THE sole Grade 1 race over jumps last weekend was in France, the Prix Renaud du Vivier 4-year-old Hurdle at Auteuil. It was won by Master Dino, a son of Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) whose fee has jumped for next year from €8,000 to €12,000. He stands at Henri and Antonia Devin’s Haras du Mesnil.

Trained by Richard Gibson, Doctor Dino was quite the globetrotter in his racing days, running 30 times and winning in France, Hong Kong and the USA.

At the age of five in 2007 he won the Grade 1 Man O’War Stakes at Belmont and the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase for the first time, while at five and six he placed in Group or Grade 1 races in England, France, the UAE, USA and Singapore.

Doctor Dino retired to stud in 2010 and his first crop are seven-year-olds. The high-class National Hunt mare La Bague Au Roi is from his first crop, while Alan King’s Grade 1 winning chaser Sceau Royal emerged in the second crop.

This year’s Galway Plate winner Sharjah is from the third crop and now Master Dino is from his fourth crop. They also come from relatively small numbers of runners.

Master Dino is one of three winners from the placed Mizzen Mast (Cozzene) mare Mind Master, She last changed hands as a four-year-old for just €9,000 at Arqana’s December Sale and until last year Master Dino, who sold for €11,000 as a yearling at Osarus, was her highest priced sale horse. With his emergence as a Grade 1 winner, his now two-year-old half-sister Mind Sunday (Never On Sunday) sold to Highflyer Bloodstock at Arqana last autumn for €37,000.

Mind Master is a half-sister to five winners, while her once-raced half-sister Instant Thought (Kris S) sold for $225,000 in 2011 and that mare’s best runner is the Canadian-bred Marketing Mix (Medaglia D’Oro) who won 10 races. They included a pair of Grade 1s in the USA and she was also runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news