SIYOUNI is the star inhabitant of the stallion boxes at the Aga Khan Studs’ Haras de Bonneval, and he had another great weekend, with victories for his French Derby winning son Sottsass, and the emergence of another young talent in the shape of the Group 3 Prix Eclipse winner Devil. This was a second success in three starts for the juvenile colt and his first stakes success.

Bred by the Wertheimer brothers, Devil is the first foal of their Lope De Vega (Shamardal) mare Burma Sea. A winner at two, she was runner-up the following year in the Listed Prix Finlande at Longchamp. She has a yearling filly named Ivresse (Invincible Spirit) and a colt foal Sober (Camelot).

Burma Sea was bred and raced by Gestut Ammerland, trained by Andre Fabre, and they offered her as a three-year-old at the Arqana Arc Sale but she was retained in the ring at €380,000. Subsequent negotiations resulted in her private sale to the Wertheimer Brothers for €350,000. She is one of eight winners so far for her winning dam Bougainvillea (Acatenango), and one of just two stakes performers. The other is the Italian St Leger winner and German St Leger placed Burma Gold (Java Gold).

Bougainvillea is a full-sister to the champion three-year-old filly in Germany and France, Borgia (Acatenango). This globetrotter won the Group 1 German Derby and Group 1 Preis von Berlin, and travelled to win the Group 2 Hong Kong Vase. She was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup and third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomple. Borgia is grandam of the Group 1 Prix Vermeille winner Baltic Baroness (Shamardal).

Siyouni, whose fee rose to €100,000 in 2019, is now sire of 19 group winners in his first six crops of racing age, led by the exploits of Laurens, Sottsass and Ervedya.