'We can dream' - latest chapter in Starlet's Sister story off to winning start

There was little doubt before Deauville's two races for newcomers on Thursday that the most glittering pedigree on display belonged to Snowpark, a Dubawi sister to Sistercharlie, My Sister Nat and Arc hero Sottsass.

Her breeder Henri Bozo knows as well as anyone that even such a star-filled page will not always translate into talent on the track and uppermost in the Ecurie des Monceaux principal's mind will have been a nice introduction and signs that there were races to be won in the future before joining the broodmare band.

Snowpark exceeded those limited ambitions with a powerful late run under Cristian Demuro to land the Prix de Hotot-en-Auge in some style and there were smiles aplenty in the winner's enclosure afterwards.

Bozo said: "We weren't necessarily expecting that on debut and Jean-Claude had warned us that he hadn't worked her particularly hard and that the Dubawis don't always show a real turn of foot in the morning.

"But all of us were very impressed by what she did there, especially the way she picked up and accelerated between horses. We can dream now."

Sottsass now stands at Coolmore after a stellar racing career which included victories in the Prix du Jockey Club and the ArcCredit: Coolmore

Snowpark's dam Starlet's Sister has become one of the most important broodmares in Europe, not just because of the success of Sottsass and company, but in terms of sale-topping exploits at Arqana.

A daughter of Galileo, Starlet's Sister first rang the tills in Deauville when Sottsass was sold to Michel Zerolo on behalf of Peter Brant in August 2017 for €340,000, with the same combination giving €400,000 for his Charm Spirit brother 12 months later, 48 hours before the son of Siyouni's promising debut fourth.

At the 2019 August Yearling Sale the price was €700,000 for a Fastnet Rock brother to the now Classic winner.

Starlet's Sister was far from a one-hit-wonder by the this stage: Sistercharlie and My Sister Nat had cost Paul Nataf and Francis Teboul just €32,000 between them but the former landed a remarkable seven Grade 1 races on turf in the US for Brant, while My Sister Nat went down by just half a length to Loves Only You in the 2021 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.

Monceaux's Siyouni full-brother to Sottsass sells to Yoshito Yahagi for €2.1 millionCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Her two most recent yearlings have both broken the €2 million barrier at Arqana. Oliver St Lawrence went to €2.5m to land Snowpark's full-sister by Dubawi, named Pure Dignity and already a winner for Roger Varian and his Bahraini owners.

And at this August's sales Yoshito Yahagi expressed the hope he had picked up a future Arc winner when paying €2.1m for a full-brother to Sottsass.

With such sums on offer, it may not have been a totally straightforward decision not to send Snowpark to the same arena, though Bozo was modest in giving his rationale.

He said: "As a breeder it was a bit of a no-brainer to keep a daughter of Starlet's Sister and while you are risking something in not sending her to market, this is a game where you have to take a few of those. We are really very happy."

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