RUNNER-UP 12 months ago in the Guinness Galway Hurdle. Ndaawi (Cracksman) provided his local owners Easyfix with a popular success this time, though not in the manner they would have wished. While it made for good television, I felt uncomfortable watching two friends, Gordon Elliott and Noel Meade, standing together and awaiting their fate. Both men acted with great grace.

In fairness to Ndaawi, the five-year-old was deserving of a big payday, having only won once before Thursday over hurdles, and been placed at the Cheltenham Festival when runner-up in the Grade 3 County Hurdle after running third a year earlier in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle. He now makes the 62,000gns spent on him by Aidan O’Ryan at the 2023 Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale look good value.

A winner twice at two, at Epsom and Goodwood when in the care of Andrew Balding and racing for Sultan Ali, Ndaawi won at the Curragh too, but not in an officially recognised race, rather partnered by Megan O’Leary in a leg of the popular Corinthian Challenge Series. His sole success over hurdles before Galway was at Naas. Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, winning a classic would have been the dream at the time of the mating that has now produced a Galway Hurdle winner.

First crop

Ndaawi is from the first crop by Darley’s Cracksman, rated the best three-year-old colt in Europe after he won the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot, a race he took again a year later. That second victory, along with wins in the Group 1 Coronation Cup and Group 1 Prix Ganay, meant that Cracksman was accorded a second European championship, that of best older horse. Though he was a winner at two on his only start that year, he improved with age, as do his own progeny. Even so, two of Cracksman’s 11 stakes winners on the flat gained that accolade at two.

All of his 11 blacktype flat winners are out of mares by different sires, and Cracksman’s star runner has been the unbeaten six-time winner Ace Impact who stands at Haras de Beaumont. His fee was €40,000 this year, while Cracksman at Dalham Hall commanded £12,500. Cracksman has done well with his runners over jumps and they also include Liari, winner of a listed juvenile hurdle at Aintree and of the Listed Scottish Triumph Juvenile Hurdle.

Mount Elbrus

Ndaawi is among a group of nine winners out of his Barathea (Sadler’s Wells) dam Mount Elbrus. She won a listed race at Saint-Cloud for Sheikh Mohammad after her purchase as a yearling from her breeder Michael Page for 190,000gns. A third of those nine also won over hurdles, and Ndaawi’s half-brother Hunterview (Reset) earned half of his six successes over the smaller obstacles, and placed in the Grade 3 Swinton Hurdle at Haydock Park.

One of Mount Elbrus’s daughters was the French listed winner Lava Flow (Dalakhani), and she is the dam of three stakes winners, one of whom was well ahead of the others in terms of ability. He is Pinatubo (Shamardal), rated the European champion juvenile after he won the Group 1 National Stakes in Ireland and the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in 2019. His first crop are three-year-olds and include three stakes winners.

One could write a book about this female family, but space will not allow that today. In summary, Ndaawi’s grandam is an own-sister to Rafha (Kris), the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner and dam of two leading sires in Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) and Kodiac (Danehill). Descending from Rafha’s dam Eljazzi (Artaius) are a host of Group 1 winners, including Mishriff (Make Believe), Chinese White (Dalakhani), Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry) and Uni (More Than Ready).

SHE is certainly tough, undoubtedly talented, impeccably bred, and I am putting her very on my short shortlist now for the first weekend in October and a date in ParisLongchamp.

What a race the Group 1 the Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh was at the end of June, with the Group 1 Oaks runner-up Whirl getting the better of Kalpana, runner-up to Calandagan last weekend. The Pretty Polly was won in 2024 by Bluestocking, and she then went on to capture the Prix Vermeille on her way to landing the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Previous winners in the last decade trained by Aidan O’Brien were Magical and Minding, and it is odds-on that we have more to see from Whirl. Her performance in winning the Group 1 Nassau Stakes at a sodden Goodwood also shows that she is pure class.

Whirl is a daughter of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), and took his tally of Group 1 winners to 15 with her Curragh victory. Using him costs a pretty penny at €300,000, but there is nothing he has done that suggests he is not worth every cent. His first six crops contained four Group 1 winners, no more than one in any crop. His final two French-conceived crops yielded two Group 1 winners each, as did the first crop from his Coolmore coverings in 2020. Since then, the numbers have exploded. He has five Group 1 winners among his current crop of three-year-olds, four of which won at this level at two.

Classic winners

Among his growing list of starts is a pair of classic winners in 2025, both Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse doubling their Group 1 haul when capturing the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby and Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas respectively. As two-year-olds they were victorious in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Whirl is yet another example of how well Wootton Bassett works with a Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) line mare, something very important for the Coomore broodmare band. Among his Group 1 winners, Al Riffa is out of a Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare, Zellie’s dam is by Nathaniel (Galileo), Twain’s dam is by Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), while Tennessee Stud is out of a mare by Sadler’s Wells himself.

Whirl is the first produce of Salsa (Galileo), a full-sister to three outstanding runners. She won a mile maiden at Thurles on the penultimate start of her 10-race career, while on both occasions that she raced at the Curragh she was runner-up. Salsa has a two-year-old full-brother, Kepler (Wootton Bassett), to Whirl, and a yearling own-sister.

Salsa’s is out of the very smart racemare Beauty Is Truth (Pivotal), whose three wins were all gained in blacktype races in France, her best win coming in the Group 2 Prix du Gros-Chene. Four of her six winners were successful in group races, five were sired by Galileo, and four of her daughters have bred stakes winners. In order of their birth, Beauty Is Truth’s three Group 1 winners by Galileo are The United States, Hydrangea and Hermosa.

Prominence

The United States rose to prominence in Australia, where he won and placed in the Group 1 Ranvet Rawson Stakes. He is at stud in South Africa where he is a multiple stakes sire. Hydrangea was second at two in both the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and Fillies’ Mile, and at three was classic-placed. After she won a Group 1, the Matron Stakes, she added a second, at Ascot. She has made a fine start at stud, with two stakes winners by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). Her daughter Wingspan was runner-up in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies/Mare Stakes, a race also won by Hydrangea.

Hermosa matched Hydrangea’s achievement with two Group 1 wins, hers coming in the English and Irish 1000 Guineas. She has eclipsed Hydrangea in one respect. While dam of a single stakes winner to date, he is Trinity College (Dubawi) who won the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, and followed up by running second recently in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris.