THERE is a strong possibility, an odds-on chance indeed, that by the time you will read this the statistics I quote will be outdated. What statistics you may ask? The number of winning progeny from the first crop of Rathasker Stud’s Bungle Inthejungle who has been available to breeders this year at €5,000, the same fee at which he retired to stud.

His first starters have come out of the stalls running fast and his winners to runners ratio of more than 42% is highly impressive. His 2017 yearlings averaged almost three times his stud fee, again a fair performance given that 55 of them traded during last year.

One of the least expensive foals from his first crop was a daughter of the unraced Ms Sasha Malia, herself a daughter of Verglas (Highest Honor). Bred by Misty Lodge Stud owner and hospital phlebotomist Eileen Farrelly, she only cost Crispin de Moubray the sire’s stud fee when she was purchased at the Goffs November Foal Sale in 2016.

Sent to Italy and named Sopran Artemide, she is trained by Il Cavallo In Testa for owner Leonardo Ciampoli and the filly was making just her second start when she broke her maiden in the Listed Premio Vittorio Crespi in Milan on Saturday. In doing so she became the first stakes winner for her sire.

PRECOCIOUS JUVENILE

Bungle Inthejungle (Exceed And Excel) was a precocious juvenile, winning four races over the minimum trip which included the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes at Ascot, beating Garswood, and the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood. He was runner-up to Sir Prancealot in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster. A half-brother to the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes winner Muarrab (Oasis Dream), his grandam Crime Of Passion (Dragonara Palace) won the Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes and is from the family of the classic winner Style Vendome (Anabaa) whose first crop are three-year-olds.

Ms Sasha Malia (the Christian names of the daughters of Barack and Michelle Obama) was offered for sale as a foal by Eileen Farrelly and retained at €10,000. She might have failed to make it to the racecourse but she has a perfect record at stud, her first five foals all having run and won now. Her first, Dream Of You (Art Connoisseur), was sold three times, the last time for just £1,100 to bloodstock agent Axel Donnerstag as an unraced two-year-old. The following year she won three times in Germany.

DUNDALK WINNER

Her second foal, Chicago School (Approve) was bought as a breezer by Mark Johnston for 62,000gns but failed to win a race for him. He was sold on to Rita Shah and under the tutelage of Anthony McCann he won twice at Dundalk last year. Meltimo (Vale Of York) was next and he successfully plied his trade in Poland and last year

and won three times there.

Mantracker (Fast Company) won for Willie McCreery on his two-year-old debut last year in Killarney to continue Ms Sasha Malia’s winning streak, and now Sopran Artemide keeps the sequence going. This is all music to the ears of Ciara and Michael Carty as they paid €46,000 last November at Goffs for the now yearling colt from the first crop of the dual Group 2 winning juvenile Gutaifan (Dark Angel), a half-brother to the five winners.

Ms Sasha Malia is a half-sister to four winners, the most prolific of which was Ostfanni (Spectrum) who won four races on the flat and six over hurdles. She is also a winner producer. Their dam Ostwahl (Waajib) was a Group 3 winner in Germany, placed in the German Oaks and she is a half-sister to the dam of two colts who placed in the Group 1 German Derby, Omikron (Germany) in 2004 and Ostland (Lando), runner-up in 2008.