NEXT year will be a very important one in the continuing story of the US wonder horse American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) when his first runners hit the track. He had 161 foals in the first crop and they have sold for prices up to $2.2 million.

However, looks and pedigree are one thing, and the real test is when they start running. Given that American Pharoah won two of his three starts as a juvenile, the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and the Grade 1 Frontrunner Stakes at Santa Anita, resulting in his being named champion two-year-old colt, the odds are that he will also get high-class juveniles.

Of course, his first season achievements as a racehorse were completely overshadowed by his three-year-old year when he won seven of his eight starts, his sole defeat coming in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes to Keen Ice.

He won the Triple Crown – Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes – and ended the year with success in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

During his two seasons racing he amassed some $8,650,000 and went to stud at a fee of $200,000. Now priced at $110,000 for 2019, this could be an opportunity for breeders to avail of him at a fee that could look quite a bargain when the foals of 2020 are on the ground.

The pedigree of American Pharoah received a significant boost last weekend when his Tapit (Pulpit) two-year-old half-sister Chasing Yesterday won her fourth race in five starts, adding the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos to minor stakes wins at Del Mar and Santa Anita. She was bred by Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Equine and is named in honour of her late husband Frank.

Mrs Lyon bought the dam of Chasing Yesterday at Fasig-Tipton in 2014 for $2.1 million, carrying a full-brother to American Pharoah. That foal was named St Patrick’s Day and won at two in the USA before transferring to Ballydoyle for whom he was placed at Group 3 level in Ireland this year.

Chasing Yesterday is the fifth foal, runner and winner for Littleprincessemma who was unplaced in two starts and is a daughter of Yankee Gentleman (Storm Cat). Another of her winners is American Cleopatra (Pioneerof The Nile) and she was runner-up at two in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes. Following this quintet of winners is a yearling colt Theprinceofbabes (Pioneerof The Nile) and a colt foal named Triple Tap (Tapit). Littleprincessemma is in foal again to Tapit.

The resurgence in this female line began in the early nineties when the speedy Exclusive Rosette (Ecliptical), the grandam of Chasing Yesterday, set a record for five furlongs at Atlantic City and won the Florida Thoroughbred Charities Stakes. She mated well with Stormin Fever (Storm Cat), a high-class seven-furlong to mile runner on the dirt. Together they bred Grade 2 winner and sire Storm Wolf and the Grade 3 winner and Grade 1 Test Stakes third Misty Rosette.