SEA The Stars was expected to add another Group 1 win for one of his progeny when Baaeed lined up for the Champion Stakes at Ascot, but instead he achieved the feat with a three-year-old daughter who was winning for the first time at this level.

Runner-up in the Oaks and winner of the Group 3 Musidora Stakes, Emily Upjohn was bred in partnership by Lordship Stud and the Tsui Family’s Sunderland Holding, and she was a smart winner of the Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes from the Irish-trained mares Thunder Kiss and Insinuendo.

The good news is that the Gosden-trained three-year-old will remain in training, and Saturday’s big race win will surely not be her last.

This victory means that Sea The Stars’ next Group 1 winner will be a landmark 20th, and his present crop of three-year-olds are just his ninth of racing age. The only crop that failed to produce a Group 1 winner was his second, which was quite a surprise given that his first included the Oaks and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Taghrooda, the Prix Saint-Alary heroine Vazira, and the runaway German Derby winner, and now Group 1 sire himself, Lanwades Stud’s Sea The Moon.

That ‘blip’ was soon forgotten when the third crop by Sea The Stars, foaled in 2013, had five Group 1 winners, namely the Sydney Cup winner Shraaoh, the Prix Ganay winner Cloth Of Stars, Prix d’Ispahan winner Mekhtaal, the Prix Jean Prat winner Zelzal, and the dual Derby winner Harzand. What a crop that was.

Interestingly, Harzand appears in the immediate family of Emily Upjohn as they are out of half-sisters. Sold to continue his stud career next year at Kilbarry Lodge Stud, Harzand is one of four stakes winners out of the Group 3 Athasi Stakes winner Hazariya (Xaar) who sold for two million guineas in 2016, two years after realising €480,000 at Goffs. What a difference breeding an English and Irish Derby winner makes.

Classic winner

Another classic winner has since appeared in the family, with the emergence of Hurricane Lane (Frankel) last year. Placed at Epsom and later in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, he annexed both the Group 1 Irish Derby and the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster.

Back to Emily Upjohn. She is the best of the three winners from Hidden Brief (Barathea). Purchased by Lordship Stud for 280,000gns as a yearling, Hidden Brief was bred by Robert Russell from Hazaradjat (Darshaan), a mare he bought for €33,000 as a 13-year-old from the Aga Khan. Annually the Aga Khan Studs sell a number of mares and fillies, and there are always gems to be found among their culls. Here was a great example of one.

Raced by Lordship Stud, Hidden Brief was trained by Michael Jarvis and was placed in a listed race in France. Her daughter, Emily Upjohn, sold as a yearling for 60,000gns, and she is now the winner of £500,000 and worth multiples of that. There is a chance to get into this family at the December Sale as Emily Upjohn’s half-sister, Hidden Angel (Dark Angel) will be offered for sale, carrying her first foal by Australia (Galileo).