THE father and son team of Paul and Billy McEnery must have been disappointed to bring their now yearling son of Galileo Gold (Paco Boy) out of the winning Sir Prancealot (Tamayuz) mare Ice Storm to the sales twice, and bring him home on both occasions.

His value has not diminished though, thanks to the exploits of his two-year-old half-sister, Just Do it. That daughter of Cotai Glory (Exceed And Excel) won the Listed Premio Eupili at Milan, her second victory, and she had previously been placed in a listed contest.

Just Do it has now won nearly three times her yearling purchase price of €12,000, and given her dam a perfect start at stud with her first foal.

Just Do It is just the second stakes winner in four generations of the female line, the other being Ice Storm’s half-brother Liber (Ishiguru). He won a listed race in Germany and was group-placed in Scandinavia. While many look at a catalogue page and are blinded by the presence of blacktype, or put off by its scarcity, it is easy to overlook a family that doesn’t have much blacktype but produces sound, successful racehorses.

Take the family of Just Do It as an example. Ice Storm, who incidentally made €72,000 as a yearling and was bought by Eddie Lynam, won over seven furlongs at four, and was placed a number of times. With a stakes-winning two-year-old, a yearling son, and a filly foal by Invincible Army (Invincible Spirit), there is much to look forward to now with her progeny.

Most prolific

Ice Storm was bred by Tally-Ho Stud, and she is one of six winners from the stakes-placed, dual two-year-old winner Startori (Vettori). The six winners amassed 20 wins between them. Startori was one of seven winners out of Celestial Welcome (Most Welcome), herself victorious on eight occasions. Celestial Welcome was the most prolific of the six winners from Choral Sundown (Night Shift).

The first four dams of Ice Storm won 14 races between them, all bred at least six winners, and the vast majority of their winners were successful on multiple occasions. The moral of the story is – read the small print.

Cotai Glory sired the 2021 Group 2 Prix Robert Papin winner Atomic Force in his first crop, one of three stakes winners in that cohort. He has already bettered that with his current juveniles, and they include the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp winner The Platinum Queen, Group 3 winner Bottle Of Bubbles, Listed Rockingham Stakes winner Alpha Capture, and Just Do It.