LAST weekend provided us with a tremendous feast of international racing, with Champions Weekend in Ireland, the final English classic of the year at Doncaster, and the outstanding meeting known as Arc trials day in Paris.

As one might expect at this time of the year, many of the major winners on those cards have already been reviewed here this season, but the Group 1 Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes, over a mile at Leopardstown on Saturday, resulted in a popular win for a mare whose most recent success came at Newmarket 11 months before.

Fiesolana (by Aussie Rules) was bred by Robert De Vere Hunt, she is trained by Willie McCreery, and she now carries the famous colours of the Niarchos family having been purchased by them, for 960,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale in Newmarket last year.

In 2013 she won the Group 2 Challenge Stakes, and Group 3 contests at Leopardstown, Fairyhouse, and Tipperary, and she finished fifth behind La Collina in the Group 1 Matron Stakes.

She was unplaced over a mile in France on her first outing this season, was then runner-up in a Group 3 at the Curragh, finished fourth in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Ascot, and was beaten less than two lengths when taking third behind Garswood in the Group 1 Prix Maurice De Gheest over six and a half furlongs at Deauville.

Her victory on Saturday was the ninth of her career, it was her first success at the highest level, and also a first Group 1 winner for her Lanwades Stud-based sire Aussie Rules (by Danehill).

She is the star performer amongst his 16 individual stakes winners, to date, a tally that also includes the classic-placed German pattern scorer Djumana.

Fiesolana is out of Tidal Reach and the first thing to catch the eye is that being a Group 1 winner for the Danehill (by Danzig) sire line is different to what we usually see with broodmare daughters of Kris S (by Roberto), whose Group/Grade 1 stars tend to be representatives of the broad Mr Prospector (by Raise a Native) or Storm Cat (by Storm Bird) lines.

This could open some potentially interesting possibilities for Fiesolana when she eventually goes to stud, as does the Sadler’s Wells connection with both her sire and her broodmare sire.

The Danehill line has been tremendously successful when bred to Sadler’s Wells and his male line descendants, and one of the exceptions to Kris S’s general rule is the dual US Grade 1 star Marketing Mix, who is a daughter of Medaglia D’Oro (by El Prado), a grandson of Sadler’s Wells.

As for the Mr Prospector line, which has done so well with those Kris S mares, it has also excelled with Danehill line mares, with last Saturday’s Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes winner Hallowed Crown (by Street Sense) a striking recent example.

Although hers is a family not usually associated with top-class winning form on the flat, Fiesolana is not her dam’s only stakes winner.

The best of her siblings, on the flat, is her half-sister Innit (by Distinctly North) who won the Group 3 Premio Dormello and the Listed Prix Herod before going to the USA, where she added a Grade 2 handicap at Hollywood Park.

She is also a half-sister to the prolific gelding Arfinnit (by College Chapel), and has the unusual distinction of being a Group 1 winning half-sister to two horses who have won at the highest level under National Hunt rules.

REMARKABLE

We would not add Tidal Reach to the list of mares who have produced three Group/Grade 1 stars at stud, and yet she has achieved something quite remarkable and deserving of high praise.

The older of this other pair is Tidal Fury (by Night Shift), who took the Grade 1 Prix Cambaceres (Grande Course de Haies de 3Ans) by six lengths at Auteuil, a month after winning a Grade 2 contest over the same course and distance.

His half-sister Tidara Angel (by Oratorio) won the Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil – Course de Haies d’Ete de Quatres Ans three years ago, beating Katkovana, who also chased her home the month before when they met in the Grade 2 Prix Amadou, also at Auteuil. Tidal Reach is out of a dual US juvenile scorer called Davie Lady (by Bold And Brave), and her string of successful siblings includes the nine-times scorer Couragious David (by Real Courage), a 13-times winner named Lady Bonnie (by Shady Character), and also David’s Lamb (by Unpredictable), a filly who won 11 times, including six listed contests, and whose placed efforts included a few graded events, most notably the Grade 2 Palomar Handicap, in which she was third.

Davie Lady, in turn, is a half-sister to the multiple stakes winner Blues Alley (by Angle Light), and to an unraced mare who became the dam and grandam of blacktype winners, but there is nothing apparent in the family that could have predicted the degree of success that would be attained by four of Tidal Reach’s progeny. If you go back further then you find that the fourth dam of Fiesolana is Family Pride (by Beau Pere), who was born in 1947, won seven of her 43 starts, and who had five siblings that won between 13 and 29 races each, notching up a total of 86 races between them.

Fiesolana is the star flat horse in her family.

As a Group 1-winning Danehill-line mare who is out of a daughter of Kris S, and whose family has a very long history of getting prolific winners, she will be a fascinating addition to the paddocks.