SANTIAGO was runner-up at Galway to Alpine Star in a maiden last year. Now the pair are Group 1 winners. Alpine Star won the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, while Santiago, himself winner of the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at the same meeting, is now a classic winner, leading home a Ballydoyle clean sweep of the first four places in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

Bred by Lynch Bages, Santiago is a son of Authorized (Montjeu) who was exported to Turkey last year following the success of his offspring there, being responsible for a pair of champions in Bici Bici and the dual champion Toruk Macto. He proved to be a useful sire of runners on the flat and over jumps, and is the sire of the dual Grand National hero Tiger Roll.

Winner of the Group 1 Derby, Authorized is now 16 years of age. Latterly based in Europe at Haras du Logis in Normandy where he was based for six seasons, he also stood at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket for five seasons and for one season at Kildangan Stud. Bred in partnership by Michael Kinane, Authorized sold as a foal for 95,000gns to Tony Nerses and was trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam for owners Imad Al Sagar and Saleh Al Homaizi.

Authorized won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy on his second start – his first win – and landed the Group 2 Dante Stakes first time out at three. He started favourite for the Derby and won easily by five lengths, giving Frankie Dettori his first win in the race. He also won a vintage renewal of the Group 1 Juddmonte International.

He shuttled to Australia and sired five Group 1 before the emergence of last week’s classic winner. They included the multiple Australian Group 1 star Hartnell and the leading fillies Ambivalent and Seal Of Approval. Over jumps his best runners also include Nichols Canyon and Sternrubin. Last year, his final one in France, he covered almost 90 mares at a fee of €12,000.

The first foal of dual winner Wadyhatta (Cape Cross), Santiago was bought in utero when his dam sold at Arqana for €275,000 in the Summer Sale to Horse France. That investment paid major dividends last year when her now two-year-old La Joconde (Frankel) sold for 850,000gns, while that juvenile has a yearling full-sister.

At the time of her purchase, Wadyhatta was one of four winners from her dam Thamarat (Anabaa), two of which were stakes placed. You had to go back one more generation to find the first stakes winner, the talented Tamayuz (Nayef) who won the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois and Group 1 Prix Jean Prat and is now a multiple Group 1 sire at Derrinstown Stud.

In the intervening years two more stakes winners have appeared up close in the pedigree. Two weeks ago Wadyhatta’s half-brother Motamarris (Le Havre) won the Listed Grand Prix de Compiegne on his seasonal debut. This was his first stakes win and his first run since finishing third in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby to Sottsass and Persian King. He must be odds-on to progress to greater victories.

Another big update is provided by Wadyhatta’s half-sister Riqa (Dubawi). Runner-up three times in listed races, she has done better at stud and her first three runners are winners, headed by Tantheem (Teofilo) who won half of her eight starts, three of them at Group 3 level.

Tamayuz is out of a winning half-sister to the Group 1 French Derby winner Anabaa Blue (Anabaa). He is the best of the seven successful offspring of Group 3 winner Allez Les Trois (Riverman) and that mare’s winning siblings include Urban Sea (Miswaki) and the Group 1 2000 Guineas winner King’s Best (Kingmambo).

Urban Sea won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and is now one of the most celebrated broodmares in thoroughbred breeding history, her four Group 1 winners headed by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and fellow Arc winner Sea The Stars (Cape Cross).