BIRTHE, a three-year-old daughter of Lanwades’ Study Of Man (Deep Impact), won Sunday’s Group 2 Prix Saint-Alary, and had she done so before this year she would be acclaimed as a Group 1 winner.

The Saint-Alary, a springboard for the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, has been won by some of the very best fillies around, and on a dozen or so occasions the successful filly has gone on to win the classic, Laurens being the most recent. Hopefully its demotion, which caused some angst with the French authorities who last year moved the race two weeks earlier to give the winner more time to recover for the Diane, will not be for long.

In any case, the winner Birthe was yet another fine advertisement for the skills of bloodstock agent J.D. Moore, and if there was an agent of the year award, he would be a leading contender for the honour. Time and again his name crops up in this column for having purchased a quality winner, and time and again it will have been for small money. Here is another example.

Moore spent just €10,000 to secure Birthe as a yearling when the filly was offered at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale from Tara Stud. Derek Iceton sold her on behalf of breeder Sabah Mubarak Al Sabah. Now she is a three-time winner, having prepped for her ParisLongchamp success with a victory in the Listed Prix Caravelle at Toulouse, and she could now take a further step up in class and win at the top table.

Last November, Tara Stud offered Birthe’s dam, the Lope De Vega (Shamardal) mare Barakaat, for sale at Goffs, and she was one of the first lots in the ring on the second day. She failed to find favour, and was unsold at €22,000. Birthe is her first foal, she also has a yearling filly by Tara’s River Boyne (Dandy Man), and this year she had a filly foal by the Arc hero Waldgeist (Galileo). A date this week with Churchill (Galileo) is pencilled in.

Shadwell purchase

Barakaat, a €240,000 Shadwell purchase as a yearling, won once before being moved on. She is one of three winners out of the stakes-placed Royale Du Buisson (Invincible Spirit), and they represent all of her runners. That mare’s half-brother Ride Like The Wind (Lope De Vega) was a Group 3 winner in France, and their dam Biswa (Kafwain) was a daughter of Kostroma (Caerleon).

Bred and raced originally in Ireland, among Kostroma’s achievements were to be rated the champion older mare in Ireland at four, and to set a world record for a mile and an eighth on turf at Santa Anita. Bred by Valerio Limited in partnership with her trainer Tommy Stack, Kostroma did not race until three when she made a winning debut for owner Robert Sangster in a maiden at the Curragh. She raced four more times that year without another win, though she put up some fine efforts.

On her seasonal bow at four Kostroma won the Listed Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh. She went on to win the Listed Ballycullen Stakes, Listed Brownstown Stakes and Group 3 Desmond Stakes before being sent to California to compete, unsuccessfully, at Santa Anita. Sangster then sold a share in Kostroma to Willie de Burgh and Prestonwood Farm, and she moved to the California-based trainer Gary Jones.

Stakes record

Stomach troubles kept Kostroma away from the track until September 1991, but she returned in style, setting a stakes record when winning the Osunitas Handicap at Del Mar.

Six weeks later, she won the Grade 2 Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita, setting a world record time, and then added the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Invitational Stakes at Santa Anita.

Racing at the age of six, Kostroma added two more Grade 1 victories, capturing the Beverly D. Stakes at Arlington Park and the Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita. In addition, she won the Grade 2 Dahlia Handicap and Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap, both at Hollywood Park.

Kostroma won more than $1.2 million from her 12 successes, gained in 26 starts, and her placed efforts included the Group 1 Phoenix Champion Stakes, Beverley Hills Handicap and the Matriarch Stakes.

At stud. Kostroma was bred to many of the world’s leading sires. Her best offspring on the track was Ariege (Doneraile Court) who earned more than half a million dollars with wins that included the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.

Study Of Man

Birthe is a second stakes winner from the first crop of Study Of Man, joining the Group 2 Beresford Stakes winner Deepone. The Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner is enjoying a purple patch with his runners, and it must be emphasised that it is a case of quality over quantity with him, as his books of mares, while not small, have not been nearly as big as his peers.

Study Of Man’s daughter Francophone looks set to become another stakes winner for him, judging by her runner-up finish in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes at York this week. Another daughter, Kalpana has won two of her four starts and finished second twice, latterly in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.

Among Study Of Man’s first crop sons, Ghorgan was placed in the Group 3 Premio Parioli 2000 Guineas in Italy this year, while Sons And Lovers, on just his second start, was third in the Group 3 Craven Stakes.

Hasili’s influence continues to impact

HAD Wendla, a three-year-old daughter of Ulysses (Galileo), never had a saddle put on her back, she had enormous value as a potential broodmare. The Juddmonte-bred, thanks to Ger Lyons, has significantly increased her worth following her second win over a mile in the Group 3 Al Shira’aa Racing ‘Mutamakina’ Stakes at Leopardstown.

Somewhat incredibly, Wendla is the first stakes winner, among nine successful offspring, of the outstanding racemare Intercontinental (Danehill). She, in turn, is one of five Group/Grade 1 winners from the Blue Hen broodmare Hasili (Kahyasi). Anyone with even a passing interest in racing and breeding will surely know that this is one of the world’s greatest female lines.

Intercontinental won 13 races, and two of them were Grade 1s. They included a defeat of Ouija Board in her swansong at the Breeders’ Cup, while in England she was placed in the Group 1 1000 Guineas.

In addition to Wendla, Intercontinental is the dam of Abseil, a stakes-placed son of First Defence (Unbridled’s Song), and she is grandam of Masen (Kingman), a stakes winner in Ireland who transferred to the USA where he won a Grade 3 and was second in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile.

A listed winner at two, Hasili went on at stud to breed Group and Grade 1 winners Banks Hill (Danehill), Heat Haze (Green Desert), Intercontinental, Cacique (Danehill) and Champs Elysees (Danehill), as well as Dansili (Danehill), a Group 2 winner who placed six times at the highest level, and later became an influential sire.

History maker

Furthermore, Banks Hill and Heat Haze are both dams of a Group/Grade 1 winners, Romantica (Galileo) and Mirage Dancer (Frankel) respectively, while Cacique and Champs Elysees are both Group/Grade 1 sires. Hasili is one of just three mares ever in history to breed five Group or Grade 1 winners.

This is an outstanding female line, and not down solely to the achievements of Hasili. Her full-sister, the stakes winner Arrive (Kahyasi), is the dam of Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Promising Lead (Danehill), her stakes-placed half-sister Skiable (Niniski) is grandam of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Quadrilateral (Frankel), while their unraced half-sister Dissemble (Ahonoora) bred a pair of top-level winners, notably Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes), three times a Grade 1 winner in the USA and Canada.

Hasili and Arrive also have an unraced full-sister, Kalima (Kahyasi), and she is the grandam of Onesto (Frankel), the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris winner who was runner-up in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes and placed in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He is standing his first season at Haras d’Etreham.