A MEMORABLE few days for Godolphin at the 2017 Breeders’ Cup was highlighted by the victory of their homebred Talismanic in the Grade 1 Turf over a mile and a half. The Andre Fabre-trained four-year-old defeated a top-class international field.

This was the colt’s breakthrough win at Grade 1 level, adding to previous successes in the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil, Grand Prix de Paris and Group 3 Prix d’Hedouville. He possesses a stallion’s pedigree and is from the family of one of the world’s leading sires.

Talismanic is a son of Darley’s Medaglia D’Oro, sire of world-class runners including Songbird who sold this week at Fasig-Tipton for a staggering $9.5 million. His daughter Bar Of Gold also won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last weekend on dirt. Medaglia D’Oro, on the back of an outstanding Breeders’ Cup meeting, had his fee raised for a second time in a month and will cover in 2017 at $250,000.

Talismanic is not the only good winner of 2017 in his family. Indeed, his juvenile winning half-sister Witnessed (Authorized) is the dam of this year’s Group 3 Prix des Chenes winner Stage Magic (Dark Angel), bred by Paul and Billy McEnery and sold as a foal in 2016 for 160,000gns. He also carries the Godolphin colours.

Godolphin has Talismanic’s three-year-old half-sister Pivotal Mission (Pivotal) catalogued in the Tattersalls December Sale.

Magic Mission, a daughter of Machiavellian (Mr Prospector), is the dam of Talismanic and she won the Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes and was Grade 1 placed in the Matriarch Stakes in the USA. Her grandam Capo Di Monte (Final Straw) was a stakes winner in England and the USA and that mare’s half-sister Wind In Her Hair (Alzao) won the Group 1 Aral-Pokal in Germany, was runner-up in the Oaks at Epsom and is dam of multiple champion racehorse and sire Deep Impact (Sunday Silence).

Two of this year’s Breeders’ Cup winners are siblings to a previous winner at this festival of racing. World Approval, bred and raced by Live Oak Stud, joins his half-brother Miesque’s Approval (Miesque’s Son) as a winner of the Grade 1 Mile on the turf. This fourth Grade 1 win pushes the five-year-old gelding’s earnings past $2.9 million, and ahead of his older brother.

Miesque’s Son was voted champion grass horse in the USA and he enjoyed success as a stallion, notably with Miesque’s Approval and Whipper. His half-brother World Approval is a son of Northern Afleet (Afleet), a Grade 2 winner who enjoyed great success as a stallion, notably being responsible for the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner Afleet Alex.

Stormy Liberal was a second 2017 Breeders’ Cup winner sold by Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables. This $100,000 OBS graduate at two caused a surprise when producing a lifetime best performance to win the Turf Sprint. He comes from a family that is one of the best in the stud book. His half-brother Shimmering Moment (Afleet Alex) was trained by Sir Henry Cecil and left to join John Hartnett. On his first start for the Co Louth trainer he won the Listed Carlingford Stakes at Dundalk. Another half-brother Coast Guard (Stormy Atlantic) was third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.

Coast Guard is a full-brother to Stormy Liberal, both sons of Stormy Atlantic (Storm Bird). Their dam Vassar (Royal Academy) won in France and is a daughter of the minor stakes winner Dixie Fine (L’Emigrant). The latter’s siblings have bred the Group or Grade 1 winners Dolphin Street (Bluebird), Saffron Walden (Sadler’s Wells), Insight (Sadler’s Wells), Listen (Sadler’s Wells) and Sequoyah (Sadler’s Wells). This is the immediate family of Beethoven (Orotorio), Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo) and Magician (Galileo).