WHEN Maher Ebrahim Lutfalla was interviewed by Nick Luck at the draw for the US$1 million H.H. The Emirs Trophy in Qatar last week, he said he was confident that the seven-year-old Chopin would give a good account of himself.

This was overlooked by many in the room who felt that the challenger from Bahrain was likely to be out-classed by the international field gathered for the valuable purse. The racecard on the day noted that he ‘wouldn’t be far off [being] one of the best on [the] pick of European form’ and that he was a real money-spinner in Bahrain following his purchase for just 9,000gns at the 2015 Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale.

Chopin didn’t just win the race, but he did so with some authority and collected a prize of US$570,000 for his jubilant owner, his trainer Abdullah Kuwaiti and his bearded jockey Alberto Sanna. The winning owner revealed that he had been advised not to buy the horse at the sales, but he did so nonetheless and he had the biggest smile on show at Al Rayyan on Saturday evening.

Chopin is a gelded son of the Highest Honor (by Kenmare) stallion Santiago and the second foal of the winning Galileo mare Caucasienne. Twice a winner as a four-year-old when trained by John Hills, she opened her account in a one-mile, five-furlong maiden at Lingfield and then added a mile and a half Brighton handicap to her record.

Caucasienne produced six foals, one of which died without being named. Four of the five named offspring have run and all have won. Chopin is easily the best, followed by the Shirocco gelding Chartbreaker who won a couple of times in Germany and was listed placed. He then joined Paul Nicholls and won a hurdle race at Kempton. However his last four starts have been for Chris Gordon and he has beaten just two horses home!

Chopin started his racing career in Germany where he was trained by Andreas Wohler. That handler watched on Saturday as the former stable inmate beat his Qatar Derby winner Noor Al Hawa into second place, though the runner-up purse of US$220,000 will have helped to ease Wohler’s pain.

Santiago was a leading miler in Germany and won seven of his 20 starts in that country, France and Italy. His victories included the German 2000 Guineas and the Group 2 Premio Ribot two years later.

He stood for many years at Gestüt Graditz, the breeders of Chopin, but has moved this year to a new location in Germany where his fee is just €2,500.

Caucasienne is one of five winning progeny for the Gulch mare Carousel Girl, a two-year-old winner in France. Those five winners were produced from just seven foals, one of which never ran. Carousel Girl’s dam Carnet Solaire was also a two-year-old winner in France and that same year she went to the USA and landed a stakes race at Aqueduct. All of her eight foals raced and seven of them won. The most significant was her stakes-placed daughter Beyond The Sun, the dam of three graded stakes winners headed by Red Giant, successful in the Grade 1 Clement L Hirsch Memorial at Santa Anita.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news