THE numbers are simply staggering. When Content raced to victory in the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes at the Curragh last Saturday, she became stakes winner number 371 for her sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

That single figure does not tell you that 22% of his winners have been successful at stakes level, and we are waiting for Group 1 winner number 100 on the flat to emerge.

While that landmark winner is unlikely to be Content, the two-year-old has now done something very important, and that is to give her exceptionally-talented dam, Mecca’s Angel (Dark Angel), a first stakes winner.

Content is the last of the four offspring of Mecca’s Angel by Galileo, and the two that have raced are winners. Hudson River (Galileo) gave his dam the perfect start when he won a Curragh maiden on his debut, but he was not seen again after finishing unplaced in a pattern race at Newmarket behind Master Of The Seas. Mecca’s Angel’s second foal was not named, and she has a three-year-old unraced filly, Sweetest Thing (Galileo). Her yearling filly is by Frankel (Galileo).

Dual Group 3 winner Markaz (Dark Angel) and his full-sister Mecca’s Angel are the first two foals, and two of three winners, from the listed-placed Atraf (Clantime) mare Folga. Mecca’s Angel was sold as a yearling for just 16.000gns and was a revelation as a racemare.

European champion older sprinter in 2015, she won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes twice and eight other races, and she was acquired privately by Coolmore at the end of her racing career.

Not spared

Folga was not spared when it came to racing, starting 35 times, and she won six of them and was placed on 10 occasions. These efforts included a second-place finish in a listed race at Bath behind Enticing. Folga is the second best of 10 winners for her dam Desert Dawn (Belfort), the best of them being the filly Desert Kaya (Bikala) who won a listed race at Deauville, was placed in a similar event at Saint-Cloud, and became a successful winner producer.

Desert Dawn was no slouch and she won the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg at Longchamp and a listed race at Sandown Park. As a juvenile she finished second in the Group 3 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, trained by Lord John Fitzgerald. The next two generations of the family contain just a pair of minor stakes-placed runners in the USA.

Mecca’s Angel and Markaz were bred by father and son, Gay and David O’Callaghan. The Yeomanstown Stud-based Dark Angel is the sire of 100 stakes winners, 14 of whom won at Group/Grade 1 level. Among them, Battaash will forever hold a place in the hearts of racing fans. Dark Angel is the broodmare sire of Havana Grey and Porta Fortuna.