MSTISLAV Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor, was renowned not only as one of the great instrumentalists of the 20th century, but also as an outspoken champion of artistic freedom in the Soviet Union during the last decades of the Cold War. He died soon after his 80th birthday in Moscow. That was just a decade ago.

His memory is recalled now as a two-year-old named after the great man is one of the improvers in the stables at Ballydoyle, and last weekend won the Group 2 Galileo Irish EBF Futurity Stakes at the Curragh. In the year of the musician’s death New Approach won this race and the winners since have included Cape Blanco, Dragon Pulse, Gleneagles and Churchill. So the bar is set high now for Rostropovich.

Something the equine of that name does not lack is pedigree. He is a son of Frankel who is having an outstanding time in 2017, with 11 stakes winners in the current year. Rostropovich is the first of these to emerge from his second crop, while the initial crop has yielded the 2017 Group 1 winner Soul Stirring, Group 2 winners Cracksman, Eminent and Finche, Group 3 winners Last Kingdom, Lady Frankel, Frankuus and Cunco, and the stakes-winning pair Mori and Queen Kindly. The latter was a Group 2 winner as a juvenile.

In spite of this exceptional start at stud, some sectors of the media continue to question his ability as a sire, seemingly expecting him to outperform every other stallion in history. Some feel that without a Group 1 winner in Europe he has not yet achieved enough, though he is surely just a length or so away from that becoming a reality.

There are many measures of success and one is the percentage of blacktype winners to foals of racing age. A snapshot last week reveals that among the top dozen sires in Europe as listed on Global Stallions, only Galileo, Dubawi, Sea The Stars, Invincible Spirit, Pivotal and Dansili had a higher percentage than Frankel. He is moving in on esteemed company with these more established sires.

Rostropovich is the ninth foal, ninth runner and seventh winner for his Machiavellian (Mr Prospector) dam Tyranny. He is also her third group winning son, joining Zoffany (Dansili) and Wilshire Boulevard (Holy Roman Emperor) in gaining that honour. All three earned group success at two, with Zoffany being the best of the trio – to date at least.

Zoffany won five of his seven starts at two, graduating though listed and Group 3 victories at Leopardstown to land the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh, one of trainer Aidan O’Brien’s 16 wins in that race. While he failed to add to those triumphs at three, he ran second in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat and to the exceptional Frankel in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes. His first crop at stud, now four-year-olds, includes the Group 1 winner Ventura Storm as well as five individual Group 2 winners.

Tyranny was trained by John Dunlop and won a maiden and a handicap at three, both over seven furlongs and both at Lingfield Park. She was bred at Hesmonds Stud and sold as a yearling for 270,000gns to Charlie Gordon-Watson acting for the Coopers of Normandie Stud. They sold her on as a seven-year-old, carrying Zoffany, to Hugo Merry who was representing Denis Brosnan, and she cost the businessman 230,000gns.

It will not surprise you to learn that Brosnan got most of her purchase price back when Zoffany sold as a yearling for 220,000gns to John Magnier, and that was yet another smart investment by the King of Coolmore.

Subsequently Brosnan’s Croom House Stud has received €130,000 for Wilshire Boulevard, 600,000gns for a Galileo filly (the winner Knocknagree), 700,000gns for a Dansili filly (the winner Landikusic) and 1,100,000gns for Rostropovich.

Now, excitingly, it is even possible that the best is yet to come. Tyranny’s 10th offspring is a yearling filly by super sire Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) and she is Lot 251 in the upcoming Goffs Orby Sale.

While the rest of this female line has yielded many good runners, and continues to do so, Tyranny’s record at stud is enough to say that her daughter’s page in the upcoming sales catalogue will be dog-eared by every international buyer of note in attendance.