Telecaster another colt custom-made for Classic victory at Epsom

After Sir Dragonet stormed to victory in the Chester Vase last week we described his breeding as precision engineered for the Derby, being as he is a son of Camelot and descended from Urban Sea, the dam of Galileo and Sea The Stars.

But Thursday's determined Dante Stakes winner Telecaster – now Sir Dragonet's chief market rival for the Derby, though both need to be supplemented for the race – may have a pedigree just as tailor-made for the Epsom Classic.

Telecaster, bred by Meon Valley Stud and raced by the operation under the Castle Down Racing banner, is a son of New Approach, who is by a Derby winner in Galileo, won the Derby himself and supplied his own Derby winner when Masar struck in the blue riband last year.

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New Approach, who stands at Dalham Hall Stud at £30,000, has been on something of a rollercoaster ride at stud, having taken the bloodstock industry by storm by fielding three Royal Ascot two-year-old scorers (Dawn Approach, Newfangled and Tha'Ir) and two Classic winners (Dawn Approach and Talent) as well as a Derby runner-up in Libertarian from his outstanding first crop.

However he endured a quieter time with subsequent crops and his fee fell from a high of £80,000 to its current level of £30,000, although Masar and now Telecaster – the sire's 28th Pattern winner – have helped put him on a firmer footing.

Telecaster is the second foal out of Shirocco Star, who won only one of her 13 starts but was beaten just a neck into second by Was in the Oaks and also notched placings in the Ribblesdale Stakes, Irish Oaks, Prix de Royallieu, British Champions Fillies' and Mares' Stakes and Pretty Polly.

Shirocco Star's first offspring, the four-year-old Dansili gelding Starcaster, was the impressive four-length winner of a 1m4f handicap at York on Wednesday, thus initiating an excellent double for the dam at the Dante meeting.

As her name implies, Shirocco Star is by Shirocco – who landed the Coronation Cup over the Derby course and distance – and is descended from Meon Valley Stud's totemic taproot mare Reprocolor.

She is out of Spectral Star, a winning Unfuwain half-sister to Irish 2,000 Guineas runner-up France and to Lyric Stakes winner Hippy Hippy Shake, whose daughter by Kingman, Twist 'N' Shake, was a seven-length winner of a Nottingham maiden for Meon Valley Stud last Friday.

Twist 'N' Shake is set for a quick reappearance as she has been declared for the Listed Oaks Farm Stables Fillies' Stakes at York on Friday.

The redoubtable Reprocolor family has been responsible for champions including Cezzane, Kayf Tara, Necklace, Opera House and Stagecraft.

Reprocolor – a daughter of Jimmy Reppin, a top-class miler but an ordinary sire – was bought by Egon Weinfeld, with the guidance of bloodstock agent Richard Galpin, for just 25,000gns from the Tattersalls yearling sales of 1977 as he sought foundation mares for the nascent Meon Valley operation.

She rewarded the decision by winning the Pretty Polly Stakes, Lingfield Oaks Trial and Lancashire Oaks, and running fourth in the Oaks, before founding an extraordinary empire.

Another yearling bought that year, a daughter of Rarity who cost 18,500gns, turned out to be 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes heroine One In A Million, who produced a filly even better than herself in Milligram.

One In A Million is the fourth dam of Anapurna, who carried the Meon Valley Stud silks to a wide-margin victory in the Lingfield Oaks Trial on Saturday.

Telecaster made it a 1,001st race win for breeders Meon Valley Stud, whose operations are now run by Egon Weinfeld's son Mark and daughter Helena Ellingsen.

According to statistics shared by the farm on Twitter, 506 of those wins were provided by horses descended from Reprocolor, while 256 came from runners in the One In A Million dynasty.

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