WHAT have Helmet, Union Rags and Gemologist got in common? At the time of writing they are the only first-crop stallions in Europe or America to have a Group or Grade 1 winner. Helmet achieved the feat when Thunder Snow landed the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud last weekend.

In the USA Union Rags has the added distinction of having two winners at the highest level, Dancing Rags and Union Strike, winners of the Darley Alcibiades Stakes and Del Mar Debutante Stakes respectively. Gemologist, a sire tipped for greatness in this column, broke his duck at Grade 1 level following Yellow Agate’s win on the Frizette Stakes.

All three sires were very affordable when they went to stud. Helmet retired to Kildangan Stud at a fee of €10,000 and his newly announced fee for 2017 will rise to £10,000 from £8,000 this year. He is now based at Dalham Hall Stud.

Gemologist retired to WinStar at $25,000 but his fee had dropped in the interim. Now he is back to his initial level again for 2017. Union Rags is at Lane’s End where he had been steady at $35,000 since going to stud. His 2017 fee has not been announced yet.

Victory for Thunder Snow in the Group 1 feature last weekend completes a remarkable achievement for his dam Eastern Joy.

A winner in the colours of Sheikh Mohammed in France as a three-year-old, this daughter of Dubai Destination is now responsible for four stakes winners with her first four foals, and all by different stallions on the Darley roster.

The run started with Ihtimal, a daughter of Shamardal, and she won the Group 2 May Hill Stakes at two before adding the UAE Oaks and 1000 Guineas to her final total of four wins, all in blacktype races. She was third also in the 1000 Guineas but died as a four-year-old.

Always Smile was next, a now four-year-old daughter of Cape Cross, and she hit her stride this year with a listed win in the Hambleton Stakes and placing behind Alice Springs in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes and Falmouth Stakes. First Victory followed and this Teofilo three-year-old won both her juvenile starts, notably the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes.

Thunder Snow, the fourth foal and only colt to date from Eastern Joy, has a yearling half-sister by Shamardal, while his dam visited Dubawi this year.

EASTERN JOY

Eastern Joy is by the damsire of Golden Horn and Postponed and she is a half-sister to the Machiavellian mare West Wind, winner of the Group 1 Prix de Diane Hermes, the French Oaks. Their Alleged half-brother Redbridge was a stakes winner and they were all out of the Nureyev mare Red Slippers who won the Sun Chariot Stakes when it was a Group 2 race.