From Dahlia to Ouija Board: five Irish Oaks winners who dazzled as dams

Accomplished racemares make the most attractive breeding prospects but often, alas, they disappoint their owners when failing to reproduce their own immense talent in their offspring.

Take the Irish Oaks as a case in point. Such distinguished winners as Altesse Royale, Blue Wind, Ramruma and User Friendly were by and large under-achievers as broodmares, while Ebadiyla and Petrushka suffered the indignity of becoming best known as the dams of jumps Grade 1 scorers in Ebaziyan and Parlour Games.

This year's Irish Oaks runners and riders

It's not all doom and gloom, though, and several winners of the Curragh Classic, which takes place on Saturday, produced decent results at paddocks and/or exerted their influence in the second generation. Shoot A Line's sole black-type offspring, Cheveley Park Stakes runner-up Line Of Thunder, produced Kentucky Derby hero Thunder Gulch, while Give Thanks' first foal, Saffaanh, became dam of champion Harayir and her final foal, Alshakr, took the Falmouth Stakes.

In fact, the Irish Oaks roll of honour provides some strong evidence that breeding from the best is indeed the optimum method of producing the best. Among its winners in the past 50 years are some truly exceptional blue hens, the cream of which are listed below.

Dahlia (1973)
Vaguely Noble-Charming Alibi (Honeys Alibi)

A truly remarkable mare. Conceived before man had landed on the moon, she survived into the new millennium, passing away at Diamond A Farm in Kentucky at the grand old age of 31 in 2001.

Bred and owned by Texas oil baron Nelson Bunker Hunt and trained in France by Maurice Zilber, her roll of honour included a Prix Saint-Alary, Irish Oaks, a Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, a pair of King Georges and a pair of Benson and Hedges Gold Cups. A pioneering participant in transatlantic racing, she also won the Washington DC International, Man O'War Stakes, Canadian International and Hollywood Invitational.

Dahlia produced four Group/Grade 1 winners at paddocks – Dahar, Rivlia, Delegant and Dahlia's Dreamer – as well as Group/Grade 2 scorers Llandaff and Wajd. Llandaff managed to sire a multiple top-level winner in Vespone, while Wajd went on to produce St Leger victor Nedawi. Another of Dahlia's daughters, Dahlia's Image, is maternal granddam of Gold Cup hero Rite Of Passage.

Helen Street (1985)
Troy-Waterway (Riverman)

Ballymacoll Stud's daughter of their short-lived Derby winner Troy and Poule d'Essai des Pouliches third Waterway is probably not a household name among breeding buffs but she certainly deserves to be as she frequently appears in the pedigrees of big race winners thanks to two outstanding dual-hemisphere sires – one her son, the other a maternal grandson.

Helen Street, sold to Sheikh Mohammed at the end of her racing career, produced ten winners, most notably the Dubai World Cup hero Street Cry. That horse has achieved immortality as the sire of two racemares for the ages in Winx and Zenyatta, along with a Kentucky Derby winner in Street Sense and a Melbourne Cup scorer in Shocking. Street Cry's full-sister, the Listed-placed Helsinki, is dam of Shamardal – source of 22 Group 1 winners including this season's dual Royal Ascot hero Blue Point and Classic victress Castle Lady.

Godolphin ventured into some bold inbreeding when sending their Street Cry mare Lura to Shamardal and the resultant foal Lucida, inbred 3x3 to Machiavellian and Helen Street, finished second in the 1,000 Guineas in 2015.

Colorspin (1986)
High Top-Reprocolor (Jimmy Reppin)

Colorspin was the model pupil for Meon Valley Stud. By High Top, a Classic hero and leading sire, later a champion broodmare sire, and out of the stud's foundation mare Reprocolor, a Lancashire Oaks winner who would also produce the high-class talents Bella Colora and Cezanne, she cruised to an easy victory in the Irish Oaks under Pat Eddery at his cheekiest, theatrically looking around for his rivals in the final furlong. There was no competition to her that day.

Colorspin went on to produce no fewer than three Group 1 winners – middle-distance top-notcher Opera House, dual Gold Cup victor Kayf Tara and Prix de l'Opera heroine Zee Zee Top. That mare emulated her dam by producing an elite winner of her own in Izzi Top.

Another of Colorspin's daughters, Spinning The Yarn, became dam of Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Necklace.

Wemyss Bight (1993)
Dancing Brave-Bahamian (Mill Reef)

Pat Eddery had to work a lot harder to drive Wemyss Bight to victory over Royal Ballerina seven years after Colorspin's success. Khalid Abdullah's homebred filly was one of three Classic winners by the owner's iconic horse Dancing Brave in 1993, alongside Commander In Chief and White Muzzle; but by then the sire had been exported to Japan.

Wemyss Bight founded her own branch of a fruitful Juddmonte family by producing three black-type runners including the Grand Prix de Paris winner turned multiple US Grade 1 hero Beat Hollow.

Her female siblings include Hope, the dam of elite winners Oasis Dream and Zenda, mother of Kingman; Coraline, who produced the high-class trio Coastal Path, Martaline and Reefscape; and Trellis Bay, dam of Group 2 scorer Bellamy Cay and granddam of Prix du Jockey Club winner New Bay.

Ouija Board (2004)
Cape Cross-Selection Board (Welsh Pageant)

One of the best, and most popular, British-trained fillies or mares of the 21st century, Lord Derby's homebred landed seven Group/Grade 1 races. She backed up her seven-length victory in the Oaks at Epsom in the Curragh equivalent, easing down to beat a top-class filly in Punctilious by a length into second, with Galileo's sister All Too Beautiful in fourth.

Ouija Board doubly secured her place in the pantheon of great mares when her son Australia, by Galileo, became only the second offspring of Derby and Oaks winners to win the Derby after Lammtarra.

In actual fact, Australia, now a promising young sire based at Coolmore, was the first Derby victor whose parents were both first past the post in Epsom Classics, as Lammtarra's dam Snow Bride was promoted on the disqualification of Aliysa. Ouija Board is also the dam of Coronation Cup runner-up Frontiersman, new to the Overbury Stud roster this year.

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