SHE might have a nightmare name for editors and writers, but she is a dream racemare. Verry Elleegant captured her 10th Group 1 success in an outstanding career when she added the historic Melbourne Cup to her already impressive record this week. The first mare to win since Makybe Diva in 2005, she did it in style, finishing four lengths clear and in the fifth fastest time ever.

In addition, the six-year-old Verry Elleegant is one of 18 Group 1 winners who descend from Eight Carat (Pieces Of Eight), a mare of limited racing ability who then carved out a special place for herself in the history of thoroughbred breeding, being one of only two mares ever to produce five Group/Grade 1 winning offspring.

Yet it is fair to say that Eight Carat is not a household name for many in this part of the world.

Though she failed to even manage to be placed in three seasons racing, Eight Carat went on to become that rarest of beings, a producer of five stakes winners, all Group 1 winners. The other mare to achieve this feat is Hasili (Kahyasi), the great Juddmonte matriarch.

The year 1987 was notable as two of Eight Carat’s offspring won at the highest level. The Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) colt Kaapstad won the Sires’ Produce Stakes in Australia as a three-year-old and he was later to become a champion sire. That same season his five-year-old half-sister Our Diamond Lover (Sticks And Stones) won the Group 1 Railway Handicap in New Zealand.

Subsequently, Our Diamond Lover bred the Group 1 winners Tristalove (Sir Tristram), a dual champion racemare, and the Australian Derby winner Don Eduardo (Zabeel, a son of Sir Tristram)). She is the grandam of Group 1 winners Viking Ruler (Danehill) and Viscount (Quest For Fame), the latter being crowned the champion three-year-old colt in Australia. On top of all that, Our Diamond Lover is the third dam of the Group 1 winner De Beers (Quest For Fame).

Landmark year

Following that landmark year of 1987, Eight Carat went on to produce the champion racehorse Mouawad (Zabeel), the Horse of the Year, multiple champion, Triple Crown winner, 10-time Group 1 winner and Group 1 sire Octagonal (Zabeel), and the Group 1 winning Marquise (Gold And Ivory).

The last named mare is the dam of the Group 1 winning mare Shower Of Roses (Zabeel) and grandam of the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes heroine Hiyaam (High Chaparral).

As if all of this was not enough, a daughter of Eight Carat was the unraced Cotehele House, by a stallion called My Swanee (Petition) who was once under the care of my late father Benny when the grey stood at Waterloo House Stud in Mallow. Cotehele House bred the multiple Group 1 winner and champion Danewin (Danehill), as well as his full-brother Commands (Danehill), was grandam of the Group 1 winner Emerald Dream (Danehill), is third dam of the Caulfield Guineas winner and sire Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor) and fourth dam of the top juvenile filly in New Zealand in 2016, Luna Rossa (Written Tycoon).

Two more branches of the family have also kept the pedigree to the forefront.

This year’s Group 1 Maikato Stakes winner Jonker (Spirit Of Boom) has Cotehele House as his fourth dam, as does Verry Elleegant.

Raised profile

The arrival of Verry Elleegant has raised the profile of her particular wing of the family, one that had been doing well without producing a real star. A daughter of Zed (Zabeel), Verry Elleegant is by some way the best of the three winners to date from her dam Opulence. That mare is a winning daughter of Danroad (Danehill) who stood for a few seasons in Ireland at Rathmuck Stud.

Opulence certainly clicked with Zed and Verry Elleegant’s full-brother Verry Flash (Zed) is an eight-time winner in New Zealand and got some blacktype when he ran third in a Group 3 race. There is another tenuous Irish connection as Opulence is one of five winners from six runners produced by Mulan Magic, a winning daughter of King’s Theatre (Sadler’s Wells) and produced when that stallion shuttled down under.