YOU might have to go back to the fourth dam, Ancient Regime, to find the next stakes winner in the pedigree of the 1000 Guineas winner Winter, but her pedigree and the performances of her dam Laddies Poker Two were enough to warrant a visit to the world’s greatest sire Galileo – and the combination has worked a treat.

Laddies Poker Two won three of her five starts but one of these was the highly-competitive Wokingham Handicap at Royal Ascot as a five-year-old. The win was gained after a 20-month layoff and she ran the six furlongs in an exceptional time, beating the time of Starspangledbanner in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes. Sadly the race did not carry listed status.

Laddies Poker Two was bred by Jerry O’Sullivan and sold as a foal through Ringfort Stud for €56.000 to Riversfield Stud. They pinhooked her for €110,000 as a yearling, again at Goffs, where she was bought by Jamie McCalmont. Having won twice she sold at the Tattersalls December Sale as a three-year-old, most likely at the time as a potential broodmare, for 100,000gns and was signed for by Seskin Stud. She reappeared instead at Royal Ascot a year and a half later and enjoyed her biggest success, carrying the colours of Derrick Smith, Sue Magnier and Michael Tabor.

Winter is the second produce of Laddies Poker Two, the first being an unraced year-older full-brother who was in training with Roger Varian. There are a number of younger offspring by Galileo, namely a two-year-old filly called Chariot, a yearling filly and a filly foal. She returns, not surprisingly, to Galileo this year.

Last weekend in Australia the two-year-old Taking Aim won a listed six-furlong race and in the process became a landmark 80th stakes winner for the Danehill Dancer sire Choisir. The stallion, who has 11 Group 1 winners to his name including Olympic Glory, Starspangledbanner and The Last Lion, didn’t waste time getting his 81st when two races later the six-year-old Religify won the Listed Prime Minister’s Cup over seven furlongs for trainer Chris Waller. As a broodmare sire Choisir was also responsible for last year’s Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner My Dream Boat (by Lord Shanakill).

Choisir is the sire of Laddies Poker Two and she is an own-sister to multiple winner Chooseday. They are two of the five winners from the unraced Break Of Day (Favourite Trick) who is a half-sister to the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes runner-up Ma Yoram (by Dayjur) and the unraced Kathleen’s Dream (by Last Tycoon), dam of the French stakes-winning Ali-Royal gelding Castor Troy.

Ma Yoram was the highest rated runner produced by the Riverman mare Quelle Affaire, a full-sister to Rami and half-sister to Crack Regiment (El Gran Senor) and La Grande Epoque (Lyphard). Rami won the Group 3 Concorde Stakes at Tipperary when trained by Dermot Weld for Hamdan Al Maktoum and was beaten a head in the Group 2 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Crack Regiment was a Group 3 winner in France, while the filly La Grande Epoque was a stakes winner at two in France and runner-up in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. She is the dam of a pair of stakes winners.

Quelle Affaire is a daughter of Ancient Regime, the best of her sex at two in France in 1980 when she won the Group 1 Prix Morny. She was runner-up also in the Group 1 Prix Robert Papin and her own-brother Cricket Ball, winner of the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Gheest, enjoyed success as a stallion.

Their dam Caterina won the Nunthorpe Stakes at three, having run second the year before when looking to have the race won.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news