YOU remember the old joke about how to become a millionaire in racing? Start with two million!

I was reminded of this when the three-year-old Whispering Romance, a daughter of Kingman (Invincible Spirit) won the nine-runner Unibet/Breeders Backing Racing EBF Fillies’ Novice Stakes on the all-weather at Kempton this week. This was her belated racing debut for Charlie Appleby and in the colours of Godolphin.

For her efforts, Whispering Romance earned the measly sum of £5,346, though the longer term value of the success is greater. Now, and forever on pedigree pages, she is a winner. What is not so obvious is that she cost connections a tasty 1,450,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale two years ago. She was one of nine millionaire yearlings at the sale.

One man who was very happy with that price was Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. He bred the filly, though he was not responsible for the mating that produced Whispering Romance.

O’Leary purchased the dam at Tattersalls for just 310,000gns carrying the filly, her first foal. A daughter of Dream Ahead (Diktat), Sante was a €220,000 Goffs Orby Yearling, she won a maiden at Chepstow as a three-year-old, and she found some blacktype at four when third in a listed race at Baden-Baden.

Investment back

Well, O’Leary got his investment back with interest, and since then has sold Sante’s next two offspring as yearlings for 200,000gns and 220,000gns, in both cases purchased by Sumbe.

The less expensive was Almaty Star (Kodiac), and Sumbe’s Nurlan Bizakov has him with Roger Varian. He was placed on his debut and must be pleasing connections as they then bought his Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) half-brother last month.

Sante was bred by Knocktoran Stud and she is one of 10 winners from the French and US stakes winner Zeiting (Zieten).

Three of the 10 were stakes winners and three more were stakes-placed. Combat Zone (Refuse To Bend) won 16 times, the best being his win in the Group 2 Europe Meile in Germany, Royal Empire’s five wins included the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes, while Scottish (Teofilo) won the Group 3 Strensall Stakes and was runner-up in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup, trained by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin.

While none of that trio managed to land a Group 1, their half-sister Zut Alors (Pivotal) made amends. Group-placed at two, she is dam of the 2017 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas winner Precieuse (Tamayuz), and grandam of this year’s UAE Group 1 winner Hypothetical (Lope De Vega).