WHAT impeccable timing. Just days after it was announced that the multiple Group 2 winner Diego Velazquez (Frankel) was sold, with the intention to retire him to the National Stud at Newmarket in 2026, the four-year-old made his Group 1 breakthrough with victory in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville, sponsored for the first time by the Aga Khan Studs.

Now racing in the name of Sam Sangster, in colours made famous the world over by winners owned by his father Robert, Diego Velazquez was making headlines even before he raced. Bred by Denis Brosnan’s Epona Bloodstock at Croom House Stud in Co Limerick, the son of Frankel (Galileo) was one of three yearlings to bring 2,000,000gns or more in Book 1 at the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.