Henry Longfellow provides a glimpse of Coolmore's future at the Curragh

August is traditionally harvest month and Coolmore's patronage of Dubawi with some of their best racemares is starting to yield returns; in Saturday's Group 2 Futurity Stakes winner Henry Longfellow, the operation has bred a colt with limitless potential.

The old adage of breeding the best to the best and hoping for the best gets trotted out on these occasions, but the first two elements of that bloodstock equation are present in Henry Longfellow and so far he has shown more than enough promise of fulfilling the final element. 

In his sire Dubawi, he is by the most successful and prolific source of Group 1 winners to stand in Britain, and in his dam Minding he is out of a seven-time Group 1 winner who, on Racing Post Ratings, is the third-best filly ever sired by the breed-shaping Galileo. 

Only Found, who led home an astonishing 1-2-3 for the sire and trainer Aidan O'Brien in the Arc, and dual Irish Champions Stakes heroine Magical, are ranked above the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner.

Unbeaten in two starts and with the Dewhurst Stakes on his agenda, Henry Longfellow seems the most likely candidate to become the third individual Group 1 winner by Dubawi out of a daughter of Galileo after Night Of Thunder and Ghaiyyath. 

The former sired Vespertilio, successful in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes on Saturday's card for Al Shira'aa Farms and Willie McCreery. Bred by Ecurie des Monceaux and Skymarc Farms, she was purchased at last year's Arqana August Yearling Sale for €320,000 and is out of a full-sister to Prudenzia, the Listed-winning dam of Group 1 winners Magic Wand and Chicquita. 

Night Of Thunder's victory in the 2,000 Guineas was the first Group 1 success for a horse bred on the Dubawi-Galileo cross and with his win at the Curragh, Henry Longfellow is the 12th individual stakes winner bred this way. The cross has a global stakes winners-to-runners success rate of 13.2 per cent, which places it in an elite grouping, and a quick glance at the representatives which Coolmore have gathered together would suggest that results are only going to improve.

Minding is just one star in a galaxy of Coolmore mares, mainly daughters of Galileo, who have juveniles by Dubawi and the result of the Futurity Stakes may be one that becomes ever more familiar as Coolmore homebred colts by Dubawi out of Galileo mares finished first and third. Sporting the second colours of Michael Tabor, Galway nursery winner Portland is the first foal out of Zagitova, a Galileo half-sister to Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Garswood. Zagitova was third in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes to Skitter Scatter.

Minding: Outstanding mare is the dam of Group 2 winner Henry LongfellowCredit: Patrick McCann

The Debutante Stakes was one of the few races that Minding failed to win - she was runner-up to Ballydoyle in 2015 before beating that filly in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes - but she has a yearling filly by Dubawi and, like Zagitova, was covered by Wootton Bassett last year. 

Other daughters of Galileo who did win the Debutante before going on to claim Group 1 glory include Magical and Rhododendron, and both of those have made the trip from Fethard to Dalham Hall in recent years, with Magical foaling a filly by Dubawi last year and covered again by Dubawi.

Rhododendron is, of course, the dam of this season's Derby and Irish Derby winner Auguste Rodin, by Deep Impact, and she defeated Hydrangea in the Debutante Stakes. That filly went on to win the Matron Stakes and British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, and is the dam of a two-year-old filly and yearling colt by Dubawi.

Coolmore, a full-sister to Group 1 winners Gleneagles, Marvellous, Happily and Joan Of Arc, was Group 1-placed herself and is another Galileo mare with offspring by Dubawi to race - a two-year-old colt - while Marvellous has a two-year-old colt and yearling daughter by him. Oaks winner Forever Together, a full-sister to Fillies' Mile winner Together Forever, who is the dam of City Of Troy, has a yearling filly by Dubawi.

It isn't just the best by Galileo who Coolmore have sent to Dubawi with daughters of Montjeu and his son Camelot also working to good effect. Athena, the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks winner by Camelot, has produced two winners by Dubawi. The best to date is Group 3 winner Never Ending Story, who was placed behind Blue Rose Cen in both the Prix Marcel Boussac and Prix de Diane, while two-year-old Navy Seal won a Galway maiden and could run in the Acomb Stakes. 

Athena's three-parts sister Wading won the Rockfel and is the dam of a Rockfel winner in Just Wonderful, by Dansili, but she is also the dam of Lambada, a winning three-year-old daughter of Dubawi and has a two-year-old colt by him. Just Wonderful herself has a yearling Dubawi filly.

The aforementioned Irish Oaks winner Chicquita is already the dam of Group 2 winner Emily Dickinson, by Dubawi, who was second in the Goodwood Cup on her most recent start and has produced a two-year-old full-brother to her.

With so many more blue-blooded offspring by Dubawi to follow Henry Longfellow from the Coolmore nursery paddocks to the stables at Ballydoyle, there is every reason to believe that the result of the Futurity Stakes is one that will be replicated regularly in the near future.

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