BELBEK was somewhat of a surprise winner of the opening Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardére on Arc Sunday at ParisLongchamp, though it is always reckless to ignore an André Fabre runner, and especially one that had already landed the Group 3 Prix du Bois.

The two-year-old son of Showcasing (Oasis Dream) is the fourth Group 1 winner for Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Gimcrack Stakes winning half-brother to Camacho (Danehill), and he is the first winner out of Bee Queen (Makfi). The dam was a Juddmonte homebred who ran twice for Dermot Weld, finishing fourth on both occasions. Her first foal has been placed and her third is a yearling colt by Gleneagles (Galileo).

Bee Queen’s dam Trojan Queen (Empire Maker) won at four in France and she is the dam of four winners, three of which emerged after Nurlan Bizakov’s Hesmonds Stud bought Bee Queen for 50,000gns at the December Sale in 2017. Trojan Queen was then the dam of the Group 3-placed filly Emergent (Oasis Dream), but she has done better since, her best runner now being the Royal Ascot Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes winner Sangarius (Kingman).

Banks Hill

Trojan Queen is the only one of the three winners out of Banks Hill (Danehill) not to win a stakes race, and she was somewhat behind her half-sister Romantica (Galileo) in terms of ability. That filly was successful in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet, while she was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita.

Banks Hill, twice a champion racemare, won at the highest level in England (Coronation Stakes), France (Prix Jacques Le Marois) and the USA in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. She is one of five Group/Grade 1 winners out of the great Hasili (Kahyasi), the others being Intercontinental (Danehill), Cacique (Danehill), Heat Haze (Green Desert) and Champs Elysees (Danehill).

Not included in that list of major winners is Hasili’s son Dansili (Danehill). Though placed many times at the highest level, his biggest success came in the Group 2 Prix du Muguet. However, he went on to become a leading sire and a huge influence on the breed.

This was a first homebred Group 1 winner for Bizakov, and the wait has been worth it for the Kazakhstan-born breeder.