He won five of his seven starts and ended the year as the official champion three-year-old in Europe over middle distances and Horse of the Year in France, with Group 1 successes in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Grand Prix de Paris.

Rail Link has made an excellent start at stud with his first three crops to race, which include 10 blacktype performers.

Altogether in those three seasons he has sired more than 70 individual winners of some 130 races and over €2,000,000 in prize money. His son Last Train was one of the top stayers in France last year, winning the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville at Longchamp, and he was also second in the Group 1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris and placed in two other Group 2 races.

HIGH-CLASS WINNER

Another high-class winner for Rail Link in France was Sediciosa, who scored in the Group 3 Prix de Royaumont at Chantilly and was second in Group 2 company at Longchamp. Rail Link has also made a big impact in Italy, where Wild Wolf won the Gran Premio d’Italia, besides being second in the Group 1 Gran Premio di Milano and the Derby Italiano, while Bugie D’Amore won the Group 3 Premio Dormello.

Standing with Rail Link at Banstead Manor is his sire Dansili, a son of Danehill and a European champion miler who has been a tremendous success at stud, with no less than 85 individual blacktype winners. Among those are Harbinger, the World Champion of 2010 after his runaway triumph in the Group 1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, two more Grand Prix de Paris stars in Zambezi Sun and Flintshire and the brilliant fillies The Fugue and Dank.

Docklands, the dam of Rail Link, is a daughter of Nureyev’s multiple Grade 1-winning son Theatrical. She won five races in France and has bred eight winners, including also Zamindar’s son Crossharbour, among whose three Group victories was the Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris at Longchamp, and the Grand Lodge colt Chelsea Manor, who scored in the Group 3 Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte.

Another half-brother is Mainsail, a son of Oasis Dream who is a Group 3 winner at Chantilly. Docklands is a half-sister to 10 winners, including the July Stakes hero Wharf, a successful sire in the USA. The third dam, Golden Alibi, is a half-sister to the brilliant filly Dahlia, a multiple champion in the 1970s.

Unraced at two years old, Rail Link made an unsatisfactory debut, losing his jockey after they collided with another horse, but next time he was a good second to the high-class German colt Lauro at Chantilly and he was never beaten again.

After getting off the mark in the Prix Gouvernant at Saint-Cloud in May, he easily won the Group 3 Prix du Lys at Longchamp from Sudan, who had won Rail Link’s debut race. With Juddmonte sponsoring the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris, Rail Link was an appropriate winner of that event by two lengths from the English challenger Red Rocks and Sudan.

His trainer André Fabre then sent Rail Link for the Group 2 Prix Niel at Longchamp early in September and he scored comfortably from Youmzain and Sudan, with Dragon Dancer and Papal Bull behind them. The grand finale to Rail Link’s career came in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, where he was too good for his older rivals and held off the challenges of the brilliant mare Pride, the Japanese star Deep Impact and Hurricane Run to score in the very fast time of 2mins 26.3 secs. Timeform rated Rail Link as the best middle distance three-year-old in Europe on 132, higher than either Dansili or Danehill.

RAIL LINK (GB)

Race record: Champion 3-year-old in Europe in 2006 over 12 furlongs. Winner of 5 races, £1,074,965, from 7 starts at 3 years, 10.5-12 furlongs, in France, inc. Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Longchamp, Gr.1, Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris, Longchamp, Gr.1, Prix Niel, Longchamp, Gr.2, and Prix du Lys, Longchamp, Gr.3.

Stud record: Retired to stud in 2008. Sire of over 70 winners of more than 130 races and £1,650,000, inc. Last Train (Prix de Barbeville, Longchamp, Gr.3, 2nd in Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris, Longchamp, Gr.1), Sediciosa (Prix de Royaumont, Chantilly, Gr.3), Bugie D’Amore (Premio Dormello, Milan, Gr.3; 3rd in Prix de Psyche, Deauville, Gr.3), Wild Wolf (Gran Premio d’Italia, Milan, L; 2nd in Gran Premio di Milano, Gr.1, and Derby Italiano, Gr.2), etc.

Stands at: Banstead Manor Stud, Cheveley, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 9RD, England.

Contact: Simon Mockridge, James O’Donnell or Sabine Bouard on (44) 1638 731115

Website: www.juddmonte.com.

Fee: £5,000 special live foal.