MONAGHAN-born Eamon Cleary died in September 2012, the year that the multiple stakes winner Bubbler visited Unbridled’s Song. Having been central to the decision to breed this pair, what a great sadness it is for the family that Eamon did not live to enjoy the fruits of that union, which produced last weekend’s awesome Grade 1 Travers Stakes winner Arrogate.

Making his stakes debut in this prestigious race, Arrogate is a horse with a great future and the victory was timely as his Medaglia D’Oro half-sister is due to come under the hammer at Keeneland later this month. This will be at the same venue where Arrogate, having failed to take up his appointment with the auctioneers as a foal, was sold to Juddmonte for $560,000 as a yearling. He has now won $785,000 and his value as a stallion prospect is many times that.

Arrogate is the first offspring of Bubbler, a daughter of Distorted Humor. She only raced nine times, winning on six occasions. Four of these were in stakes races and she was placed in graded-stakes company. She is a half-sister to the minor stakes winner Unbridled Femme, a daughter of Unbridled. A mating with his best son Unbridled’s Song made sense therefore.

Bubbler is out of the graded stakes-placed Grechelle, a daughter of Deputy Minister and the champion two-year-old filly in the USA in 1990, Meadow Star. She won just over half of her 20 starts at two and three years and her victories at Grade 1 level were in the Mother Goose Stakes, Acorn Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Frizette Stakes, Spinaway Stakes and the Matron Stakes.

Considered to have been one of the best juvenile fillies ever, this $90,000 yearling purchase amassed $1,445,740, in spite of winning six Grade 1 races. She had a short breeding career and in 2002, at the age of just 14, she suffered complications giving birth to a foal by Fusaichi Pegasus. She had five progeny and four of these won, with Grechelle being her best runner.

Grechelle’s full-sister Field Of Vision won four times and she is the grandam of Grade 1 Delaware Handicap and Grade 1 Beldame Stakes winner Belle Gallantey.

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