THE feature race at Leopardstown on Saturday was the Group 1 Qipco Irish Champion Stakes, in which Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) star The Grey Gatsby narrowly beat the odds-on favourite and dual Derby hero Australia in a thrilling finish, the pair pulling four and a half lengths clear of last year’s Group 1 Irish Derby scorer Trading Leather.

This completed a remarkable double for Coolmore Stud’s exciting young sire Mastercraftsman (by Danehill Dancer) as, just three hours earlier, another of his first crop sons Kingston Hill won the Group 1 Ladbrokes St Leger Stakes (British Champions Series) at Doncaster.

These two classic winners head the seven individual blacktype scorers to have emerged, so far, from the Northern Hemisphere half of the classic and four-times Group 1 star’s first crop, and his list also includes the 2014 pattern scorers Master Carpenter and Vague Nouvelle.

The latter won the Group 3 Premio Regina Elena over a mile at Capannelle in April, and that race is Italy’s equivalent of the 1000 Guineas.

The Grey Gatsby was reviewed here earlier in the year, but for Kingston Hill it was a first win since his four and a half length success in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy last October.

He was unbeaten at two, won the Group 3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket on his second start, and he has certainly not been disgraced in failing to add to his tally until now.

He was only beaten five lengths when out of the frame behind Night Of Thunder in what has turned out to be a vintage edition of the Group 1 2000 Guineas in May, and then he chased home Australia in the Group 1 Derby at Epsom before finishing fourth behind Mukhadram in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.

Now he is a Derby-placed classic winner, who was an unbeaten Group 1 star as a juvenile, a colt who promises to be a leading light in 2015, and eventually a popular new addition to the stallion ranks.

Kingston Hill was bred by Ridgecourt Stud, he is trained by Roger Varian, he is a 70,000gns graduate of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, and he is not the first classic star in his family.

His half-brother Ramona Chase (by High Chaparral) has won four times, from eight to 12 furlongs, and his unraced half-sister Ile Deserte (by Green Desert) is the dam of the 2011 Group 2 Coventry Stakes third St Barths (by Cadeaux Genereux), her first foal.

His dam Audacieuse (by Rainbow Quest) won the Group 3 Prix de Flore at Saint-Cloud and the Listed Prix de Liancourt at Longchamp, and she is one of three blacktype winning offspring for her dam, the lightly-raced one-time scorer Sarah Georgina (by Persian Bold).

That mare is also responsible for the pattern-placed, stakes-winning stayer Lord Jim (by Kahyasi), and for Waiter’s Dream (by Oasis Dream), who was a four and a half length winner of the Group 3 Acomb Stakes, third in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes, and fourth behind Frankel in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, before going to Hong Kong where he has raced under the name New Greenfield.

The third dam of Kingston Hill is the dual juvenile scorer Dance By Night (by Northfields), and that makes his grandam a half-sister to the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) and Group 1 Prix de la Foret heroine Danseuse Du Soir (by Thatching).

She also won the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin and the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte, she finished third in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois, and she became the dam of the Group 1 Gran Criterium scorer Scintillo (by Fantastic Light) and of Jumbajukiba (by Barathea), a prolific winner whose tally includes the Group 3 Gladness Stakes and the Group 3 Minstrel Stakes.

Sarah Georgina and Danseuse Du Soir are also half-sisters to the dual stakes winner Dana Springs (by Aragon), to the Group 2-placed stakes winner Don Corleone (by Caerleon), and to Danseuse Du Nord (by Kahyasi), the Group 2-placed grandam of the multiple pattern scorer Danzon (by Royal Academy).

Kingston Hill has plenty of stakes winning and blacktype placed relations, and he is the best horse in his family since its other classic star Danseuse Du Soir.

He holds an entry in the Group 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and in the Group 1 Qipco Champion Stakes, and the prospects of potential rematches with some of his old rivals, plus the chance to see him take on the older horses again, at he did at Sandown, are exciting.