An in-depth look at the pedigree of Prix Royal-Oak winner Technician

Technician dug deep to land the Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp on Sunday, in the process taking his sire Mastercraftsman's tally of Group/Grade 1 winners to 14.

The Martyn Meade-trained three-year-old colt tracked the early pace under Pierre-Charles Boudot and was delivered to challenge two furlongs from home, staying on well to defeat Call The Wind (by Frankel) by a length and a quarter, with last year's winner Holdthasigreen (by Hold That Tiger) well held in third.

Technician, who carries the Team Valor silks, had exhibited his stamina prowess when successful in the Prix Chaudenay on his last start.

He has also won the Geoffrey Freer Stakes and Prix Ridgway and taken second in the Sandown Classic Trial in a busy season that has encompassed nine races.

He follows in the footsteps of three other Mastercraftsman progeny to have struck at the highest level in France: Alpha Centauri (Prix Jacques le Marois), Amazing Maria (Prix Rothschild) and The Grey Gatsby (Prix du Jockey Club).

The Coolmore-based sire's other northern hemisphere-bred elite winners are Racing Post Trophy and St Leger hero Kingston Hill and the mares A Raving Beauty and Off Limits, who both excelled after being transferred from Europe to race in the US.

Mastercraftsman's haul of southern hemisphere-bred Group/Grade 1 winners comprises Danzdanzdance, Saint Emilion, The Auld Floozie and Valley Girl in Australasia and Cambridge, Reine De Arabie and Ya Primo in South America.

Technician – a €40,000 Goffs Orby yearling purchase by Dermot Farrington – was bred by David and Diane Nagle's Barronstown Stud, which was inducted into the hall of fame at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association awards at the start of the year.

He is out of the stakes-winning Sadler's Wells mare Arosa, making him a half-brother to three other winners including Atalanta Stakes third Water Hole.

Arosa is out of Sharata, an unraced Darshaan half-sister to dual Derby victor Shahrastani bought by Barronstown as a five-year-old from the Aga Khan in 1993.

Sharata produced five stakes winners in total, including Crimson Tide and Tamarind at Pattern level, as well as the one-time European record-priced yearling filly, the ill-fated 2,100,000gns Tattersalls Houghton Sale graduate Softlyisthenight.

Another family member, Recoletos, won the Prix d'Ispahan and Prix du Moulin last year before embarking on his stallion career at Haras du Quesnay in 2019. His maternal granddam, Prix de Sandringham winner Pharatta, is a Fairy King three-parts sister to Arosa.

Arosa has a two-year-old filly by Mastercraftsman named Crafty Rosa – in training with Hugo Palmer after being bought as a yearling by McKeever Bloodstock for €50,000 – and a yearling filly by the same sire purchased by Phoenix Thoroughbreds for €240,000 at Arqana in August.

The mare was covered by Mastercraftsman's Coolmore colleague US Navy Flag this year.

Among the other breeders celebrating a boost to the pedigrees of their stock in the wake of Technician's Group 1 victory was Eddie O'Leary's Lynn Lodge Stud which, through Mags O'Toole, bought the colt's half-sister Water Hole for just $35,000 from the Lane's End draft at last year's Keeneland November Breeding-Stock Sale.

Water Hole produced a colt foal by Noble Mission in January and was subsequently sent to Kildangan Stud for a tryst with Profitable.

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