YOU win a Group 1, after finishing second in four of them in succession, and then another comes along within a month. Such is the story of Calandagan, bred by the late Aga Khan IV and now racing in the colours of the Aga Khan Studs.

His latest success, in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, took the four-year-old gelding’s career earnings to €3.35 million, and makes him the outstanding runner sired by Coolmore’s Gleneagles (Galileo). That 13-year-old sire has just completed his tenth covering season in Tipperary, and his fee of €20,000 is a third of what he started out at. Five of his 28 group winners, from six crops that are three-year-olds or older, have won at the highest level, and Calandagan is the first to win more than once.