LOT 2145 in last year’s Tattersalls December Sale was withdrawn. Set to be part of the annual reduction in numbers by Shadwell Estate, the then three-year-old daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) had won four of her six races, and was out of training.

Al Husn’s only defeats were on her first two outings late in her juvenile season, but she ended that year with victory over a mile at Kempton.

She was undefeated at three in a truncated season, and she was clearly a filly who was progressing. Did connections consider that Al Husn could improve to the extent that the Roger Varian-trained filly has?

Well beaten when six lengths behind Via Sistina on her seasonal bow this year in the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in early May, she won a listed race just over two weeks later at Ayr, showed her versatility when landing a Group 3 on the all-weather at Newcastle on the last day of June, and this week showed that she was capable of holding her own at the top table when winning a quality Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood. Have we seen the best of her yet?

This was the 54th Group 1 winner for the outstanding Dubawi, and Al Husn is out of the listed winner and Group 1 Prix de l’Opera third Hadaatha, a daughter of Sea The Stars (Cape Cross). The win came on the same card on which the Gilltown stallion sired one of the favourites for the St Leger later in the season, King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Desert Hero.

This is a third Group 1 winner produced by a daughter of Sea The Stars, Onesto (Frankel) and Eldar Eldarov (Dubawi) being the others. The cross has also been responsible for Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up My Oberon, stakes winner Soft Whisper, pattern-placed Life Of Dreams and stakes-placed Zawara.

Al Husn’s dam Hadaatha was sold by Shadwell in 2021, the year in which Sheikh Hamdan died, and she cost Hubie de Burgh 400,000gns. She was sold in foal to Siyouni (Pivotal), carrying a filly, while this year she foaled another filly, this one by No Nay Never (Scat Daddy). Hadaatha is by some way the best runner out of the 340,000gns Shadwell yearling purchase Hathrah (Linamix). She made just six starts, and was in the frame each time. A listed winner at Kempton, she was runner-up in the Group 2 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster, and third in the Group 1 1000 Guineas. She bred six winners.

Nathaniel

What a spectacle the Group 1 Goodwood Cup turned into, with the six-year-old Quickthorn winning for the ninth time, but the first at this level. Prior to this he had won the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup at York and the 14-furlong Prix Maurice de Nieuil in France.

Nathaniel’s eighth crop are two-year-olds, and Quickthorn is his seventh son or daughter to triumph in a Group 1.

Enable gave the dual Group 1 winner Newsells Park Stud stallion the perfect start at stud, she and the filly God Given being among his first crop. His second crop was headed by a pair of Group 2 winners, before he was back on top with three Group 1 winners in his third crop.

Quickthorn is from crop number four, and he has the distinction of being one of two sons of Nathaniel to win a Group 1, joining last year’s Derby winner Desert Crown.

One of five winners on the track for his Oasis Dream (Green Desert) dam Daffydowndilly, Quickthorn has another winning sibling, Le Boulevardier (Champs Elysees), but his win came in a point-to-point last year, and doesn’t count on a pedigree page. This year Lady Blyth, the owner-breeder of Quickthorn, welcomed a full-brother to her star stayer, and that colt has already been named Scarlet Legend.

Have passport, will travel

THE enterprising couple, Theresa and Con Marnane, celebrated a stakes win this week, and if you missed it, you are forgiven.

Their French-trained two-year-old colt Man With The Plan, a son of James Garfield (Exceed And Excel), won the Listed Premio Criterium Varesino in Italy, his second success. He has more than paid his way now, having cost Con the princely sum of €7,000 as a yearling in Part 2 of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale. Nothing escapes Con’s keen eye at the sales.

Man With The Plan was bred by Rathbarry Stud and the Cashman family stands James Garfield. The colt is the second stakes winner for the sire, and is a member of his second crop. His first crop included the Listed National Stakes winning juvenile and Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes-placed Maria Branwell, and the stakes-placed Lady Bullet, while the group-placed Littlejames is also a member of the sire’s second crop.

These achievements have to be set against the background that James Garfield was going into battle with much smaller crops than his contemporaries.

His initial crop of about 46 foals was larger than the current crop of 24, so to have two stakes performers in each crop already is worthy of note. He get runners, and winners, and at a fee of just €4,000 this year, as it has been for three seasons now having started at €7,000, he gives breeders a sporting chance of getting a winner for their mare.

It is interesting to note also that Man With The Plan and the French listed runner-up Lady Bullet are both out of mares by Lilbourne Lad (Acclamation), and this affirms the Rathbarry connection.

Man With The Plan is out of the twice-raced Viktoriya Taraban (Lilbourne Lad), and she is a full-sister to a winner, and a half-sister to four more. In fact she is more closely related than that to two of them, including the Hong Kong stakes winner Montecchio (Acclamation). Another of the siblings was the Group 2 May Hill Stakes third Sans Reward (Barathea). This family traces back to one of the great female lines that were developed at Ballymacoll Stud.

Precocity

A leading two-year-old himself, and a Group 1 performer at three, James Garfield showed speed and precocity, two of the traits that breeders value. The successful stallions in James Garfield’s family include one of Europe’s long-established leading sires, plus his hugely popular close relation. Like James Garfield, they represent the mighty Danzig (Northern Dancer) sire line.

James Garfield was a once-raced maiden when lining up for the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, a reflection of the esteem in which he was held, and he finished a close third. He ran away with a maiden a few weeks later, finished fourth to Expert Eye in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes, was a nose runner-up in the Group 3 Acomb Stakes over seven furlongs, and then beat Invincible Army to take the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes back over six.

Expert Eye would go on to win the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile, but a couple of months before that James Garfield beat him by three-parts of a length in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes. James Garfield almost got a top-level win of his own, failing by only half a length to catch Polydream in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.

Champion sire

James Garfield is by the Australian champion sire Exceed And Excel (Danehill), one of only six stallions to ever sire more than 200 stakes winners. He is out of the Royal Ascot Listed Chesham Stakes winner Whazzat (Daylami), a half-sister to the dam of US multiple Grade 1 star and $4.1 million sale mare Uni (More Than Ready), while his grandam is a half-sister to classic heroine Rafha (Kris).

Rafha is, of course, the dam of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) and Kodiac (Danehill).

Rafha is also ancestress of classic-placed and Group 1-placed sprinter Gustav Klimt (Galileo) and classic star Mishriff (Make Believe), her full-sister El Jazirah is ancestress of Pinatubo (Shamardal) and Master Carpenter (Mastercraftsman), whereas half-sister Al Anood (Danehill) is the dam of Group 1 winner Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry).