WITH his Group 1 Derby and Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe sire Golden Horn (Cape Cross) just completing his third season at Overbury Stud, it was even money at least that his first seven years at Dalham Hall would eventually throw up a good horse.

It has, the seven-year-old Godolphin homebred Trawlerman, and he didn’t just win at Royal Ascot, but he took Thursday’s centrepiece, the Group 1 Gold Cup, in a new course record time. He was runner-up previously to Kyprios.

Trawlerman’s dam Tidespring (Monsun) was a 440,000gns foal purchase, won twice in France, but reserved her best form for Germany where she was runner-up at four in the Group 3 German St Leger. Tidespring is one of three stakes performers out of the Group 1 Prix Vermeille winner Sweet Stream (Shantou), and the best of that trio was the German stakes winner Loveisthehigherlaw (Kodiac). The third stakes runner out of Sweet Stream was Sweet Dream (Oasis Dream), and she bred last year’s Group 3 Prix Penelope winner Making Dreams (Make Believe).

While Trawlerman is Golden Horn’s first Group 1 winner, the Overbury Stud sire is responsible for a pair of Grade 1 winners this year as a memorable Cheltenham saw him sire the winners of the Champion Hurdle and Triumph Hurdle, Golden Ace and Poniros. His flat runners include a pair of Group 3 winners this year, and Golden Horn has compiled an honourable record with 11 group winners and a total of 27 blacktype winners.

Godolphin followed up the Gold Cup win with successes in the next race on the card, the Britannia Stakes. That race was won two years’ ago by Docklands, the horse who started Royal Ascot 2025 off with victory in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes.

They landed that contest with homebred Arabian Story (Invincible Spirit), and this second win for the three-year-old colt was a marked improvement on what he had done before.

Arabian Story is a son of Delphinidae (Sepoy), a placed half-sister to Territories, himself a son of the great Irish National Stud sire Invincible Spirit (Green Desert). Territories won the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, is now based at Poonawalla Stud Farms in India after his acquisition from Darley last year, and he was sire of last week’s Group 1 winner Lazzat.

NENAGH breeders were to the fore at Royal Ascot, and among those on the mark were Mark and Stephanie Hanly of Grange Hill Stud.

Stephanie is sister-in-law to Ombudsman’s breeder James Hanly. Mark and Stephanie bred the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Garden Of Eden (Saxon Warrior), who added to a previous listed win at Naas. The filly is the best winner out of the Spanish three-year-old winner Komedy (Kodiac).

Last year, at two, Garden Of Eden was the outsider of three Aidan O’Brien runners in the Listed Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes on Irish Champions Weekend, but best at the finish when less than a length off the winner, Chantez.

As a foal Garden Of Eden sold for €160,000 at Goffs to Camas Park Stud, and made a small profit when she resold to Peter and Ross Doyle at the Orby Sale for €200,000.

Komedy clearly produces good-looking stock. Last year, Garden Of Eden’s full-brother also sold from Grange Hill Stud, and sold for €250,000 to Jamie McCalmont. Two more of Komedy’s offspring brought six-figure sums, £100,000 and £110,000, as yearlings.

Sold as a yearling for €70,000, Komedy placed at two but sold for just 9,000gns at the end of that season. She went to Spain where she won.

On Her Toes

The emergence of her year-younger full-sister On Her Toes (Kodiac) as a listed winner at two led to Komedy’s acquisition for breeding purposes in Ireland.

For good measure, Komedy’s year-old half-sister Jane’s Memory (Captain Rio) also became a stakes winner the same season that On The Toes did, winning the Cecil Frail Stakes.

AIDAN O’Brien’s juvenile dominance of Royal Ascot continued on the middle day of the five-day festival of racing.

He opened the day with Charles Darwin (No Nay Never) putting in an imposing performance to win the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes, a race O’Brien hadn’t won since 2017 when he was successful with Sioux Nation. A’Ali and Perfect Power had been winners in the intervening period.

Charles Darwin will now seek to add to his sire’s list of eight Group 1 winners, six of whom achieved that feat as two-year-olds. The six include Charles Darwin’s full-brother Blackbeard (No Nay Never), and he had a prolific juvenile career, after which he went to stud.

The season he raced he was the only dual Group 1-winning two-year-old in Europe, beating The Antarctic and Persian Force on both occasions, in the Prix Morny and the Middle Park Stakes.

A winner on her Curragh debut at two when trained by Eddie Lynam, Charles Darwin’s dam Muirin (Born To Sea), was fourth in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, but her form after that tailed off.

Bred by Sunderland Holding, Muirin cost Lynam €41,000 as a yearling, and she sold at the end of her second season for €210,000, purchased on behalf of Newstead Breeding.

Blackbeard was her first foal, selling for 270,000gns, and his racecourse wins propelled the value of his year younger full-sister Run Away (No Nay Never) to €2.6 million at Goffs.

Run Away won last year, was stakes-placed in France, and yet still saw her value at the December Sale drop to 650,000gns.

Constant mate

A constant mate with No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), Muirin has since produced last year’s juvenile winner Tunbridge Wells, Charles Darwin, and a yearling filly, none of which have been to the sales.

No Nay Never sired the first and last winners on Thursday’s Royal Ascot card. The concluding Buckingham Palace Stakes was won by his four-year-old son Never So Brave, who was making a substantial repayment on his 240,000gns yearling price.

Bred by Christopher Hanbury, Never So Brave is a half-brother to the Group 2 Richmond Stakes winner Barraquero (Zebedee), and the listed winning filly Pirate Jenny (Exceed And Excel) who sold to Amo Racing last December for 500,000gns.

BRED by Coolmore, Trinity College gained a very valuable pattern success in the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes, his third and most important win. He was fourth behind Camille Pissarro in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, beaten a length by the winner, and is a horse on the upgrade. With his pedigree, he will surely now be aimed at Group 1 races, with the aim of making him a stallion.

Trinity College is a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), and out of the dual Group 1 classic winner Hermosa (Galileo). She beat Lady Kaya at Newmarket in the Group 1 1000 Guineas, and three weeks later added the Irish equivalent. Hermosa is a full-sister to two other stars, Hydrangea (Galileo) who is a dual Group 1 winner and dam of two stakes winners by Dubawi, and the Australian Group 1 winner The United States (Galileo).

Bringing the family right up to date, Hermosa’s winning full-sister Salsa (Galileo) bred this year’s Group 3 Musidora Stakes winner and Group 1 Oaks runner-up Whirl (Wootton Bassett).

Jim Bolger (pictured) featured at Royal Ascot this year, as the breeder of Merchant (Teofilo), winner of the King George V Stakes in the colours of Highclere Racing. The €135,000 Goffs yearling has won half of his six starts, and is the second winner for the unraced Ceistu (Vocalised). Ceistu’s full-sister Steip Amach (Vocalised) won a pair of Irish Group 3 contests, and placed twice in France in Group 1 races. Their half-sister Fidaaha (New Approach) showed little after her sale for €200,000 as a yearling, and later sold to Tally Ho Stud for €15,000.

She is the dam of three stakes winners by Mehmas (Acclamation), including Group 1 winner Scorthy Champ, and Group and Grade 1 runner-up Malavath.