Cracksman the lord of the dance in Star Stakes

Cracksman, whose debut crop of runners have come to the fore more quickly than might have been expected, now has a first black type winner as Dance In The Grass maintained her unbeaten record in the Listed Star Stakes at Sandown.

The Dalham Hall resident and champion racehorse has already fired in seven individual winners from 11 runners around Europe and had been getting close to a score at stakes level with his daughter Aloa finishing second in last month’s Premio Gino e Luciano Mantovani in Milan.

Cracksman, a son of Frankel who descends from the Oppenheimer family’s 1982 1,000 Guineas winner On The House, was only seen once at the end of his juvenile season and after placing in two Derbys, took the first of his two Qipco Champion Stakes titles at the end of his Classic season.

Dance In The Grass, jointly bred by the Dalgety family and Minster Stud, was bought by trainers Mark and Charlie Johnston for 57,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

A winner on debut at the same course and seven-furlong distance 41 days earlier, she was following in the footsteps of a certain Inspiral in winning this race.

The filly is the first foal out of Sir Percy mare Dance The Dream, a Listed-placed sister to very smart juvenile hurdler Knight Salute.

Mark Johnston had noted Darley's revelation that Cracksman's Plusvital Speed Gene Test designation was a C:C, those most suited to running over five furlongs to a mile, but his emergence so soon has been pleasant news.

He said: "The Cracksmans are great, I can’t think many people thought they would be early two-year-olds.

"If you looked at them early in the spring you have said they were going to be slow-maturing, late two-year-olds who you would not see the best of until they were three. So everything this year is a bonus I hope.

"Although we only have three horses by Cracksman, the other two are a bit similar and Crackovia has also been a winner for us. I wish I had a few more!"

The Sandown crowd had seen a smart juvenile prospect even before 11-4 favourite Dance In The Grass had worn down Dubawi filly Fairy Cross.

Nostrum, already a tall and substantial son of Kingman, had made a striking debut for Sir Michael Stoute in the Martin Densham Memorial EBF Maiden Stakes.

Owned and bred by Juddmonte from its leading stallion Kingman, the colt is out of Amanda Perrett’s dual Listed winner Mirror Lake, already responsible for smart Australian export Imaging.

Nostrum followed a day after a reasonably rare Juddmonte sales purchase, Apricot Twist, the Barouche Stud-bred daughter of Expert Eye, had made an equally stylish debut for Ger Lyons at Naas.

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