WITH a run that was timed to perfection, it is not surprising to find that Coolmore’s latest major investment, the Group 1 winning juvenile Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), immediately repaid the first instalment with Audarya’s victory for James Fanshawe in a race he has come to farm, the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet, at the weekend.

She is the second Group 1 winner for Wootton Basset, joining Almanzor who annexed the Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and the Champion Stakes at Ascot. The latter was from the first crop of his sire, one that numbered just 23 foals, and it is safe to say that given the stronger and much larger books of mares he has enjoyed in recent times, Wootton Bassett’s future is bright.

Given the concentration of certain world-class sire lines at Coolmore, it has always been a focus for the farm to pounce on any successful sire who does not have Galileo or Danehill in the near removes. In the case of Wootton Basset, Northern Dancer (Nearctic) only appears when you get back to his fourth and fifth removes. Secretariat (Bold Ruler) appears on both sides of his pedigree, again five generations back.

Looking at the families of his main winners, it appears that Wootton Bassett is well capable of upgrading his mares. Take the case of Audarya, bred by Elizabeth Doumen’s Haras d’Ecouves. Elizabeth is the wife of former trainer François Doumen. Audarya is the first blacktype winner in her branch of the family for a number of generations. Her fourth dam Jimka (Jim French) bred the last one and that was the Doumen-trained Jim And Tonic (Double Bed).

The gelded Jim And Tonic was one of the original globetrotters, his 13 victories being gained in his native France, Hong Kong and the UAE, while he had Group/Grade 1 placings in England and Canada, was twice runner-up in Singapore’s main international race and he once travelled for the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park.

Mauralakana’s success

Jim And Tonic’s full-sister added glory to the pedigree also. Jimkana (Double Bed) was placed no less than 16 times in four seasons racing but she managed just a single victory. At stud she produced a pair of stakes winners and one of these was outstanding. Mauralakana (Muhtathir) started her racing career in France where she was a Group 3 winning two-year-old and placed in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere behind Horatio Nelson.

In the autumn of her second season Mauralakana transferred to Patrick Biancone in the USA and at four was a Grade 3 winner. Sold that November to Badgers Bloodstock for $900,000, she joined Christophe Clement and graduated to become a multiple graded stakes winner, the highlight of her racing career coming when she won the Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes. In all she won 11 races and was twice runner-up at Grade 1 level.

Audarya is the second foal and winner for her dam. She was sold as a yearling for $125,000 at Arqana, six months after her dam Green Bananas (Green Tune) was sold privately at the Deauville February Mixed Sale for just €2,000. She was barren at the time. Green Bananas’ third foal is a two-year-old colt, Orpaill’eure (Polarix).

Green Bananas is one of just two foals, both winners, from the Group 3-placed winner Anabaa Republic (Anabaa). She, in turn, was one of five winners from Jim And Tonic’s and Jimkana’s winning full-sister Gigawatt (Double Bed).

All of Audarya’s first four dams are winners, and this is a solid and successful family. All it has sometimes lacked in more recent times have been opportunities, and with three Group or Grade 1 winners on the page now, perhaps there will be more to come in the years ahead.

Wootton Bassett’s first four crops yielded just 133 foals, the size of a single crop for some stallions these days. They now include two Group 1 winners and six stakes winners. His fifth crop, this year’s three-year-olds, numbers 92 progeny and already has eight stakes winners among them. Group 3 winner The Summit was runner-up in both the French 2000 Guineas and French Derby this year, while Wootton Bassett’s daughters Speak Of The Devil and Mageva, both non-stakes winners to date, were second and third in the Group 1 French 1000 Guineas. Completing the line-up of 15 stakes winners until now, Wootton Bassett’s juvenile crop in 2020 is headed by the stakes winner Chindit.