GARY Coffey gave me a guided tour recently of Newsells Park Stud and among the highlights of the visit was the viewing of their two stallions, Nathaniel (Galileo) and Equiano (Acclamation). Both were in excellent fettle after busy seasons and my visit was days before Enable went to Ascot and added further glory to an already stellar season with victory in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Enable is the outstanding performer to date for Nathaniel and she is from the first crop of this excellent racehorse. Nathaniel didn’t win at two, once having to settle for second behind Frankel (what a maiden that was), while his three-year-old season yielded three wins, headlined by his defeat of Workforce and St Nicholas Abbey in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes,

At four he won one of his four starts, the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes when he dropped back to 10 furlongs, while he was placed on all his remaining starts. He was runner-up to Danedream (who looked well when I saw her too at Newsells) when attempting to land the King George VI for a second time, second to Snow Fairy in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes and third to Frankel in the British equivalent.

Last weekend God Given won the Group 3 Prix Minerve and joined Enable as the second group winner from the first crop of Nathaniel. A third filly Natavia, who ran in the Epsom Oaks, is a listed winner, while colts in that first crop include the Group 1 Deutsches Derby runner-up Enjoy Vijay, the Group 2 Italian Derby runner-up Back On Board and the Group 2 French performer Falcon Wings.

It is highly likely that God Given will climb the ladder of success further and she has the pedigree of a Group 1 winner. She is the second stakes winner for her dam Ever Rigg, a daughter of Dubai Destination (Kingmambo) who will be represented in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). Ever Rigg’s other stakes winning offspring is Postponed, a multiple Group 1 winning son of the Darley stallion star, and his yearling own-brother is likely to be one of the favourites to emerge as the sale topper in Book 1.

The yearling at Tattersalls is offered from Highclere Stud and it was the same farm that sent the dam Ever Rigg to the December Sale two years earlier, carrying this yearling. She was bought back at 1,500,000gns. A minor winner at three when trained by Ed Dunlop, Ever Rigg’s best son had won that year’s King George Vi and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but he was later to add the Group 1 Juddmonte International, Coronation Cup and Dubai Sheema Classic to his tally and he is the earner now of just short of £5 million.

Ever Rigg was twice sold in the ring, being acquired by Ger Burke of Glidawn Stud for 26,000gns as a foal from the Player family’s Whatton Manor Stud, and then sold for a whopping €360,000 as a yearling at Goffs to Blandford Bloodstock. That latter transaction was in 2006.

Ever Rigg is one of half a dozen winners for Bianca Nera, a daughter of Salse (Topsider). Two of the six were listed-placed and they included Pietra Dura (Cadeaux Genereux) who at stud bred the Grade 3 winner and Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes runner-up Turning Top (Pivotal). An unraced daughter of Bianca Nera bred the Group 3 Winter Derby winner Robin Hoods Bay (Motivator).

Bianca Nera was the champion filly at two in Ireland in 1996 after winning the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, in addition to triumphing in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes. She is the best of five winners from the maiden Birch Creek (Carwhite) who was nonetheless placed in an Italian group race.

The best of the rest was Hotelgenie Dot Com (Selkirk) and she came close to matching Bianca Nera’s achievement when she ran second in the Moyglare Stud Stakes.

She is the dam of Simple Perfect (Danehill) who won both the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile and the Falmouth Stakes and was placed in the 1000 Guineas, and the grandam of Bondi Beach (Galileo), a multiple group winner and runner-up in the Group 1 St Leger, while Gale Force Ten (Oasis Dream), winner of the Group 3 Jersey Stakes was runner-up in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, is out of another half-sister to Bianca Nera.