ST MARK’S Basilica (Siyouni) sired a second European classic winner from his first crop when Venetian Prince won the 143rd Group 2 Derby Italiano at San Siro in Rome on Tuesday, following on from Diamond Necklace who was successful in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas.

This was yet another big race win for a Littleton Stud homebred, sporting the distinctive colours of Jeff Smith. Venetian Prince is a fifth-generation homebred from Littleton Stud in Hampshire, the farm that Smith took over more than four decades ago.

While he buys occasionally – think Alcohol Free – the vast majority of Smith’s best horses have been planned by him, raised and raced by him, and he has compiled a formidable list of major winners.

Andrew Balding trains Venetian Prince, and this was the three-year-old’s second win, after a seven-furlong success last year. Balding’s father had a long association too with Jeff Smith, while Andrew took over training Venetian Prince’s family after the retirement of David Elsworth. The latter trained the classic winner’s dam Arabian Queen (Dubawi), who famously upset Golden Horn in the Group 1 Juddmonte International 11 years ago.

Venetian Prince is the sixth foal and winner out of Arabian Queen who won four times and was placed in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes. Two-thirds of her winners have earned blacktype, and Venetian Prince is her second pattern winner. His half-sister See The Fire (Sea The Stars) remains in training and will hopefully get a deserved Group 1 success.

Royal Ascot

See The Fire has won five times, twice in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York, the second of them coming in mid-May. She holds an entry in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race in which she was third last year to Ombudsman and Anmaat. After that she was beaten a short neck in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera by Barnavara (later sold for 4,800,000gns). See The Fire has now been placed six times in Group 1 races. She was denied another top-level win by a neck, going down to Opera Singer in the Nassau Stakes.

Arabian Queen currently has five of her seven foals of racing age in training, all of them housed at Andrew Balding’s Kingsclere. Her son Royal Playwright (Lope De Vega), runner-up in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes, was due to run yesterday at Epsom, nine-time winner Spirit Mixer (Frankel) travelled to Rome with his half-brother this week and missed out on a first piece of blacktype when beaten a nose for third in a listed race, while her two-year-old is a filly named Forbidden Fire (No Nay Never).

Front-runner

The dam of Arabian Queen, Barshiba (Barathea), was a great front-runner who won seven races up to the age of six, twice in the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks, and also at Royal Ascot. She had eight foals, seven runners and all of them won. Arabian Queen was her standout. Barshiba was out of the Listed Chesham Stakes third Dashiba (Dashing Blade), who also bred seven winners, and you would hardly believe it, but Venetian Prince’s fourth dam, Alsiba (Northfields), had seven successful offspring.

No pressure on Andrew Balding with Arabian Queen’s seventh foal, but she would keep an amazing run of seven winners produced by four generations if he can place her to win. After See The Fire won her first group race, Balding said: “I’ve got to say a big thank you to David Elsworth for retiring when he did because I’ve reaped the rewards of having the mare’s progeny. David did fabulously well with the family and she’s an amazing broodmare.

“These owner-breeders are so important, to get this calibre of horses is special. Jeff has been an owner at Kingsclere since I was a kid. He’s the most wonderful man to deal with and to train for.”

CORMAC Farrell had reason to be pleased with the outcome of the five-furlong British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes at Ripon on Wednesday, as the winner was the first member of his 2026 breeze up team to run, and he won.

Social Symbol, a son of Violence (Medaglia D’Oro), races for Rabbah Bloodstock, and cost Stroud Coleman £145,000 at the Goffs Doncaster Breeze Up Sale on April 22nd. Six weeks later, now in the care of Simon and Ed Crisford, he made an eye-catching debut, holding off the challenge of runner-up Hidden Gift (Sioux Nation) by half a length. The second dwelt at the start, and made great headway to challenge, but I felt the winner had a little up his sleeve.

Plans now are that Social Symbol could reappear in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, and watch too if Hidden Gift also heads to the meeting. She could be a value bet if she runs there. Ironically, the runner-up, a £150,000 purchase at the same breeze up sale, was Lot 222, while Social Symbol was Lot 111. There is an Irish connection to Social Symbol too.

The colt was bred by Breffni Farm in Kentucky, owned and run by Rhonda O’Rourke. Her husband Garrett runs the Juddmonte operation in the USA, and the farm is named in honour of the home place of Garrett’s parents in Hospital, Co Limerick. Garrett is one of three prominent bloodstock sons of the late Willie O’Rourke, a much-loved veterinary surgeon and former boss of Ballsbridge Sales (now Tattersalls Ireland) and his wife Fanny.

In association with Blandford Bloodstock, Cormac Farrell spent $60,000 to acquire Social Symbol as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton in October, and pocketed a nice profit when selling him in April. He is the third winner for his dam Bodacious Babe (Mineshaft), a graded stakes-placed winner three times who was purchased as a five-year-old for $350,000, carrying her first foal, the three-time Japanese winner Ju Taro (Arrogate).

Bodacious Babe’s second foal was retained, and she has been a headline act for Breffni Farm. Royal Spa (Violence) is a full-sister to Social Symbol, and she won seven races and earned $1.1 million for Garrett and Rhonda, and was at her best last year as a five-year-old. Her victories are headed by a couple of graded stakes wins at Churchill Downs, notably the Grade 2 Locust Grove Stakes.

Winner-in-waiting

In between her first two foals winning, and Social Symbol coming along, Bodacious Babe’s other three foals have all run, and two have been placed. One of these is the three-year-old filly Bodacious Bay (Not This Time). A $350,000 Keeneland yearling, she is a winner-in-waiting, having been runner-up on both her starts to date, most recently in a maiden special at Churchill Downs two weeks ago.

When Bodacious Babe was purchased by Breffni Farm, she was in the catalogue as the only stakes performer among six winners for the unraced Blossomed (Deputy Minister). Her two-year-old half-sister Sippican Harbor (Orb) gave the mare’s sale value a boost when she won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes, and this year she is back in the news thanks to her son Commandment (Into Mischief) who won the Grade 1 Florida Derby.

In fact, the pedigree has truly ‘blossomed’, as the mare of the same name now has 10 winners, and four of them are stakes winners. In addition to Sippican Harbor, Blossomed is dam of the Japanese multiple stakes winner Awesome Result (Justify), UAE listed winner Saayedd (Malibu Moon), and last year’s US stakes winner Crudo (Justify).