Statuette a first Group winner for Justify with gritty Airlie Stud success

Coolmore America's exciting first-season sire and unbeaten Triple Crown hero Justify was represented by his first black type winner when Statuette maintained her unbeaten record in the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes at the Curragh.

The imposing filly got her sire off the mark in Europe when winning in impressive fashion at Navan last month and she looks set for bigger and better things for Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore, Westerberg and Merriebelle Stables.

Bred by Coolmore associates Orpendale, Chelston, Wynatt and Merriebelle Stables, Statuette is the fifth foal out of Immortal Verse, the winner of the Prix Jacques Le Marois and Coronation Stakes for Robert Collet and Richard Strauss.

The daughter of Pivotal then sold to BBA Ireland from Mount Coote Stud for 4.7 million guineas at the 2013 Tattersalls December Mare Sale.

Immortal Verse is responsible for Statuette's three-parts sister in Cheveley Park Stakes winner Tenebrism, a daughter of Caravaggio who landed her Group 1 last autumn before a fine fourth to the dazzling Inspiral in the Coronation Stakes earlier this month.

Statuette's sire was equally prolific, winning all six starts in his only season at three including the Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in the summer of 2018.

The son of the much-missed Scat Daddy retired to Coolmore's American base of Ashford Stud at a fee of $150,000 for the 2019 breeding season.

His first black type performer came in the shape of Tahoma, a colt bred by Hunter Valley Farm, Fergus Galvin and Golden Vale Farm who finished second in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity at Santa Anita this month.

Another regally bred filly by Justify from Ballydoyle who has made a promising start is Unless, a close third on debut at Leopardstown and the first foal out of Cheveley Park heroine Clemmie, a sister to dual Guineas hero and Classic-winning sire Churchill.

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