An emerging blue hen whose page could gain two juvenile stakes winners this year

Good Morning Bloodstockis Martin Stevens' daily morning email and presented online as a sample.

Here he focuses on the burgeoning legacy of Dialafara - subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.

History is littered with cases of breeders producing top-notchers and cultivating fruitful families from mares culled by the Aga Khan. It’s not for nothing that the extraordinarily successful owner-breeder’s annual reductions, vital for keeping ever-expanding families in check, are always the subject of such fevered interest and generate so much revenue.

The most famous Aga Khan Studs cast-offs of modern times are probably Alruccaba, a Brighton maiden winner who was bought by Kirsten Rausing and Sonia Rogers for 19,000gns in 1985 and became ancestress of numerous stars including recent Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud heroine Alpinista, and Darara, a Group 1-winning half-sister to Darshaan who was bought by Charlie Gordon-Watson on behalf of Watership Down Stud for Ir470,000gns in 1994 and went on to produce Dar Re Me, Darazari, Rewilding and River Dancer.

Another certainly worthy of mention in this category is Kasora, an unraced daughter of Darshaan and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe third Kozana who was bought by Sean Coughlan for 270,000gns in 1996. He bred the brilliant Anglo-Irish Derby and dual Breeders’ Cup Turf winner High Chaparral by sending the mare to Sadler’s Wells.

I highly suspect that we will be speaking of Dialafara in the same breath as Alruccaba, Darara and Kasora in the future.

The 2007-foaled daughter of Anabaa, who was bought by Mags O’Toole on behalf of Lynch Bages and Camas Park Stud for €175,000 at Arqana in 2010, has already distinguished herself by producing a dual Classic winner, another Classic place-getter and a Cheltenham Festival scorer, but in the past fortnight she has also become both dam and granddam of impressive two-year-old debut winners.

Dialafara’s family had not been under the Aga Khan’s stewardship for long. She was only the third foal bred by the operation from Diamilina, who was one of the 62 mares that entered the fold when all of the late Jean-Luc Lagardere’s stock was purchased in 2005 – a deal that included her outstanding sire Linamix.

Diamilina, also the dam of Prix de Conde runner-up Diaghan, was sent out by Andre Fabre to win the Prix de Malleret and Prix de la Nonette before finishing a short-neck second to Aquarelliste in the Prix Vermeille for Lagardere.

She was a sibling to nine other winners including Prix de Cleopatre heroine Diamonixa, another of the many progeny of Lagardere’s regular accomplice Linamix in this family, and Poule d’Essai des Poulains and St James’s Palace Stakes runner-up Diamond Green, a son of Green Desert who formerly stood at Ballyhane Stud.

Diamilina was in turn out of the Akarad mare Diamonaka, who ran second in the Prix de Malleret and Prix de Royaumont and was a sibling to eight other winners led by Group scorers Diamond Mix and Diasilixa, both by Linamix, and Diamond Dance, by Dancehall.

(Sacrebleu, Lagardere was an extraordinarily prolific breeder but his idiosyncratic naming policies don't half make writing about those pedigrees a pain in the neck.)

It’s no surprise that a good-looking and winning mare from such a productive family came to the attention of O’Toole, the Shanahan family behind Lynch Bages and the Hyde family’s Camas Park Stud – a holy trinity of shrewdies who between them have surely had more Group 1 winners through their hands than most of us have had hot dinners – and the purchase of Dialafara has been rewarded many times over.

She was sent to Galileo every season until last year, when she went to Camelot, and the repeated mating has produced seven winners from nine runners, all bar one trained by Aidan O’Brien for Coolmore.

The highlights have been the gallant grey Capri, who won six races including the Irish Derby and St Leger and who now stands at Grange Stud, Passion, who scored in the Stanerra Stakes and ran third in the Irish Oaks and British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes, and Cypress Creek, who landed the Loughbrown Stakes.

Brazil didn’t go on from winning a Curragh maiden at two, but he has found redemption for a switch to hurdling with Padraig Roche, winning the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival this year.

