THE dual Derby winner Harzand has his first foals on the ground and reports about them have been very positive. The son of the 2009 Derby winner Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) stands alongside his father at Gilltown Stud at a fee of €15,000, incredible value compared to the £60,000 and €50,000 first season prices charged for the previous two winners of the Epsom showcase, Golden Horn and Australia.

Last weekend Harzand’s family, along with his owner-breeder, the Aga Khan, got a real boost when Hazapour emerged as a live Derby contender after his victory in the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial Stakes. Could he make it an Epsom Derby double in three years for the female line?

Hazapour is the latest group winner for Shamardal, now responsible for 49 such winners and 92 blacktype winners in all. Reaching the landmark 50 and 100 respectively cannot be far away. A champion at two and three, and beaten just once in seven starts, he can claim 19 Group 1 winners mong that tally and that list includes the dual classic winner and now multiple Group 1 sire Lope De Vega.

Hazapour is winner number four for his dam Hazarafa (Daylami) and this is from that mare’s first four foals. Her fifth offspring is the unraced two-year-old filly Hazakiyra (Camelot), while following on is a yearling daughter of Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill). Hazarafa herself had the perfect ending to her six-race career, leading home a John Oxx 1-2 in the Listed Finale Stakes over a mile and a half at the Curragh.

Four of the six winners from Hazapour’s grandam Hazariya (Xaar) are stakes horses, and in addition to Harzand and Hazarafa, the best of the other pair is Harasiya (Pivotal). She won the seven-furlong, Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes as a juvenile and that same year was runner-up in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes and third in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes.

Within the first three generations of the family of Hazapour, a host of stakes winners have emerged in recent years. Harzand is the outstanding member of that group, which also includes 2013 Group 1 British Champions Fillies and Mare Stakes winner Seal Of Approval (Authorized), this year’s stakes winner Hunaina (Tamayuz), 2016 Derby Trial Stakes winner Humphry Bogart (Tagula), and last year’s Group 2 Chairman’s Handicap winner Swashbuckling (Raven/s Pass) in Australia.

A remarkable statistic about Aga Khan winners of the Epsom Derby is that all have gone on to land the Irish version. Could Hazapour add his name to that roll of honour?