CHARLIE Appleby landed back-to-back runnings of the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac when the supplemented Dubawi filly Wild Illusion followed in the hoofprints of another daughter of the hugely successful Darley sire and captured France’s premier race for juvenile fillies.

The win was the 26th stakes winner in 2017 for the brilliant Dubawi, the best runner sired in the sole crop left by Sheikh Mohammed’s favourite racehorse Dubai Millennium (Seeking The Gold). The previous evening Dubawi’s five-year-old son Mubtaahij made a winning start for trainer Bob Baffert when he captured the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita, his first win at that level.

This brings to seven the number of Group 1 winners in 2017 for the Dalham Hall-based stallion, the others being the fillies Bateel, Sobetsu and Nezwaah, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Zarak whose retirement was announced yesterday, and the American runner Almanaar. Dubawi had a sparkling week at the sales in Newmarket where his 21 yearlings sold averaged 814,762gns, less than a bid short of that achieved for the 17 Galileo yearlings.

Mubtaahij was bred in Ireland by Dunmore Stud Ltd out of the placed Pennegale (Pennekamp) and is a half-brother to the European champion and Group 1 Prix de l’Opera winner Lily Of The Valley (Galileo). She herself has gone on to breed a Group 2 winner in Japan, namely Vanquish Run (Deep Impact). Their dam is responsible for a third stakes winner in Calbuco (Kendor). While the latter was no world beater, he won 21 races and placed 30 times and that alone made him worthy of landing a listed race.

All seven of Pennegale’s runners are winners, while one of her unraced daughters bred a stakes winner. This week Furnace Mill Stud will offer an Australia (Galileo) yearling colt out of a winning daughter of Pennegale, Happy Holly (Holy Roman Emperor), at Tattersalls.

Mubtaahij fully deserved his breakthrough Grade 1 win, having landed the Group 2 UAE Derby at three and finished runner-up and fourth in the last two runnings of the Group 1 Dubai World Cup behind California Chrome and Arrogate. He was a €450,000 Arqana yearling purchase in 2013 by Form Bloodstock.

Pennegale’s grandam Gay Apparel (Up Spirits) was a smart stakes winner at two in Canada 50 years ago and she enjoyed a successful career afterwards at stud. She bred seven winners and is ancestress of many stakes winners worldwide. The siblings Lily Of The Valley and Mubtaahij stand out as they are Group/Grade 1 winners. Other names that will be familiar are the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches - French 1000 Guineas runner-up Pont-Aven (Try My Best), the smart sprinter Sainte Marine (Kenmare) who was twice runner-up in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes winner Josr Algarhoud (Darshaan), and the Irish classic-placed Reply (Oasis Dream).

REALLY SPECIAL

Wild Illusion is the second foal and second stakes winner for her dam Rumh (Monsun). She is a year younger than Really Special (Shamardal) who won three of her six starts for Saeed bin Suroor and these included a mile listed race on her second start at two last year. She was also placed in a listed race at Meydan earlier in 2017 but hasn’t run since the summer and holds no engagements.

Following Really Special and Wild Illusion are a yearling filly by Oasis Dream (Green Desert) and a colt foal, a full-brother to last weekend’s Group 1 winner. Rumh is safely in foal again to Dubawi. With such an explosive start to her career as a broodmare, more can be expected of her in the years ahead.

Rumh was bought as a yearling for 300,000gns by John Ferguson and she went on to become a stakes winner for Godolphin. She was bred by Gestut Fahrhof and sold at Tattersalls through Newsells Park Stud. At the time of her purchase as a yearling she was closely related to a Grade 1 winner by Monsun (Konigsstuhl), namely Royal Highness. She had won the Beverly D Stakes in the USA and was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Ganay and Prix Vermeille.

Royal Highness is a half-sister to Royal Dubai (Dashing Blade), the dam of Rumh, and she has gone on at stud to produce the Group 2 Prix Dollar and Prix Hocquart winner Free Port Lux (Oasis Dream). Royal Dubai was a smart racemare and her two wins as a juvenile included the Group 3 Preis der Winterkonigin, earning her the accolade of best two-year-old filly in Germany in 2002. She is dam of four winners, Rumh being the standout.

Rumh’s third dam Gesedeh (Ela-Mana-Mou) was a Group 3 winner in France and runner-up in the Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes. She bred two minor winners, one of them being Elbaaha (Arazi), the dam of Electrocutionist (Red Ransom) whose eight wins included Group 1 races in three countries; the Dubai World Cup, Juddmonte International Stakes and Gran Premio di Milano. Elbaaha’s unraced half-sister Dance On The Stage (Dancing Brave) also became a Group 1 producer, her son Robertico (Robellino) landing the German Derby.