SOOKERA raced in the colours of Robert Sangster and won three of her five starts as a juvenile, the only season she raced. Born on May 18th, she nonetheless made her first start two months shy of her actual second birthday, winning the season-opening Castrol Stakes at the now defunct Phoenix Park.

Bred in the USA by the British Bloodstock Agency and Robert Sangster, she was actually offered for sale as a yearling at Saratoga but found no takers at $20,000. She was sent to be trained in Ireland, but not by Vincent O’Brien as you might have expected, but rather by Dermot Weld.

Beaten on her second start when failing to concede seven pounds to the high-class Turkish Treasure, she was then sent to Royal Ascot and defeated the colts when landing the Chesham Stakes, claiming the scalp of the subsequent Gimcrack Stakes winner Tumbledownwind. She was to make just a pair of further starts, finishing second to Ridaness in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes before ending her career with a victory in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes under Wally Swinburn. At the time this was the only juvenile Group 1 in Britain confined to fillies.

Her performances meant that she was rated the joint-champion juvenile filly in Ireland with the Vincent O’Brien-trained Fairy Bridge (later the dam of Sadler’s Wells), while in Britain she was second best of her sex, five pounds behind the Harry Wragg-trained Cherry Hinton who ironically only won at Group 3 level.

Sookera was a daughter Roberto (Hail To Reason) who won the Group 1 Derby at Epsom and the inaugural Group 1 Benson and Hedges Gold Cup at York in 1972. Roberto went on to sire notables such as Sunshine Forever, Touching Wood, Real Shadai, At Talaq, Lear Fan, Kris S. and Dynaformer.

Although touted as a leading classic hope for 1978, Sookera never saw a racecourse again and retired to the breeding shed, initially in the ownership of Sangster. However, she was sold to Juddmonte Farms and has been a major influence for Prince Khalid Abdullah’s operation. Seven of her 13 foals won, with the last of her offspring, a filly, being born in 1996, when she was 21. Sookera lived in retirement for a further eight years.

Two of Sookera’s sons became group winners, the full-brothers So Factual (Known Fact) and Bold Fact. The former won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York and the Group 3 Cork and Orrery Stakes at Royal Ascot, while Bold Fact won the Group 3 July Stakes at Newmarket at two and was a multiple stakes winner in both England and the USA. A number of Sookera’s daughters enjoyed success at stud, with Field Dancer (Northfields) being the best of these as a racemare.

However, it is Sookera’s daughter Kerali (High Line) who has exerted the most influence in the family, and in doing so is also the dam of one of the greatest broodmares in the history of the thoroughbred. Yet, it is arguable that the best racehorse produced by Kerali was the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle winner Kerawi (Warning)!

Three of Kerali’s daughters bred Group 1 winners. Arrive (Kahyasi), a listed winner in England, is dam of the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Promising Lead (Danehill), while the unraced Dissemble (Ahonoora) bred a pair of Group 1 winners in Brazil, the best of them being the triple Grade 1 winner in North America, Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes). However, these breeding achievements have been completely upstaged by Arrive’s own-sister Hasili (Kahyasi).

A listed winner when successful four times in France, her legacy at stud has been outstanding. Seven group winning progeny, five of whom won at Group or Grade 1 level, means that she is immortalised in the annals of thoroughbred breeding. Her non-Group 1 winning offspring include the hugely successful sire Dansili (Danehill), while her winners at the highest level are Intercontinental (Danehill), Cacique (Danehill) and Heat Haze (Green Desert), all successful twice at that class, while Champs Elysees (Danehill) and Banks Hill (Danehill) were each three-time winners of Group/Grade 1 races. For good measure Banks Hill bred the Group 1 winner Romantica (Galileo).

Now another Group 1 winner has emerged in the family, thanks to Quadrilateral’s victory in the bet365 Fillies’ Mile Stakes at Newmarket, retaining her unbeaten record in the process. This daughter of Frankel (Galileo), the first of his fourth crop to win a Group 1, is out of a granddaughter of Kerali, the winning Mizzen Mast (Cozzene) mare Nimble Thimble.

Winner on the second of her three starts when trained by Roger Charlton, Nimble Thimble is now the dam of three winners with her first four runners. While Quadrilateral is by some way her best, the three-year-old Boardman (Kingman) was listed-placed in the summer for Pascal Bary and could yet add further lustre to the family.

Nimble Thimble is one of eight winners from the US stakes-placed Skiable (Niniski) and the best of that successful octet is the Group 3 Coventry Stakes and American Grade 2 winner Three Valleys (Diesis) who was runner-up in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. His racing career in the USA was handled by Bobby Frankel, after whom Quadrilateral’s sire is named, and Three Valleys ran third to his close relation Leroidesanimaux in the Grade 1 Citation Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Quadrilateral is the 10th Group 1 winning son or daughter of Frankel, unbeaten in his 14-start career and now at stud outside Newmarket at Banstead Manor. She is also just the second juvenile winner at that level for her sire, the other being his first ever to achieve the honour, Soul Stirring in Japan. The latter went on the following year to add the Group 1 Yushun Himba (Oaks).

The record that Frankel is compiling at stud stands comparison with any other leading sire, and it will be interesting to see what fee is set for him in 2020. This year he commanded £175,000, or about €200,000. His 35 or so yearlings sold this year, the largest number sold from any of his first five crops, are currently averaging in or around €500,000.