MANHATTAN Cafe may not be as well-known as the likes of Deep Impact among the ranks of Japanese stallions, but this St Leger winning son of Sunday Silence continues to make his mark and he was a great loss following his death last year at just 17 years of age.

He is in the news again as his daughter Queens Ring made the breakthrough to the big time when she won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Kyoto, beating another daughter of his in Sing With Joy by a neck. Though bred by Shadai Farm in Japan and out of a Japanese-bred daughter of Anabaa, Queens Ring’s family tree is very much European on the dam’s side.

Queens Ring has also been successful in the Group 2 Hochi Hai Fillies’ Revue and Fuchu Himba Stakes, the Group 3 Kyoto Himba Stakes and finished second in the Group 1 Shuka Sho. She is the first foal from her dam Aqua Ring and she won as a three-year-old in Japan. She is one of nine winning offspring of the Bering mare Sea Ring, the majority of which were born in Europe.

The outstanding runner among that nine was the Orpen filly Torrestrella and she won half of her six starts, improving from a listed success in the Prix Finlande to land the Group 1 French 1000 Guineas. At stud she is the dam of a pair of Group 3 winners in Farmah (by Speightstown) and Intilaaq (by Dynaformer).

Queens Ring is not the only talented daughter Manhattan Café has racing at the moment. Last year’s Japanese Oaks winner Rouge Buck is another, while previous Group 1 winners include the Tenno Sho Spring winner Hiruno D’Amour, the February Stakes winner Grape Brandy, the Shuka Sho hero Red Desire and the NHK Mile Cup winner Jo Cappuccino. These have come from 11 crops of racing age.