unsold at the Goffs Orby Sale last year for only €80,000, but now she is worth a great deal more as a half-sister to a Group 1 winner. Every cloud has a silver lining indeed.