WHEN news emerged that Mount Nelson and Champs Elysees were moving from farms in England to stand in Ireland, it was greeted with dismay by many breeders and industry leaders in Britain. Their loss has been even greater as the year has gone on, while being good news for the studs where they now stand.

Mount Nelson moved to William and John Flood’s Boardsmill Stud and he has enjoyed a remarkable 2017. It was further boosted last weekend when his five-year-old son Librisa Breeze gained a first blacktype win, and it was no ordinary one.

The grey won the Group 1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint Stakes and a winner’s purse of more than £340,000. Formerly trained by Jeremy Noseda for Seamus Burns, Librisa Breeze was bought out of that yard for 90,000gns two years ago at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale and has continued to improve with his present trainer Dean Ivory.

This Group 1 victory for Librisa Breeze will be music to the ears of the team at Newsells Park Stud. It will also have a material effect on a couple of lots they have entered for the upcoming December Sale in Newmarket. There they are due to sell two half-sisters to Librisa Breeze, the winning Dalakhani (Darshaan) mare Belle Dauphine, and the once-raced three-year-old Lawman (Invincible Spirit) filly Butterfly Lily.

Earlier this month James Bethell secured what may yet prove to be quite a bargain, paying just 25,000gns for a Lawman yearling half-brother to Librisa Breeze, while last year Joe Foley spent 120,000gns to acquire an as yet unnamed full-sister to the Group 1 winner.

It is no surprise that Librisa Breeze should emerge as a Group 1 winner, since horses of that calibre are commonplace in the family. He is the leading runner so far from his dam, the Linamix (Mendez) listed-placed mare Bruxcalina.

Her winning dam Brusca (Grindstone) bred eight winners from nine foals and the best of these was the Group 3 winner Baraan (Dalakhani) who was also third in the Group 1 French Derby.

The most talented of Brusca’s seven winning siblings was Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid) and her earnings were just short of a million dollars. Her biggest success was in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga.

Busca’s unraced dam Chic Corina (Nureyev) is a daughter of the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes winner Chic Shirine. At stud she bred a pair of Grade 2 winners and is grandam of the very smart Grade 1 Haskell Invitational and Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes winner Verrazano (More Than Ready) who transferred to Aidan O’Brien and was runner-up in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes. He now stands at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

Librisa Breeze is Mount Nelson’s first Group 1 winner and this year the son of Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill) has also been represented by the Group 2 winner Pure Nelson, the listed winner Iskra (a local Group 1 race in Turkey), and the Group 1 Irish St Leger third Mount Moriah.

Over jumps his son Penhill took the honours back in March in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices; Hurdle for trainer Willie Mullins and owner Tony Bloom – who also owns last weekend’s Ascot winner.