THE future stallion career of Hello Youmzain was well and truly rubberstamped when the four-year-old son of Kodiac (Danehill) crowned a memorable Royal Ascot for his sire as he landed the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes. A fifth career success for the French-bred colt, this victory compensated for his third-place finish at the same venue in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup last year.

Pushing his winnings, from just nine career starts, to more than €590,000, Hello Youmzain is also winner of the Group 1 Sprint Cup and Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock, while at two he was successful over six furlongs in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte. He comes from a wonderful family that provided great success for the late Lord Howard de Walden’s Plantation Stud over many years.

All four winning offspring of the unraced Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) mare Spasha have another thing in common – they were all successful in blacktype races. Hello Youmzain is certainly the most talented of the quartet, but they also include a runner who was among the best of his generation in Italy and Germany. That was Royal Youmzain (Youmzain) and he won the Group 2 Gran Criterium in Italy at two and a pair of Group 3s the following year in Germany. He was also placed in the Group 1 German Derby.

Hello Youmzain’s other stakes-winning siblings are Zuhoor Baynoona (Elnadim), a listed winner who was added to the Cheveley Park Stud broodmare roster following her purchase for 560,000gns in 2017, and Saglawy (Youmzain), a Grade 2 juvenile hurdle winner for Willie Mullins and Grade 1-placed.

Hello Youmzain’s Royal Ascot win came 17 years after that of his close relation, Persian Majesty (Grand Lodge). He is a half-brother to Spasha and his success was gained in the Listed Hampton Court Stakes. Persian Majesty was one of 11 winners from the unraced Spa (Sadler’s Wells), a half-sister to yet another Royal Ascot winner in the recently deceased Grade 1 National Hunt stallion Sandmason (Grand Lodge). He won the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes.

Sandmason’s Group 3 winning dam Sandy Island (Mill Reef) was a three-parts sister to Slip Anchor (Shirley Heights), the 1985 Derby winner.

Palace Pier

Unbeaten in four starts, Palace Pier raced in stakes company for the first time at Royal Ascot and in the process claimed victory in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes. It was a poignant victory for co-breeders Highclere Stud and Floors Farming. The latter is the breeding operation of the late Duke of Roxburghe, who died last August.

Palace Pier joins last year’s French 2000 Guineas winner Persian King as a Group 1 winning son of Kingman (Invincible Spirit) who stands at Banstead Manor Stud for a fee of £150,000. Kingman’s colours were only lowered once, and he too was successful in the Royal Ascot centrepiece now won by his second crop son.

Palace Pier carries the silks of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, who purchased the colt through trainer John Gosden for 600,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2018. Palace Pier’s next target is the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville, a race that his sire also won for Gosden in 2014.

Palace Pier is the third foal and second winner out of the unraced Beach Frolic (Nayef) who has a yearling colt from the first crop of Highland Reel (Galileo) which is due to head to Tattersalls, and she is in foal to Blue Point (Shamardal) who is completing his first season at stud.

Highclere’s John Warren bought Beach Frolic’s grandam Miss D’Ouilly (Bikala) 20 years ago for 50,000gns and the Duke of Roxburghe owned a third of her. The foal she was carrying at the time was Night Frolic (Night Shift) and she won a maiden at Kempton, having failed to sell as a yearling. Her five winners include the Group 2 Dante Stakes winner Bonfire (Manduro) and Joviality (Cape Cross), trained by John Gosden to win the Group 2 Windsor Forest Stakes at Royal Ascot in the colours of Princess Haya of Jordan.

Sea The Moon

Well done to all connected with the phenomenal Group 1 German Derby winner Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), a resident at Lanwades Stud now, whose second crop contains the Group 1 Coronation Stakes winner Alpine Star. The Jessica Harrington-trained three-year-old, winner of the Group 2 Debutante Stakes last year, was emulating the achievement of her half-sister Alpha Centauri (Mastercraftsman), one of the most talented runners of recent years.

Bred and raced by Maria Niarchos’ Flaxman Holdings, Alpine Star is from one of the best families in the stud book, and one intimately associated with the Niarchos family. Alpine Star’s unraced dam Alpha Lupi (Rahy) is also dam of the stakes-winning two-year-old Tenth Star (Dansili). Alpha Lupi’s dam East Of The Moon (Private Account) was a dual classic and three-time Group 1 winner, and she was one of a number of outstanding winners from the brilliant Miesque (Nureyev).

That 12-time winner was successful in 10 Group or Grade 1 races and she bred five stakes winners, including the outstanding Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) whose victories included the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes and the Group 1 French 2000 Guineas.

This is also the immediate family of Study Of Man (Deep Impact), the 2018 French Derby winner and now Lanwades Stud stallion.

Lethal Force

Dark Angel (Acclamation) featured prominently at Royal Ascot 2020 and one of the ways in which he did so was as the sire of Lethal Force, whose son Golden Horde, a £65,000 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale graduate, annexed the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. The three-year-old colt has provided his sire with a number of firsts – notably his first stakes winner, in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes last year, and now at Group 1 level.

Lethal Force, winner of the 2013 Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the same year’s Group 1 July Cup, stood his first six seasons at Cheveley Park Stud, but moved to stand the 2020 season at Haras de Grandchamp. His fee is €6,000, while in Newmarket he commanded £4,500 in 2019, down from an initial £12,500.

One of four winners from the winning Pivotal (Polar Falcon) mare Entreat, Golden Horde was bred by James Cloney in Co Kilkenny. His half-sister Entreat (Dutch Art) was a stakes-winner, while last year Cloney sold Line Of Departure (Mehmas), a half-brother to Golden Horde, for £260,000. This year he has a Zoffany (Dansili) half-sister.

Yet again, this is a female line which has enjoyed huge international success. Golden Horde’s third dam Imagining (Northfields) bred the champion Serena’s Song (Rahy), herself dam of the Group 1 Royal Ascot heroine Sophisticat (Storm Cat). Imagining’s dam Image Intensifier (Dancer’s Image) was once a resident of Swordlestown Stud near Naas where she bred the Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Alabama Nana (Thatching).