NORTH America, a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), has been a revelation on the Meydan dirt for the past couple of years and a fortnight ago he reached the zenith of his career – to date – when he captured the Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3. In the process he defeated Thunder Snow (Helmet), a dual Group 1 winner in Europe.

Bred by Qatar Bloodstock, North America was one leg of a group race double on the Meydan card for Dubawi after Jordan Sport’s record-breaking Group 3 success in the Mahab Al Shimaal. North America is the 34th individual Group or Grade 1 winner for his sire who is covering this year at Dalham Hall Stud for £250,000 – if you are lucky enough to be able to get a nomination.

That roll of honour of Group 1 winners includes household names such as Hunter’s Light, New Bay, Al Kazeem, Zarak, Monterosso, Night Of Thunder, Poet’s Voice and Postponed.

I have posed the question before, but it is even more pertinent today. What was the best €1,000 spent at a bloodstock sale in 2016? When I previously suggested it there may have been a few contenders for the accolade. Now there is just one answer. It is the €1,000 bid made by David Stack of Coolagown Stud that secured Northern Mischief from the Tinnakill House Stud draft at the Goffs November Sale that year.

Stack was buying for his South African friend and client Joli Racing, aka Nigel Riley, and Northern Mischief was catalogued as a Grade 1-placed dam of a single winner, but barren to her 2016 covering by Dandy Man (Mozart). Undeterred by her miss that year to the Ballyhane Stud stallion, Stack sent her back to Joe Foley’s farm and three weeks ago she produced a colt foal by the Group 1 sire. She is scheduled to be covered by Churchill (Galileo).

Since her purchase by David Stack the daughter of Yankee Victor (Saint Ballado) has gone on to produce three more winners, including North America. Her son Make Mischief (Makfi) is a winner in Italy, while Liquid Gold (Nathaniel) won a handicap last year for trainer Richard Fahey on her fifth outing, having been runner-up three times in maidens. She had been a €95,000 foal purchase but her worth as a broodmare now are multiples of that original investment. All of these winners follow the three-time American winning filly Zapoutofit (Ghostzapper).

The six-year-old North America, once a 100,000gns foal purchase by John Ferguson, could yet have better to come and he is now a leading fancy for the $10 million Dubai World Cup next weekend. Would that not be the bloodstock story of the decade if he were to triumph in the world’s second richest race?

Northern Mischief is a daughter of Yankee Victor and he won the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. A rig, he won or placed in a dozen of 19 races and earned $833,806. He stood at Brereton C. Jones’ Airdrie Stud before being sent to Korea in 2005 where he died six years later. He sired some 30 stakes horses, including Dubai champion and California Grade 2 winner Kinsale King.

Winner of a pair of races and third in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes, Northern Mischief is a half-sister to the champion older mare Gourmet Girl (Cees’s Tizzy), winner of a trio of Grade 1 races; namely the Apple Blossom Handicap, Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap and the Vanity Handicap. She was the champion older mare in the USA as a six-year-old in 2001 and went to the breeding shed with earnings of more than $1.25 million.

Northern Mischief and Gourmet Girl are two of the six winners from Rhondaling (Welsh Pageant) who was a dual winner at two and placed in the Group 3 C L Weld Stakes. She was then sent to the USA but failed to win there, though she was stakes-placed. Her other winners at stud include Marfach (Leroidesanimaux) and he won at Roscommon as a two-year-old for Ennistown Stud and Jim Bolger before running second to Cape Blanco in the Group 3 Tyros Stakes at Leopardstown. He was then sold to race in Hong Kong where he was successful three times.

Rhondaling was the best of five foals produced by her winning dam Touch of Class (Luthier). All but one of the quintet raced and all visited the winners’ enclosure.