WHAT a ‘rags to riches’ story this is. The Group 2 winner, and possible Group 1 Melbourne Cup contender, Tiberian is one of the most improved horses in training and he is the son of a teaser. The said teaser, it should be said, has an almost impeccable sire record, but his value at Haras du Logis is hard to calculate in the role he plays.

Tiberius Caesar, a horse with the name of a champion, is a son of Zieten (Danzig) and out of the German-bred mare Thekla (Prince Ippi). A Group 3 winner of six races in Germany, he certainly had the pedigree of a potential stallion. One of eight winners from his dam, his siblings include the Group 2 Arag-Preis (German 1000 Guineas) winner Tryphosa (Be My Guest) and, more significantly, the Group 1 and classic winner Turfkonig (Anfield).

The latter won 11 races and was placed in the Group 1 Deutsches Derby. He only sired 80 foals in three small crops and they contained five stakes winners, an indication that he had quite some potential given the chance.

Tiberius Caesar has a 100% record with his runners. Given just one or two mares to cover each year, this has resulted in him siring the Group 2 winner Tiberian, this year’s three-year-old winner Yellow Storm and the dual 2016 winner Magnentius. He has no current two-year-old to represent him. These winners have come about from just four offspring.

Tiberian, bred by Haras du Logis, Julian Ince and partners, first showed that he had above average ability when he was runner-up in the Group 2 Prix Chaudenay at three. Last year he was placed second in three blacktype races, notably in the Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris.

He has truly blossomed this year, starting with a listed victory at Saint-Cloud, progressing through a pair of Group 3 victories and finally landing the Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville last weekend.

Tiberian is the best of four winners from the stakes-placed Toamasina, a daughter of Marju (Last Tycoon). She is a half-sister to the French stakes-placed filly Lady Weasley, herself a daughter of Tiberius Caesar’s sire Zieten.

Go back one more generation, to Tiberian’s third dam Marie De Beaujeu (Kenmare), and you will stumble upon a pair of Group/Grade 1 winners. Marie De Beaujeu’s best produce was the Deutsches Derby winner All My Dreams (Assert) who stood in Ireland, while through her placed daughter Summer Dreams (Sadler’s Wells) she is grandam of the Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes winner I’m A Dreamer (Noverre). That filly was also a Group 3 winner in England and placed in the Group 1 Pretty Polly stakes at the Curragh.

Races such as the Grand National at Aintree and the Melbourne Cup have a history of producing fairy-tale results and no story would be as newsworthy as that of Tiberian were he to land the race that stops a nation.