WHAT foresight on the part of The Sarvana Partnership to send the mare of that name to visit Frankel (Galileo) this year. I hope she is in foal.

A once-raced daughter of Dubai Destination (Kingmambo), Sarvana was purchased for her present owners by David Redvers at the December Sale in Arqana last year for €280,000, carrying what transpired to be a colt by Sottsass (Siyouni). It was a strong price to pay for the mare, even if she was dam of a few useful runners.

At the time of her purchase both of her runners had done well, Gold Trip (Outstrip) breaking his maiden in 2020 in the Group 2 Prix Greffulhe, and finishing second in the Group 1 Prix Ganay. He had a couple of other Group 1 placings – the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and the Grand Prix de Paris – and he was fourth in the Arc – beaten about two and half lengths by Sottsass. He had been sent to Australia to continue his racing career after he was reportedly bought for A$2 million.

Gold Trip’s year older sibling, Got Wind (Olympic Glory), was twice successful in France and had been placed in listed races at Bordeaux Le Bouscat and Toulouse. She is a young mare at stud in France. Another foal, the first, out of Sarvana had died, her then three-year-old daughter Got Storm (Charming Thought) was already at stud, and her two-year-old Gotha (Ultra) was in training.

Perhaps promisingly, she had a yearling colt by Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) and a filly foal by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).

Second success

Nearly a year later and how that picture has changed. The Michel Monfort-bred Gold Trip this week won the A$8 million Group 1 Melbourne Cup, just his second success, having earlier run second in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup. He now has earnings of some £3.2 million. Gold Trip was purchased as a yearling at Arqana by Gerard Larrieu for €60,000, though it is almost certain that his breeder didn’t have a Melbourne Cup success in mind when he mated Sarvana with Outstrip,

Gotha has started his racing career and been in the frame a few times. He is due under the hammer in Deauville on Monday week. The now two-year-old Shalaa colt is still unraced, though named Got Land, but the yearling filly by Wootton Bassett was recently bought privately for €30,000 at the recent yearling sale in Deauville, having left the ring unsold at twice that figure.

The lucky purchasers were Ecurie Vitale, owners with the French trainer Maurizio Guarnieri. Just consider that they now own a half-sister to a Melbourne Cup winner, bought for one-fifth of what her sire commanded this year at Coolmore. What is she worth today?

Well-beaten

After Sarvana, a homebred by His Highness the Aga Khan, was well-beaten on her only start at Wissembourg at three (ninth of 14), she was promptly despatched to the December Sale in Arqana and sold for €23,000. Four years later Sarvana’s own dam, the three-year-old winner Sarlisa (Rainbow Quest), also left the Aga Khan’s ownership, selling for €90,000 to Emerald Bloodstock.

The best of Sarlisa’s three winners was Sarkiyla (Oasis Dream), a Group 3 winner who was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet and placed in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. She gave the family page a further boost last year when her son Saiydabad (Blame) won the Group 3 Prix du Prince d’Orange before selling for €575,000 at the Arc Sale.

Few, if any, of Gold Trip’s immediate family remain in the ownership of the Aga Khan Studs, and this major success has come too late to rescue the career of his sire, the Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Outstrip. The son of Exceed And Excel (Danehill) had Bobby’s Kitten back in third that day at Santa Anita, and it was a fitting end to a good juvenile campaign.

Champagne

A maiden winner at Newmarket, Outstrip beat The Grey Gatsby and Cable Bay in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes, found Toormore too good for him in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes, and was third in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. He raced for two more seasons and his only runs of note involved finishing third and fourth to Kingman in the St James’s Palace Stake and Sussex Stakes.

In spite of a decent first year with his juveniles, getting about 20 winners, just one of Outstrip’s initial crop was successful that year in a stakes race, Flippa The Strippa winning the Listed National Stakes at Sandown. Now that 2017 cohort includes Gold Trip, the Grade 3 Florida Oaks winner Outburst, and the Macau Guineas winner Sharp Star. They provide almost half of his nine stakes winners in all, with this year’s small crop of juveniles headed by the Group 3 Prix La Rochette winner Tigrais.

With diminishing books of mares, Outstrip was purchased last year by a group of 29 Brazilian breeders. His last book of mares at Dalham Hall Stud in 2021, where his fee was reduced for the first time from £5,000 to £4,000, numbered just 26.