IN the first days of January 2013, the promising Arrowfield Stud stallion Beneteau (Redoute’s Choice) suffered a trauma which led to an “acute onset of a severe neurological condition”. Despite quick treatment, his condition deteriorated rapidly and the decision was taken to euthanize him.

Bred at Arrowfield and sold for AUS$1 million as a yearling, he was syndicated as a racehorse and stallion prospect in a joint venture between his breeders and Blue Sky Thoroughbreds. His dam Slice Of Paradise (Encosta De Lago) was a stakes-placed own-sister to champion Alinghi.

As a two-year-old Benteau’s victories included a win in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude before he suffered poor luck in running and was third in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes. That was his only season to race. Beneteau stood only two seasons at stud and his second crop included the Group 1 Crown Victoria Oaks winner Lasqueti Spirit, and last week’s Group 1 winner Prompt Response.

The latter scored in the Group 1 Racing Tattersall’s Club Tiara, the last top-level race of the 2017-18 season in Australia. The mare’s previous five wins included three Group 2s and a listed race, while last year she was runner-up in the Tiara. Her year older full-brother Prompt Return won the Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington, while their half-brother Mr Right (Statue Of Liberty) is a six-race winner in Hong Kong.

VERY FAMILIAR

While the winners in the immediate family all performed in the southern hemisphere, the broodmare sires are very familiar in this part of the world. Prompt Response and Prompt Return are out of the unraced Exceed And Excel (Danehill) mare Prompt, herself a daughter of the very useful stakes-placed runner Amnesia (Desert Sun). She was a New Zealand bred daughter of Please Remember whose sire was the classic winner Don’t Forget Me (Ahonoora).

The 2000 Guineas hero was bred in Kanturk, Co Cork by veterinary surgeon Liam Hutch and his wife Frances.