LAST weekend’s two-day fixture at the Curragh showcased an array of known and emerging talent and among the latter was Bear Cheek, yet another bright prospect for Tally-Ho Stud’s rising star Kodiac (by Danehill).

The filly made an odds-on winning debut at Navan last month and followed-up with a length and a half success in the Group 3 Curragh Stakes, also over the minimum trip, on Saturday.

Both her wins have been on fast ground, she has an entry in next month’s Group 2 Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury, and it is easy to picture her as a contender for next year’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.

Bear Cheek was bred by Tally-Ho Stud and she is a €125,000 graduate of the Goresbridge Flat Breeze-Up Sale, also the source of the €38,000 purchase Shadow Hunter (by Arcano) who won the Listed Julia Graves Roses Stakes over five furlongs at York on Saturday.

SHORTER TRIPS

There are aspects of Bear Cheek’s pedigree that suggest potential to stay a mile, but the speed she has shown, combined with her having Kodiac and Kyllachy (by Pivotal) for her sire and maternal grandsire, could see her obvious talent confined to the shorter trips.

Her dam, See Nuala, won over six furlongs at Cork as a three-year-old and is among five winners out of an unraced mare called Rose Vibert (by Caerleon).

That mare is, in turn, out of the Listed Strensall Stakes winner Premier Rose (by Sharp Edge), and has the mile and 10-furlong blacktype scorers Wise Dennis (by Polar Falcon) and Pryor (by Kornado), respectively, among the branches of her family, so the distance preferences of her most successful offspring are no surprise.

Rose Vibert’s son Sky Quest (by Spectrum) won 10 times from 10 to 11 and a half furlongs in England, beating the career total of four for his ill-fated full-brother Serbelloni. That one’s trio on the flat were from 12 furlongs to two miles, he also won a two-mile maiden hurdle at Kelso and was placed at up to two and a half miles over fences.

The best of Rose Vibert’s progeny is her daughter Aspectoflove (by Danetime) who began her career with John Oxx and joined the Godolphin team as a four-year-old.

She won twice over six furlongs at Dundalk as a juvenile and added a Leopardstown handicap and Naas listed race over a mile at three.

Narrowly beaten in a pair of Group 3s at Meydan on her first outings for Saeed bin Suroor, she picked up listed contests at Ascot and Lingfield before returning at five to take the Group 2 Cape Verdi over a mile at Meydan.

There are various other blacktype earners within the first four generations of the family and the most notable of them is Sharpina, a full-sister to Premier Rose.

She was runner-up in the Listed Princess Margaret Stakes and in the Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes as a juvenile, and she was fourth in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, which did count for blacktype in those days.

Sharpina, won the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes the following spring, is a direct descendant of a filly who won the Scarborough Stakes at Doncaster more than 60 years ago, and so also related to the 1971 Fall Highweight Handicap scorer Shut Eye (by Intentionally), but she was arguably the quickest representative of the more recent generations of the family, until Bear Cheek came along.