DERMOT and Catherine Dwan breed horses under the Kellsgrange Stud banner at their base near Callan in Co Kilkenny.

The latest star to emerge from their operation is Tiger Tanaka, a two-year-old daughter of Clodovil (Danehill) and a mare that they purchased for just €3,500 carrying the filly who last weekend won for the fifth time.

This was Tiger Tanaka’s sixth outing of the year and the only time she met with defeat was on her penultimate start when she was a highly creditable third in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly behind Ventura Tormenta and The Lir Jet. Three of her first four victories were in claiming races, and indeed she was claimed after her debut success by her current owner Miguel Castro Megias. Now, most importantly, Tiger Tanaka is a group winner, capturing the Group 3 Prix Francois Boutin at Deauville over seven furlongs.

Pascale Menard bought Tiger Tanaka as a yearling at Tattersalls Ireland for just €6,500. Her earnings are a multiple of 10 times that sale ring price, and her value is now a multiple of her earnings. While there is no yearling sibling, there is a foal half-brother by Dragon Pulse (Kyllachy) in Kilkenny and the dam is in foal to the red-hot Mehmas (Acclamation).

The dam of Tiger Tanaka is Miss Phillyjinks, a two-year-old winning daughter of Zoffany (Dansili). In fact, that win was a dead-heat at Wolverhampton on one of her first starts for trainer Paul d’Arcy, coming after the filly’s transfer from Michael Halford for whom she was placed.

As a four-year-old, and in foal for the first time, Miss Phillyjinks was sold by Nicky Hartery for what now looks unbelievable value.

Further joy

There was further joy at the weekend for the Dwans. On Friday night last Miss Phillyjinks’ half-sister Refusetolisten, a daughter of Clodovil as it happens, bred her first stakes winner when Stormy Girl (Night Of Thunder) landed the Listed Flying Fillies’ Stakes at Pontefract.

She was bred by David Cox’s Rosetown Bloodstock and Naas Racecourse manager Eamonn McEvoy. This is a family very much alive and kicking as another sibling of Miss Phillyjinks, Lannet Lady (Teuflesberg), is the dam of three winners who have all been successful this year in the USA and Canada.

Miss Phillyjinks is one of four winning offspring from the $160,000 yearling purchase Smoken Rosa (Smoke Glacken), a placed half-sister to multiple Grade 3 winner Snowdrops (Gulch), herself the dam of the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes winner and Group 2 Hungerford Stakes and German 2000 Guineas-placed Tawhid (Invincible Spirit).

Tiger Tanaka continues a remarkable run of success for Clodovil, also responsible for another group-winning juvenile this year in Steel Bull, and she is the sixth stakes winner of 2020 for the Rathasker Stud sire.