THE now dual Grade 1 winning Ce Ce (Elusive Quality) is raced and was bred by Bo Hirsch, son of the famed Clement, and in this winner of the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park and the Beholder Mile Stakes at Santa Anita, he has a filly who has brought top-level success to a female line that has a long and valued association with his own family.

One of seven winning offspring from her Grade 1 winning dam Miss Houdini, a daughter of Belong To Me (Danzig), Ce Ce is the first to deliver at Group or Grade 1 level. One of her siblings shaped for a long time like being another when Papa Clem (Smart Strike) won the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby, but the closest he got to the ‘big one’ was when he ran third in the Malibu Stakes. Two of his other siblings are the dams of Grade 3 winners.

Miss Houdini only made four outings to the track, but her second victory came in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes. She was following a lead set by her own dam Magical Maiden (Lord Avie). This sound racemare raced for four seasons, won eight times and numbered the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes and Grade 1 Las Vignes Stakes among those successes. She was also runner-up in the Santa Anita Oaks.

In addition to Miss Houdini, her five winners include Miss Brickyard (A.P.Indy) and she is the dam of a horse we have seen win a number of times, including at group level, in Ireland. Owned by Harry Redknapp and partners, Moviesta (Hard Spun) was bred by John Gunther and sold as a yearling for $55,000, reselling for 44,000gns through Kilminfoyle House Stud as a breezer. Trained for almost half of his career starts by Bryan Smart, and then by Eddie Lynam, he won the Group 2 King George Stakes for the former and the Group 3 Renaissance Stakes at the Curragh for Lynam. He won almost £260,000 and was placed in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

Magical Maiden was the best of the trio of stakes winners from Gils Magic (Magesterial) who herself made one unsuccessful start. She was a good broodmare though and her 10 winners also include the Grade 2 juvenile winner Magical Mile (J.O.Tobin).

Magical Flash (Miswaki) was one of the lesser lights among Magical Maiden’s siblings when it came to racing, winning just once, but she was hugely successful at stud and six of her progeny were stakes winners, while another three were stakes-placed. One of the stakes winners was Glinda The Good (Hard Spun) and she provided the pedigree page with an enormous upgrade when her son Good Magic (Curlin) was crowned the champion colt at two in the USA following his victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. That was his first win in three starts that year.

He added another Grade 1 win following his success in the Haskell Invitational Stakes and ran second to Justify in the Kentucky Derby. He is standing his second season at stud in Kentucky at Hill ‘N’ Dale.

Darley stallion Elusive Quality, sire of Grade 1 winners such as Smarty Jones, Raven’s Pass, and Quality Road, retired from stud duties in June 2017. The son of Gone West (Mr Prospector) was a multiple graded stakes winner for trainer Bill Mott and owner Sheikh Mohammed before retiring to Sheikh Maktoum’s Gainsborough Farm in 1999. Following the death of Sheikh Maktoum in 2006, Elusive Quality was relocated to Jonabell.