EMMA Capon is surely a very happy lady after last weekend. She is the owner of the five-year-old Oasis Dream mare African Plains, purchased for her from the Juddmonte draft at the Tattersalls December Sale by Charlie Gordon-Watson for 65,000gns.

At the time she was the first foal of the Group 1 winning sprinter African Rose and she had been placed a number of times in France when trained by Criquette Head. Her first visit to stud saw her covered by Poet’s Voice and by whom she has her first foal this year, a colt.

African Plains’ half-sister Fair Eva on Saturday won her second start, the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot, and in the process propelled herself to the position of ante-post favourite for the 1000 Guineas next May. She is unbeaten in two starts, is bred in the purple, and the horses she beat on her debut have shown that her form is rock solid.

In between African Plains and Fair Eva, African Rose produced a now four-year-old son by Dansili named Hakka (currently racing in Saudi Arabia) and a three-year-old daughter of the same sire, Cosmos Pink, in training in France.

Fair Eva is a daughter of Frankel and she has a year younger full-brother, and a Kingman half-brother born this year.

Group 1 winners abound in this family. African Rose won the Ladbrokes Sprint Cup as a three-year-old in 2008 and she was runner-up in the Prix Maurice de Gheest. Now she has produced her first stakes winner and more will surely come.

African Rose is a daughter of Observatory and a full-sister to the dual stakes-winning juvenile Helleborine, successful in the Group 3 Prix d’Aumale and runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Their dam New Orchid, by Quest For Fame, was a smart racemare, winning at three and being stakes-placed a few times. She was one of four winners from Musicanti, the winning dam of, among others, the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner and later sire Distant Music.

Go back one more generation and Fair Eva’s fourth dam, Populi, is the dam of champion and multiple Grade 1 winner Vanlandingham, the Grade 1 runner-up and stakes winner Jenkins Ferry and the grandam of the Grade 1 CCA Oaks winner Funny Moon. This is the family also of the 2009 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Termagant.

Once again, it is fair to say that few sires have ever made such an impressive start at stud as Frankel has. As of midday on Monday, July 25th he has compiled the following statistics:

Runners 10

Runs 18

Winners 7

Wins 9

Places 4

The list is headed by the Group 3 winner Fair Eva and also includes three stakes-placed horses in Queen Kindly (group-placed at Royal Ascot), Cunco (listed placed at Royal Ascot) and Frankuus (listed placed). His daughter Toulifaut and son Seven Heavens are unbeaten in their only starts, while Majoris won one of his two starts.

Last Kingdom was placed on his only outing, while a colt in Japan and Lightening Fast in Ireland are his only runners who have yet to finish in the first three.

With almost 120 offspring in that first crop of two-year-olds, it is a fair bet that we have yet to see the best of them.