Queens of the Gene Pool

CRIMSON RIBBON (USA)

2006 b m Lemon Drop Kid - Victoria Cross (Mark Of Esteem)

Anthony Oppenheimer enjoyed a fine year on the track and in the sales ring, with his black and white silks and red cap carried to black-type success by homebred fillies Crack Of Light, Queen Aminatu and Safety Catch, and his Hascombe and Valiant Studs selling the Frankel colt out of a Lemon Drop Kid half-sister to Royal Ascot winners Cannock Chase, Pisco Sour and Star Catcher who topped Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale at 2,000,000gns.

Crimson Ribbon, another of his Lemon Drop Kid mares, came to the fore as the dam of Gold Cup hero Courage Mon Ami (by Frankel), who was sold by Oppenheimer to Wathan Racing shortly before Royal Ascot, and his own listed winner Lion’s Pride (from the sole crop of Roaring Lion).

The dam, a full sister to Hardwicke Stakes winner Bronze Cannon and half-sister to King Edward VII Stakes scorer Across The Stars, has now produced five stakes horses from as many runners, with Astronomos (by New Approach) and Crimson Rosette (by Teofilo) gaining listed honours, and Purple Ribbon (by Gleneagles) taking second in listed company. All those offspring are by sons of Galileo apart from Lion’s Pride, whose sire Roaring Lion was by Kitten’s Joy, who was in turn by El Prado, like Galileo a son of Sadler’s Wells.

Crimson Ribbon has an unraced two-year-old filly named Danielle (by Frankel’s son Cracksman, thus a three-parts sister to Courage Mon Ami), a yearling filly by Golden Horn and a filly foal by Time Test. She was covered by Cracksman in 2023. The mare has produced seven daughters, with some of the unraced ones sold and finding their way to Ireland, including Bonnefio (by Teofilo), who produced a Coulsty colt this year for Suroben Ltd and Summerhill Bloodstock before returning to that sire, and Ray Of Sunshine (by Dawn Of Approach), who was sent by Khalid Al-Mudhaf and Mohammed Al-Qatami to Mehmas in 2022.

MODERN IDEALS (GB)

2010 ch m New Approach - Epitome (Nashwan)

Modern Ideals is beautifully bred, being a New Approach half-sister to 11 winners including Ultra, who struck in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère, and Synopsis, who scored in the Prix Minerve, and hailing from a blue-chip family cultivated by Gerald Leigh that encompasses Group 1 winners Act One, Bosra Sham, Hector Protector and Shanghai.

She showed little ability herself though, finishing well down the field in two starts over middle distances in France for trainer André Fabre and owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed. However, she has redeemed herself as a broodmare, serving as a fine conduit for the abundant class in her pedigree. Modern Ideals bagged a brace of Group 1 winners in 2023, featuring as the dam of Modern Games (by Dubawi), who added the Lockinge Stakes to his impressive haul and now retires to Dalham Hall Stud at a fee of £30,000, and Mawj (by Exceed And Excel), who defeated Tahiyra to win the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, landed the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland and nearly captured the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Saratoga only to be nailed by Master Of The Seas on the line. The mare has also produced listed winner and Group 3 runner-up Modern News and Dundalk maiden scorer Feminism (both by Shamardal) from only four offspring to race.

Modern Ideals might be Godolphin’s most treasured broodmare, but the operation has let two of her daughters slip through its fingers. First foal Cartesienne, a placed daughter of brilliant broodmare sire Pivotal, was sold in 2019 to John Grogan’s Milestream Stud in Co Tipperary – he bred a Lope De Vega colt out of her this year, and sent her back to that sire – and Feminism was bought by Co Cork bloodstock agent Barry Lynch for 34,000gns in 2021, and promptly resold to Jill Lamb for €370,000 four months later when the family took off.

New Approach is emerging as an important broodmare sire, with his daughters also producing this year’s Nunthorpe hero Live In The Dream and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère winner Rosallion.

POLISHED GEM (IRE)

2003 b m Danehill - Trusted Partner (Affirmed)

For a long time Polished Gem lived in the shadow of her older sister and predecessor in Dermot Weld’s Rosewell House stables, Dress To Thrill. Whereas she was ‘only’ a Leopardstown maiden winner, Dress To Thrill won six black-type races including the Matriarch Stakes at the highest level; whereas she was a little small and not so impressive to look at, Dress To Thrill was considered more beautiful; and therefore when she went to stud she was sent to middle-market stallions whereas Dress To Thrill was mated with the biggest names in the world.

