Their stallions have included six of the last dozen winners of that race, Rock Of Gibraltar, Excellent Art, Henrythenavigator, Mastercraftsman, Canford Cliffs and now Most Improved, who starts covering at Castle Hyde Stud this spring at the very reasonable fee of €6,000.
Undoubtedly the best son to date of the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club hero Lawman, Most Improved was one of the best two-year-olds of 2011, when he was rated on 115 in the World Rankings, only 4lb below the champion juvenile Camelot. He has a top-class pedigree, being a half-brother to Ectot, a Group 1-winning two-year-old in France in 2013.
Trained by Brian Meehan and beaten only a short-head in a large field at Newmarket on his debut, Most Improved was a very easy five lengths winner of the seven furlongs Champagne Maiden Stakes, also at Newmarket, in a field of 15 at the end of August.
His only other outing that season was in the Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes, over the same course and distance, and he ran a fine race to be a close third to Parish Hall and Power, beaten only three-quarters of a length, with the previously unbeaten Bronterre and Trumpet Major behind him.
Most Improved was really thrown in at the deep end when he reappeared in 2012, because he had been lame for a while in April and his first outing was the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club over nearly 11 furlongs at Chantilly, a race which had been won by his sire Lawman.
In a very rough race, he finished without both his front shoes, out of the first three in a field of 20 runners. However, he really lived up to his name only two weeks later, when he returned to a mile in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Quickly away from his wide draw, he led early in the straight to score by a comfortable three quarters of a length from the French colt Hermival, who had been third to Camelot in the 2000 Guineas, with Gregorian third and Born To Sea fourth, while Dragon Pulse and Power were both unplaced.
During the next winter Most Improved was purchased by Coolmore and moved to Ballydoyle, but he raced only twice in 2013, running third in the Group 3 International Stakes at the Curragh, and was then retired to stud. It was Kieren Fallon who rode him in his Royal Ascot triumph and he is full of praise for Most Improved, saying “You couldn’t ride a better mover.”
Most Improved’s sire Lawman, a son of Invincible Spirit from the male line of Danzig, was a double Group 1 star in the Prix du Jockey-Club and the Prix Jean Prat. He has had two other Group 1 winners and five more Group 2 or 3 scorers from his first three crops, including the top filly Just The Judge, successful in 2013 in the Irish 1000 Guineas and second in the Newmarket 1000 Guineas.
Tonnara, the dam of Most Improved, is a grey daughter of Linamix and she has already produced three winners, including the Hurricane Run colt Ectot, who won the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud and the Group 3 Prix des Chenes at Longchamp as a two-year-old in 2013 and looks a real prospect for even better things this year.
Her other winner is Merville, a mare by Montjeu who was sold for €620,000 at the recent Arqana Deauville December Sale in foal to Most Improved’s sire Lawman.
The next dam Mahalia, a daughter of Danehill, won the Listed Prix Imprudence and is dam of seven winners, among them Albisola, who scored in the Group 3 Prix de Flore at Saint-Cloud and was sold for €420,000 at Goffs last November.
Maresca, the third dam, produced four blacktype winners and is grandam of seven more; she is out of the Falmouth Stakes winner Caprera, whose son Romildo won the Group 1 Prix Ganay.
MOST IMPROVED (IRE)
Race record: Winner of two races, £211,285, at two and three years, 7-8 furlongs, in England, inc. St James’s Palace Stakes, Royal Ascot, Gr.1, third in Dubai Dewhurst Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.1, and International Stakes, Curragh, Gr.3.
Stud record: Retires to stud in 2014.
Stands at: Castle Hyde Stud, Fermoy, Co Cork, Ireland. Enquiries to Coolmore at (353) 52 6131298, or visit www.coolmore.com.
Fee: €6,000 (October 1st)