Etoile stars for sire Siyouni in E P Taylor at Woodbine

Haras de Bonneval's Siyouni sired a third top-tier winner within the space of a fortnight when Etoile held on in a tight finish to the E P Taylor Stakes at Woodbine in Canada.

Only a couple of weeks ago, St Mark's Basilica became Siyouni's fifth individual Group 1 winner when coming to the fore in the Dewhurst Stakes before Sottsass extended his own tally in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Etoite is a French-bred daughter of unheralded Authorized mare Milena's Dream who was initially bought by trainer Jean-Claude Rouget for €160,000 as an Arqana yearling.

She won a Group 3 French Oaks trial before taking fourth in the Classic at Chantilly and ended up heading to the Tattersalls December Mare Sale, where she was knocked down to Hugo Lascelles for 750,000gns.

Etoile reappeared in North America for the combination of trainer Chad Brown and a partnership between Sottsass's owner Peter Brant and the members of the Magnier and Shanahan families from Coolmore.

She is not to be confused with the Coolmore-owned year-younger US-bred Etoile, a daughter of War Front who won a Group 3 at Naas on her racecourse debut last year.

After finishing runner-up over the same course and distance in her second start for Brown in the Dance Smartly Stakes, she held on by a neck from the closing Court Return under pilot Rafael Hernandez.

"It was a good trip," Hernandez told reporters. "I called Chad this morning and he told me ‘Raffi, try to get a good trip like last time. Just make sure you clear down the stretch'.

"He told me he’d been working the horse a few times and he put her outside of other horses, and she’d be finishing great."

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