MICHAEL Ryan of Al Eile Stud has had many great days racing, but I imagine he got some particular pleasure from the result of the Totepoolliveinfo.com For Racing Results Maiden Fillies’ Stakes at Chelmsford recently. His home-bred Annie Fior, trained by Denis Coakley, ran out a half-length winner from the John Gosden runner Cercle D’Or, a half-sister to Golden Horn.

The race provided Finsceal Fior, an unraced son of Ryan’s great classic heroine Finsceal Beo, with his first winner from his first crop and with his first runner. That first crop of now juveniles numbers just 13, and the Green Hills Stud-based stallion has been steadily increasing in popularity with breeders. This win by Annie Fior will give them and the horse a further boost.

A son of Galileo, Finsceal Fior is the first foal of the Mr Greely mare Finsceal Beo and she came agonisingly close to winning three classics when she landed the Irish and English 1000 Guineas and was then pipped in the French equivalent, the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. As a juvenile she started her Group 1 winning spree when successful in the Prix Marcel Boussac. She was ranked the champion two-year-old filly in Europe.

Sadly Finsceal Fior did not get to race due to injury, and one can only surmise how talented the son of Galileo would have proven to be. He was followed by the winning Sea The Stars filly Too The Stars, who sold to George Strawbridge for €800,000 as a foal, and then along came Ol’ Man River. That son of Montjeu cost the Coolmore team a cool €2,850,000 as a yearling and won the Group 2 Beresford Stakes as a two-year-old.

The fourth foal from Finsceal Beo was a full-sister to Finsceal Fior and not surprisingly Ryan sent her to Jim Bolger to be trained. Named An Cailin Orga, she won and was placed this year as a three-year-old and ran sixth in the Irish Oaks. Next up is La Figlia, the two-year-old daughter of Frankel who lit up the Goffs sale ring in 2014 when she sold for €1,800,000. The most recent offspring of Finsceal Beo are a yearling colt by Galileo and a colt foal by Dubawi.

What about the other side of Annie Fior’s pedigree? She is the second foal out of Annamanamoux and the mare’s second winner. The first is Mitch and he won last year as a two-year-old in Italy and added to that success this year. He is a son of Jim Bolger’s Vocalised. Annie Fior has a yearling full-brother that was bought by the Jet Setting team of John Kilbride and Adrian Keatley for €26,000 this autumn, having been pinhooked from a foal when he made €8,000.

Annamanamoux’s fourth foal sold at last week’s Tattersalls December Sale and that son of Clodovil cost Hillwood Bloodstock 27,000gns. Annamanamoux was a yearling purchase by Michael Ryan for $200,000 but the daughter of Leroidesanimaux never raced. A contributory factor to her value was the fact that she is a daughter of the great racemare Annoconnor, by Nureyev.

Winner of a dozen races, Annoconnor was three times successful in Grade 1s and they were all on the west coast of the USA – the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar, the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, and the Santa Ana Handicap at Santa Anita. At stud she might have been considered to have been disappointing, breeding five minor winners from eight runners, but a couple of her daughters have gone on to become stakes producers. One of them is Carelaine, dam of three stakes winners in France and grandam of the Group 2 winner and Group 1 Matron Stakes-third Cladocera.

Annoconnor’s siblings include At Talaq, a Group 1 winner in France and Australia, most famously of the Melbourne Cup, and Absaar, the winning grandam of Group 1 racing Post trophy winner Marcel, a new stallion recruit for 2017.