Tower Of London, the two-year-old colt who is the result of Dialafara’s final visit to Galileo, could very well be another superstar judging by his wide-margin victory on debut in a Leopardstown mile maiden last month.

Capri: dual Classic-winning son of DialafaraCredit: Patrick McCann

O’Brien was noticeably effusive in his praise for the horse after the race, saying: “He’s a lovely colt and is still very babyish and green. He was working lovely. He didn't know where he was, so you would have to be delighted with him. We won't be in any panic with him and he's a proper middle-distance horse for next year.

“He could be a Beresford horse and was working like a horse who could go back to seven furlongs. We'll see how he is and whether he'll go for a Futurity Stakes or not. He's a big, scopey horse.”

The only result of the Galileo and Dialafara mating to be sold untried to an outfit other than Coolmore was its first female produce. The filly was bought by John and Jake Warren on behalf of Isa Salman and Isa Abdulla for 480,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2014.

Sovereign Parade, as she came to be known, was trained by John Gosden to win a Salisbury maiden and to finish a fair seventh behind Even Song in a strong renewal of the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot on her only two outings.

Commissioning, the Kingman two-year-old filly who is the second foal and first runner for Sovereign Parade, made as bright a start to her racing career as her ‘uncle’ Tower Of London when being sent out by Gosden, with son Thady, to carry Salman and Abdulla’s silks to a three-and-a-half-length success on debut in a Newmarket novice stakes on Saturday.

Frankie Dettori, who partnered her to victory, reported: “She’s done it nicely and has taken me by surprise a bit, but they told me that she was okay this morning. She was a bit green early doors but I gave her a little flick and she got down and started racing and she finished the race very strong.

“I hadn't sat on her at home before this. I think seven is fine for the moment but she will probably end up going up to a mile before the end of the season.”

If first impressions are to be believed, and the horses in question stay safe and sound, there’s every chance that Dialafara’s page could gain two new stakes winners by the end of the season. This wonderful family is very much still on the up.

It is also having a say in another leading two-year-old of 2022, as Diamond Green happens to be the damsire of recent Prix Yacowlef winner Sivana. The Goken filly bids for back-to-back black-type successes in the Prix de Cabourg at Deauville today.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

Must-read story

“Darley’s Harry Angel has also begun to gain some momentum in the last month, more than doubling his tally of winners to eight,” writes James Thomas as he puts this year’s first-season sires under the microscope.

Pedigree pick

Tellus might fly a little under the radar when she makes her debut in the seven-furlong two-year-old maiden at Catterick on Tuesday (2.10) as she has an excellent, if not the most obvious, pedigree.

John Quinn’s charge is by Aclaim – something of a dab hand with fillies, as Cachet and Royal Aclaim have shown – and was bred by Crossfields Bloodstock out of Virtuality, a placed daughter of Elusive Quality and Royal Ascot winner Hold To Ransom.

What really stands out about the family is that two of her three siblings to have raced won first time out at two – Motakhayyel, who went on to win at Royal Ascot and score in back-to-back Bunbury Cups, and the fairly useful Adaay Dream. The other sibling, Extortion, finished second three times before shedding his maiden tag on his fourth start at two.

All of which makes Tellus, a £35,000 purchase by Sean Quinn and Richard Knight from Bearstone Stud at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale, a tempting each-way bet in a race with few real standout contenders.

The UCD needs you!

Researchers at University College Dublin’s School of Veterinary Medicine, led by Professor Vivienne Duggan, are conducting a survey into stakeholder perceptions of veterinary genetic testing for equine health and disease. To give your thoughts, click here by August 21.

The information generated by this project will help to understand the perceptions of, and preferences for, veterinary genetic testing in the sport and thoroughbred horse industries to direct future research and clinical endeavours.

Make sure to read this week's Asia Bloodstock News

Sign up to our weekly Asia Bloodstock News publication to receive news and features from all things racing and bloodstock across Mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and beyond.

---

Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Martin Stevens, a doyen among bloodstock journalists, provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday