ONE of the most striking aspects of all three major European classic winners last weekend was that each is descended from quality broodmares who continue to make an impact on both racing and breeding.

Masar’s victory in the Group 1 Investec Derby was a career high for a colt whose sire and dam lines combine the best of both the Godolphin and Coolmore organisations. Bred and raced by Sheikh Mohammad and a son of his 2008 Derby winner New Approach (Galileo), the three-year-old chesnut is out of a mare by Cape Cross (Green Desert) and from the immediate family of that sire’s best son Sea The Stars and, of course, his half-brother Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).