NORMALLY I highlight one horse to watch for, but this week I have three exceptionally well-related horses to follow.

I will start with a three-year-old, Primeval, and this Juddmonte homebred made a belated racing debut in a nine-runner, six-furlong novice race at Doncaster, and she won going away by nearly two lengths from a previous winner. There will surely be an attempt now to gain blacktype for this daughter of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) who is a half-sister to a pair of pattern winners, Time Test (Dubawi) and Tempus (Kingman).

They are among six winners now for the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner Passage Of Time (Dansili), and she also placed afterwards in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes in England and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf in the USA.

One of four stakes winners out of Clepsydra (Sadler’s Wells), Passage Of Time is a full-sister to Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes winner Father Time (Dansili), and a half-sister to another Group 1 winner, Timepiece (Zamindar). She won the Falmouth Stakes.

Clepsydra had two siblings who also bred Group 1 winners. The stakes winner Double Crossed (Caerleon) produced Twice Over (Observatory), and his 12 wins included four at Group 1 level in England, two editions of the Champion Stakes, an appropriate success in the Juddmonte International, and victory in the Eclipse Stakes.

Arabic Legend

Given a name like Arabic Legend, owner and breeder Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum is surely hoping for great things from this two-year-old son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). Trainer Andrew Balding produced the colt to win with something in hand in a seven-furlong maiden at Newmarket, in spite of hanging a furlong out. Hopefully he will continue on an upward curve, unlike his year-older full-sister.

Youngest (Dubawi) made a highly promising start to her career last September, winning on her debut at Leicester. However, she has failed to build on that in three subsequent outings. She and Arabic Legend are the first two offspring of Sheikha Reika (Shamardal), and that Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes winner was purchased by trainer Roger Varian for 550,000gns from her breeder, the former trainer Mark Johnston.

Sheikha Reika appeared for sale a year after her full-sister Lumiere (Shamardal) won the Group 1 Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes. Lumiere has made a good start at stud, giving us the listed winner and group-placed Highland Avenue (Dubawi) and this year’s stakes-placed Silver Lady (Sea The Stars), a winner and listed-placed filly on her two starts to date.

Al Musmak

The final one to watch this week is the two-year-old Al Musmak, a son of Night Of Thunder and the first foal of the unraced Parton (Kitten’s Joy). He is trained by Roger Varian for Sheikh Abdullah Almalek Alsabah, who purchased the colt for 95,000gns in Book 1 of last year’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Al Musmak was bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, and he beat the favourite and more experienced Under The Sun to win the Juddmonte British EBF Novice Stakes at Ascot, a track that connections will hopefully revisit and win there again. Rabbah Bloodstock bought the dam of Al Musmak, rather aptly, from Juddmonte for 70,000gns four years ago, and they have a yearling full-brother to Al Musmak, and a colt foal by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) from her.

Wonderful

Parton is a half-sister to the US stakes winner Sailing Solo (Smart Strike), and to the dam of the Australian Group 3 winner, Recommendation (Shalaa). They are all out of the wonderful Proviso (Dansili), a pattern winner in France who ran second in the Group 1 Fillies Mile. However, she was a revelation when sent to America and there she compiled a record of four Grade 1 successes, including the Diana Stakes at Saratoga.

What a female family this is. Proviso and her half-brother Byword (Peintre Celebre), winner of the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes, are among four stakes winners from Binche (Woodman). That daughter of Binary (Rainbow Quest), a stakes winner in France, is a half-sister to a pattern winner, and to the grandam of last year’s Group 1 Derby winner, Desert Crown (Nathaniel).

Here we go again with Juddmonte.

YOU could not write this script. Yes, another article and another mention of Juddmonte. This time is concerns their homebred Zarinsk, the Ger Lyons-trained three-year-old daughter of Kodiac (Danehill) out of a listed-winning daughter of Arch (Kris S).

Apart from her maiden debut win at the Curragh, Zarinsk has only competed in stakes races, six of them at group level. She has never finished worse than fourth, and has now won half of her eight starts. Her latest success was at Fairyhouse, in the Group 3 Darley Irish EBF Brownstown Stakes. She previously was victorious in the Group 3 Cornelscourt Stakes and the Listed Ingabelle Stakes, both at Leopardstown.

Zarinsk is a daughter of Pavlosk, a listed winner at York at three, and is one of four winners now for that dam. They represent her first four foals, and the fifth is a two-year-old daughter of Kingman (Invincible Spirit), Star Magnolia. There are two more daughters from Pavlosk, a yearling own-sister to Zarinsk, and a foal by Expert Eye (Acclamation).

A full-sister to a stakes winner and a half-sister to group winner and group producer Exhibit One (Silver Hawk), Pavlosk is out of the stakes-placed Tsar’s Pride (Sadler’s Wells). She, in turn, is a daughter of Bold Empress (Diesis), and one of her grandsons is Irish Rookie (Azamour), runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. Bold Empress is a half-sister to the full-brothers Zafonic (Gone West) and Zamindar.

Aga Khan

The only other group race staged in Ireland during the week under review was won by Shamida (Australia) in a tight finish, and this was the Group 3 Stanerra Stakes.

The winner is a three-year-old filly who is going in the right direction, and this was her second win in four starts, having been placed on her first pair of runs. Homebred by one of the greatest breeders in the history of the thoroughbred, Shamida carries the silks of His Highness the Aga Khan.

She is the fifth, and best, winner from Shamooda (Azamour), a winner herself at Fairyhouse and Roscommon when trained by John Oxx.

Shamooda was sold to Mags O’Toole in 2020 for €68,000, as part of the annual reduction in numbers at the Aga Khan Studs. She later produced a filly by Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) who sold for €33,000 as a yearling, and now she has a yearling colt and a filly foal, both by Camelot (Montjeu).

Quality

Such is the quality of this dam line that when Glenvale Stud sold the yearling filly out of Shamooda at the Goffs Orby Sale last year, there was only room on the page for the second dam, the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner Shemaka (Nishapour) and her descendants. Three of her six winners were stakes winners, while their descendants include the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Shakeel (Dalakhani), and last year’s Group 1 Champion Stakes winner Bay Bridge (New Bay).

While the Aga Khan Studs has sold many of Shamooda’s offspring, and the mare herself, they now have her group-winning daughter Shamida and the dual Killarney winner Shamiyna (Sea The Stars), and that mare’s first produce is a yearling filly by Kodiac (Danehill).