TWO recent big race winners share one thing in common, both descend from female lines that have long been associated with the Aga Khan. The stories of Helene Paragon and Whisky Baron, winners in Hong Kong and South Africa, are also very different.

Helene Paragon was formerly known as Sir Andrew and it was with that name that he started his racing career in France. He did not win as a two-year-old, though he gave an indication that he was of above average ability when his sole placing came in a listed race, appropriately sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, over a mile at Bordeaux Le Bouscat. It was on his debut and he was denied victory by just a neck.

The following year he opened his winning account and then put in a fine performance to run well in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, though well-beaten in third place. He also placed in the Group 3 Prix Djebel over seven furlongs. He was sold after the Prix Jean Prat to Hong Kong and there he has now earned more than £1 million with four victories.

Having won a listed race over nine furlongs last year and finished second to Beauty Only in the Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Mile last December, he recently reappeared and won the Group 1 The Stewards’ Cup, back again over a mile. Who knows what the future holds for this John Moore-trained runner?

Interestingly he is one of just a pair of progeny for both his sire and dam. His sire is Polan, a son of Golan and an Ashkalani mare, and he raced successfully in France and unsuccessfully in Spain. Polan’s three victories as a three-year-old included a minor listed race in the provinces and at stud he sired just that pair of foals. They are the Group 1 winner Helene Paragon and a filly, named Polcheka, who won once in France.

The dam of Helene Paragon is High Zaff, a daughter of High Chaparral (by Sadler’s Wells) and out of a Danehill mare who in turn was out of a Darshaan mare. This makes High Zaff inbred 3x3 to Darshaan.

High Zaff raced with success in Italy, winning twice at three years. She also raced in Spain but without troubling the judge. Helene Paragon is her first foal and winner, and her second offspring is a daughter of Spanish Moon who was placed in Spain in 2016 as a three-year-old.

High Zaff is out of Zaffrani and that daughter of Danehill was bred by Michael O’Leary and raced for him and his Gigginstown House Stud when trained by David Wachman. She showed useful form at two, winning once and running second to Landseer in a maiden. She was tried a number of times in listed and group company, finishing fourth and fifth a number of times, but always just falling short of getting black-type. She was sold by O’Leary for IR£90,000 and later was traded on for €90,000.

Sent to Italy, she produced nine foals, all bar one of which raced. Just three of them won and the other successful siblings to High Zaff were Tahayab (by Nayef) who won six races in Norway, and the Mawatheeq colt Frankolin, a five-time winner in Italy. A minor stakes winner, Thank You Bye Bye, appears in the third remove of Helene Paragon’s family, while in the fourth generation we find group-winning Darshaan colts Zayyani and Zerpour, and the South African champion Igugu, a daughter of Galileo.

Meanwhile Whisky Baron won the Group 2 Glorious Goodwood Peninsula Handicap at Kenilworth in South Africa and this was the son of Manhattan Rain’s breakthrough at group level. His sire is a Group 1 winning son of Encosta De Lago (by Fairy King) and Whisky Baron is his fourth Group 2 winner, joining Wild Rain, Moonovermanhattan and Scarlet Rain.

The best of four winners for his dam, Whisky Baron has put Tazkara, a daughter of Sinndar, on the map as a producer. Tazkara did not race but her Kenmare dam Tashiriya did for the Aga Khan and she won at two years. She must be considered very unlucky not to have won a stakes race as she met the Group 1 Prix Vermeille winner Queen Maud when second in the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux, while the filly who beat her in the Listed Prix de la Seine was the Group 1 Prix de Diane winner Vereva!

Six of Tashiriya’s produce won, the best of her five successful sons being Tashkandi, a son of Polish Precedent who won a listed race and was placed in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat. The only daughter of Tashiriya to win was the Mujahid filly Tashelka, a dual Group 3 winner and dam of the Group 2 winning Nayef mare Tasaday, and of last year’s Group 3 Desmond Stakes winner Tribal Beat, a son of Street Cry.

This is the female line of Group 1 winners Tiraaz (by Lear Fan) who won the Prix Royal-Oak (French St Leger), and at the other end of the distance spectrum, the Phoenix Stakes winner and champion two-year-old filly Damson (by Entrepreneur), herself dam of Requinto.