FRIENDS Peter Reynolds and Robert Dore bred the recent Grade 3 Astra Stakes winner Pantsonfire. The Santa Anita feature race winner was landing her first stakes victory, though last year she was placed in the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes and the Possibly Perfect Stakes. She is now a four-time winner and this week’s success pushed her earning well past $200,000.

Pantsonfire started her racing career in Ireland, running in the colours of Richie Galway when trained by his mother-in-law Jessica Harrington. A €31,000 foal purchase at Goffs, she was placed on the last of her four starts here before shipping to America and the stables of Richard Baltas. She was quickly off the mark there, winning at the end of her three-year-old career, and she seems to be getting better with age.

A daughter of the 2006 Group 1 Epsom Derby winner Sir Percy (Mark Of Esteem), she is the 21st stakes winner for her sire who, it is often overlooked, was the champion juvenile of his generation following his victory in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes in which he beat Horatio Nelson. At three he was runner-up to George Washington in the Group 1 2000 Guineas. He was the best runner by his sire who was also responsible for the Group 1 1000 Guineas winner Ameerat and the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes winner Reverence.

Based at Lanwades Stud near Newmarket where he will cover for his 12th season at a fee of £7,000, Sir Percy’s leading winners include Sir John Hawkwood and the Grade 1 US winner Wake Forest, successful in the Man O’War Stakes. The former was bred at the renowned Ballymacoll Stud which was skilfully managed for so many year by Peter Reynolds, becoming one of the most successful producers of world-class horses.

Not surprisingly Rubileo (Galileo), the dam of Pantsonfire, revisited Sir Percy last year. In addition to the latest stakes winner, she also bred the 2012 champion three-year-old colt in Scandinavia by the same stallion. Named Bomar, this 33,000gns yearling purchase by Peter Doyle won six times in Norway and Sweden, winning the Listed Svenskt Derby and finishing runner-up in the Norwegian equivalent.

Rubileo was unplaced on her three starts at two, leading to her sale as a three-year-old for a mere 19,000gns when carrying her first foal by Pastoral Pursuits (Bahamian Bounty).

Three years later her pedigree received a great boost when her half-brother Hammadi (Red Ransom) injected extra blacktype into the family after he won the Listed Jebel Ali Sprint.

Pantsonfire is the fifth foal and winner for her dam, preceded by Rare Symphony (Pastoral Pursuits), Rubiback (Redback), the aforementioned Bomar, and Inflection (Rock Of Gibraltar). She currently has a son named You Generator (So You Think) in training in Italy, while her two-year-old son Liar Liar (Dream Ahead) was a €32,000 yearling purchase by BBA Ireland last September in Fairyhouse.

Rubileo and her placed half-sister Winning Note (Victory Note) are the only non-winners among the 10 foals produced by Ruby Affair (Night Shift). She was one of the mares to visit Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) in his first season at stud, the resulting filly Waajida winning over hurdles in Italy at four, running second in a Grade 2 hurdle race there, and finally winning on the flat as a six-year-old in Slovakia.

Ruby Affair was deserving of a mating with such a star as Dubawi since she was a half-sister to the 1999 Group 1 2000 Guineas winner Island Sands (Turtle Island). That colt was bred at Kilcoran House Stud by the late Joan (Mrs T V) Ryan, and this classic success came just weeks before Oath, bred by Mrs Ryan’s daughter Isabel Morris, won the Epsom Derby. What an achievement that was for mother and daughter in the same year.

Every generation of this family produces a winner of note. Island Sands was the best of five successful offspring from Tiavanita (J O Tobin) who had eight winning siblings, led by the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Corrupt (Lear Fan). Rublieo’s fourth dam Nuclea (Orsini) won a listed race in France and her best progeny was the champion older miler Nadjar (Zeddaan), winner of the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan and Prix Jacques Le Marois and classic-placed.