'Even at the time I thought to myself what a lovely broodmare'

With just three runs under her belt, we have only seen the merest glimmer of Darley Irish Oaks contender Sea Of Class's true ability.

She displayed huge promise on debut and has since landed a brace of Listed events over 1m2f at Newbury with the minimum of fuss, and on Saturday she will face her biggest test to date as she steps up into Group 1 company for the first time.

Among those who have seen more of her than most is bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever, who was entrusted with securing the filly on behalf of Ling Tsui - whose family races and breeds under the banner of Sunderland Holdings and whose son, Christopher, owned the filly's sire Sea The Stars.

"Mrs Tsui was interested in the filly but her racing and breeding manager, John Clarke, couldn't be at the sales that day so he suggested I give her a call," explained McKeever when asked how he came to sign for the filly.

"I spoke to Mrs Tsui, who told me to go and look at the filly and I liked her very much."

With Tsui on the phone, McKeever followed the filly into ring at Tattersalls and kept bidding until the hammer fell in his favour at 170,000gns. And even before the daughter of Sea The Stars had had a saddle on her back, the agent felt he had landed a bargain.

"Even at the time I thought to myself what a lovely broodmare, and what we paid for her is easily what she's worth on her breeding," he said.

Johnny McKeever: 'Even at the time I thought to myself what a lovely broodmare'Credit: Laura Green/Tattersalls

Take a quick glance at Sea Of Class's pedigree and it is plain to see where McKeever is coming from, as not only is she a daughter of one of the world's finest stallions, she has an equally appealing female line.

She is out Holy Moon, a Listed-winning daughter of Hernando and is a half-sister to two Group 1-winning fillies in Charity Line and Final Score, both of whom won the Premio Lydia Tesio and the Italian Oaks - a race her other half-sister, Cherry Collect, also won.

Despite a near flawless pedigree, Sea Of Class came up for auction at the December Yearling Sale, a somewhat less illustrious counterpart to Book 1 of the October Sale, where the likes of Dank's Galileo filly was sold to Godolphin for 4,000,000gns last year.

But the old adage that a good horse can come from anywhere so often rings true, and in the case of Sea Of Class she had a perfectly good reason for appearing later in the year than so many of her class.

Sea Of Class as a yearling in the Tattersalls sales ringCredit: Laura Green/Tattersalls

The talented chestnut was a very late foal, not hitting the ground until May 23, so in order to give her time to mature the decision was taken to bypass the headline yearling sales and head for December instead.

"She was definitely one of the more interesting lots at the sale," said McKeever with some understatement. "When I first saw her she looked very small and immature but one could take into account the fact she was a very late foal. And she was still very athletic and her pedigree is great with two Italian Oaks winners as half-sisters."

While McKeever is at pains to point out that his involvement with the exciting filly has been a minor one, with her rapid rise more a testament to her owner and to William Haggas, he is nevertheless looking forward to seeing Sea Of Class perform at the Curragh on Saturday.

"It's very exciting and it's lovely to be associated with a horse like her, even if I am only the middle man so to speak," he said.

"I'm going to the Curragh specifically to have a look at her. It's always interesting when you've been involved with a horse - even in a small way - to see how they've grown and improved."

If you enjoyed this story you may also be interested in...

Runner-by-runner guide to the pedigrees of the Darley Irish Oaks field

The agents who unearthed Justify reveal how they found the Triple Crown hero

Why late foals can spring to stardom