Circus Maximus emerges as the only descendant of dual Ascot heroine Duntle

Circus Maximus managed to pay the best of all tributes to his dam Duntle in Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes after it emerged that a mare who can be associated with Royal Ascot both as a racehorse and a broodmare had died after producing only one foal.

Bred at Airlie Stud and owned by the Rogers family in the early stages of her career, the daughter of Danehill Dancer struck in the Niarchos colours in the Sandringham Stakes of 2012 before a controversial disqualification from first in a tight finish with Chachamaidee in that year’s Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.

Duntle achieved further Group 1 placings as a four-year-old, along with becoming a returning Royal Ascot champion in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes before entering the Niarchos family’s breeding programme.

Alan Cooper, their racing and bloodstock manager, explained: "Sadly she died and Circus Maximus was her only foal. The following year she had a difficult foaling, the foal died and we thought she was all right and then she sadly contracted a form of laminitis. She had seemed fine but then had a relapse and unfortunately didn’t pull through."

Duntle’s dam was Lady Angola, a winner for John Dunlop who was by Lord At War, the classy Argentine and American performer from the Brigadier Gerard line, and from the family of Woodford Reserve Turf Classic winner Honor In War and many other Grade 1 stars. Circus Maximus was the result of a meeting with the pre-eminent Galileo.

Maria and Electra Niarchos (third and second right) among the winning party at Royal Ascot on TuesdayCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Hopefully Circus Maximus will make a good contribution to the stud book in time," said Cooper. "We bought Duntle in training from Anthony Rogers and David Wachman, we loved that Lord At War influence, and hopefully we can get back into it. We have a very good relationship with the Rogers family, so we’ll see."

Circus Maximus is owned in partnership with the Coolmore axis of John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. Fourth in last year’s Vertem Futurity Trophy, he had appeared more of a stayer in the making when grinding out victory in the Dee Stakes at Chester. He was a little unlucky but well held in sixth in the Investec Derby before a complete change of tack by Aidan O’Brien at Ascot. The trainer suggested the colt be supplemented at a cost of £45,000 for a drop back to a mile at Royal Ascot.

Cheekpieces were removed, blinkers applied, and with the help of Ryan Moore, Circus Maximus became a breeding commodity in his own right with a neck defeat of King Of Comedy.

"Aidan was very much the maker of the masterplan," said Cooper. "He called me about 40 minutes before the supplementary deadline and said 'I've got an idea – it may be a crazy idea but what do you think?' I said that I couldn't reach the owner but she'd be happy to give it a go if the partners agreed. And Duntle herself was a top-class miler."

The Eclipse and the Sussex Stakes can now enter into the equation for Circus Maximus, who represents a partnership between two of the enduring forces in world racing. Although Coolmore's success is self-evident, the Niarchos family have been high on the agenda at the royal meeting in recent times, having owned and bred last year's exhilarating Coronation Stakes winner Alpha Centauri.

Cooper added: "Everyone was very thrilled. Maria and Electra [Niarchos] were absolutely thrilled, for obvious reasons, as well as the emotion that Duntle won twice at Ascot, he comes and wins at the royal meeting, and there was the whole start of the highs of the mare winning at Leopardstown, losing the race and then finally losing her."

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