TOGETHER they cost €1.8 million, and their debut victories netted connections about £13,500. Yet both of these horses are worth noting and watching in the coming months.

The Monsun three-year-old filly Fadillah commanded a price of €1.2 million when she was sold at the Arqana yearling in 2014, the best price of the week. Her appeal was obvious, being a full-sister to the classic-paced Soberania and a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Seismos (by Dalakhani) and the Group 3 winner Samba Brazil (by Teofilo). The last named has a yearling filly by Dubawi, her first produce.

Fadillah will now be aimed by trainer William Haggas at an Oaks trial and she carries the classic-winning colours of Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar, having been purchased on their behalf by Tony Nerses. Her dam, the winning Dashing Blade mare Sasuela, is from a very special family, one that has no fewer than three German Derby winners in the second remove.

Sasuela is a half-sister to two winners of the race by Monsun – Fadillah’s sire – and they are Schiaparelli and Samum. Their full-sister Salve Regina was runner-up in the classic but she won the German Oaks. Yet another full-sister is Sanwa, the dam of Sea The Moon who has his first foals born this spring and stands at Lanwades Stud. Small wonder that Fadillah was such a valuable yearling.

Grove Stud is having a great run with its graduates and the latest to make the headlines was Al Shaqab Racing’s Al Erayg. Sold as a yearling at the Keeneland September Sale in 2014 for $150,000 to Brendan Holland, he was transformed into a €600,000 breeze up lot at Arqana last May. Now that he has made a winning start, connections can begin to dream of what might be.

He is the sixth winner for his dam Vallee Des Reves, by Kingmambo, and the best of these to date has been the Giant’s Causeway filly Maids Causeway. The Group 1 Coronation Stakes was the best of her four wins and she was runner-up in the 1000 Guineas. Incredibly she failed to sell for 25,000gns as a yearling!

Vallee Des Reves did not race and she is a half-sister to a pair of Group 2 winners in Verveine and Vetheuil. The former is in turn the dam of the E P Taylor Stakes winner Volga and the Hong Kong Vase winner Vallee Enchantee, while another half-sister Vanishing Prairie bred the Group 1 winner and sire Vespone and the Melbourne Cup runner-up Purple Moon.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact leopowell@theirishfield.ie and visit our website www.theirishfield.ie with breeding news