ALBIGNA built on the great promise shown after she won the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes when she gave trainer Jessica Harrington more Group 1 joy, landing the Prix Marcel Boussac. She is from a female line carefully cultivated by Maria Niarchos and her family.

Albigna is the second Group 1 winner for Zoffany (Dansili) and joins Polybius (Oasis Dream) as a stakes-winning offspring of Freedonia (Selkirk), winner of the Group 2 Prix de Pomone at Deauville as a four-year-old when trained by the soon-to-retire John Hammond. She was runner-up in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont. Freedonia is the best of four winners from Forest Rain (Caerleon).

Forest Rain’s half-brother Domedriver (Indian Ridge) was a Group 2 winner in France and twice runner-up there in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. He travelled to America for his most important success in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Their stakes winning dam Napoli (Baillamont) was out of Bella Senora (Northern Dancer), a placed own-sister to El Gran Senor and Try My Best.

If it’s a Group 1 winning two-year-old colt, then in 2019 it is most likely to be a son of Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway). Already sire of Earthlight and Pinatubo, the Kildangan Stud stallion added a third European Group 1 winning juvenile of this year to his roll of honour when the Godolphin home-bred Victor Ludorum stepped up in class to win the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. He joins Mary Tudor (Dawn Approach), a listed winner and third in the Group 1 Irish Oaks, among the four winners from four runners produced by the Group 3 runner-up Antiquities (Kaldounevees).

That mare is a daughter of French stakes winner Historian (Pennekamp), a half-sister to Street Cry (Machiavellian) and his stakes-placed own-sister Helsinki. Significantly, her best offspring was Victor Ludorum’s sire Shamardal. This is also the immediate family of the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat winner and Darley stallion Territories (Invincible Spirit).