Polished Gem really turned the tables on Dress To Thrill as a broodmare in her breeder Moyglare Stud’s paddocks, though. She bred an awesome eight black-type winners, starting with Sapphire (by Medicean) and Custom Cut (by Notnowcato) from cheaper covers, before being upgraded to better sires and getting Group 1 scorers Kyprios (by Galileo), who returned from injury this year to finish a brave second in the Irish St Leger and British Champions Long Distance Cup this year, Search For A Song (by Galileo) and Free Eagle (by High Chaparral). Another of her offspring by Galileo, Falcon Eight, showed the toughness of this family when notching his first group victory in the Loughbrown Stakes at Curragh Racecourse in November aged eight, trained also by Weld.

Supposed golden girl Dress To Thrill meanwhile produced only two non-black-type winners from six foals in her brief broodmare career. It goes to show that an open mind is needed in breeding. Polished Gem died aged 17 in 2020, leaving Kyprios as her last foal, but Moyglare Stud have daughters Amma Grace, Sapphire and Search For A Song in production, along with several granddaughters.

REEM THREE (GB)

2003 b m Mark Of Esteem - Jumaireyah (Fairy King)

Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s great mare Reem Three has the most remarkable record – not just because she has six stakes winners, but also for her progeny’s almost surreal affinity with Royal Ascot. When son Triple Time (by Frankel) sprang a surprise in the Queen Anne Stakes in June he became her third winner at the meeting, after Ostilio (by New Approach), who won the Britannia Handicap before becoming a Group 2 scorer, and Cape Byron (by Shamardal), who took the Wokingham Handicap before striking at Group 3 level. For good measure, the dam’s other Group 1-winning offspring Ajman Princess (by Teofilo) finished second in the Ribblesdale while she was still climbing the ladder.

Reem Three, a half-sister to another Royal Ascot winner in Afsare, is also extraordinary in that her eight winners in Europe are all by different sires, the others being this year’s Heron Stakes scorer Captain Winters (by Lope De Vega), Prix Saint-Alary third Imperial Charm (by Dubawi), dual listed winner Third Realm (by Sea The Stars) and 108-rated Naqshabban (by Street Cry). The dam has a two-year-old filly by Kingman named Bolsena, a yearling filly by Night Of Thunder and a filly foal by Pinatubo.

Reem Three’s influence deepened in 2023 as her unraced daughter Rosaline (by New Approach) produced Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère winner Rosallion.

SUELITA (GB)

2009 b m Dutch Art - Venoge (Green Desert)

A prime example of a mare who did it the hard way. The four-time winner in Italy was bought by Chris Harper of Whitsbury Manor Stud for just 21,500gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale of 2013 on the strength of a long admiration for her pedigree. She was sent to a variety of inexpensive sires early on, but she repeatedly upgraded those meagre chances.

Her first foal The Broghie Man (by Cityscape) won the Listed Committed Stakes at Navan and her second offspring, Gloves Lynch (by Mukhadram) ran third in the Listed Prix Herod at Chantilly. The sires of both stood for little money and didn’t last long on British stallion rosters. Next came the Pivotal filly Praised, who made 425,000gns as a yearling and won a Redcar maiden, and two foals by Whitsbury Manor’s own sire Showcasing – the first being Alkumait, who won the Mill Reef Stakes and now stands at Capital Stud in Co Kilkenny, and the second being Get Ahead, who won the Listed Cecil Frail Stakes and found only Moss Tucker too good in the Flying Five at Curragh Racecourse this year.

Suelita’s sixth foal was the first resulting from a really expensive cover and it turned out to be her masterpiece: the Frankel colt Chaldean, who won the Dewhurst Stakes in 2022 and was a clearcut winner of the 2000 Guineas this year. He was campaigned by Juddmonte, who bought him for 550,000gns as a foal, and they have retired him to stand alongside his sire at Banstead Manor Stud at a fee of £25,000.

Suelita has a Kingman yearling filly, who sold as a foal to Juddmonte for 1,000,000gns, and a Showcasing colt foal. She was covered by Frankel again this year.