A QUIET patch is not uncommon in a stallion’s early years, with newer and flashier horses diverting attention from last year’s fancies. This is the reason why fees are often trimmed in their second, third and fourth seasons.

It is also why Due Diligence (War Front) will have a numerically quiet year with two-year-olds this season as there was only a handful of foals born by him in 2020, though he could still have at least one blacktype horse in that age group.

However, there were evidently plenty of breeders rueing having missed the opportunity to use him in the year that his first crop made it to the track, because the exploits of those initial juveniles led to a surge in popularity and a 100-strong book the following season. He also had a big book in 2021.

Those first runners yielded the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes winner Streamline (dam by Compton Place) plus Good Vibes (dam also by Compton Place), the Listed Marygate Stakes winner who was third in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes before landing the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes in October.

Sir Boris (dam by King’s Best) won a pair of Nottingham sprints by a combined 10 and a half lengths in under a week before adding the Listed Blenheim Stakes at Fairyhouse and taking third in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffite.

The prolific Lezardrieux (eight wins), Able Kane (six), Black Morning (six) and Clay Regazzoni (five) also come from that initial batch of foals, as does the stakes-placed Mirage Hero (dam by Shamardal).

Due Diligence’s 109-rated second-crop son Diligent Harry (dam by Compton Place) won the valuable Ladbrokes 3 Year Old All-Weather Championships Conditions Stakes by two lengths at Lingfield last April before finishing third to Chil Chil in the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes at Newcastle and a neck runner-up to Happy Romance in the Group 3 Hackwood Stakes at Newbury.

That colt looks a like a potential pattern winner in 2022, so it’s no surprise to find that Clive Cox will also train his full-brother Due Date, one of only five juveniles by the stallion but a £55,000 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale graduate.

His third crop, now aged three, includes 45,000gns Tattersalls Breeze-Up graduate Nesr Shalghoda, a winner at Deauville in November and this month from four starts, plus five-time scorer Early Target.

Due Diligence, by a major son of the great Danzig (Northern Dancer), was a runaway Saratoga debut winner and of a listed sprint at Naas before chasing home Slade Power in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

His dam and grandam are stakes winners, his relations include the classic-placed listed scorer Tip Two Win (Dark Angel; foals in 2022), and his career could be on the verge of taking off.

DUE DILIGENCE (USA), Bay or Brown 2011. Top rated 3yr old sprinter in Ireland in 2014. Won three races, £205,818, from 5½ furlongs to 6 furlongs, at 2 and 3 years including, Lacken Stakes, Naas, L, also placed second in Diamond Jubilee Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, and third in Patton Stakes, Dundalk, L.

Retired to Stud in 2016, and sire of the winners of 128 races, and £1,339,996, including GOOD VIBES (GB), STREAMLINE (GB), SIR BORIS (IRE), Diligent Harry (GB) and Mirage Hero (GB)

Stands at: Whitsbury Manor Stud, Nr. Fordingbridge, Hampshire, SP6 3QP, England.

Contact: Phil Haworth or Ed Harper

Telephone: +44 (0)1725 518254

Email: whitsburymanorstud@btopenworld.com

Web: www.whitsburymanorstud.co.uk

Fee: £5,000