Dam of Alpha Delphini and Tangerine Trees retired from breeding

To breed a Group 1 winner is one thing - to breed a Group 1 winner from a mare who cost just 5,200gns is quite another.

Remarkably, Beverley-based owner-breeder Marie Matthews has accomplished that feat twice, with Easy To Imagine the dam of two Group 1-winning sprinters after Alpha Delphini struck in last year's epic Nunthorpe Stakes at York at the age of seven.

However, the mare will not be covered anymore after she was retired from breeding this month.

"She'll no longer be covered and will hopefully have a long and happy retirement," said Bumble Mitchell, who leased the mare from Matthews. "It's incredible really - she had some very cheap covers and has produced two Group 1 winners for Marie. She's a once-in-a-lifetime mare, and it just shows what can be done."

Mitchell also raised some of the mare's previous foals including Kurious, a Kuroshio filly who led home a one-two for the Hot To Trot syndicate on debut at Sandown in June.

Easy To Imagine, a daughter of Cozzene, is also the mother of the 2011 Prix de l'Abbaye scorer Tangerine Trees - who, like Alpha Delphini, was bred and raced in partnership by Matthews.

Bumble Mitchell: describes Easy To Imagine as 'a once-in-a-lifetime mare'Credit: Laura Green

Easy To Imagine was offered by her breeder Gainsborough Farm at the Doncaster sales in November 2002 and found a cash buyer at 5,200gns.

Alpha Delphini's trainer Bryan Smart - who also handled the career of Tangerine Trees and Alpha Delphini's sire Captain Gerrard - maintains his close links with Easy To Imagine's clan through her daughter Fairy Falcon.

The four-year-old Sepoy filly, purchased by Joe Foley for 190,000gns at Book 1, races in the colours of Clipper Logistics and opened her account at Thirsk on her second start last August, before finishing a close fifth to Intense Romance in the Listed Scottish Fillies' Sprint Stakes at Ayr the following month.

Henry Candy is the trainer of Kurious, who following her Sandown win was a creditable ninth in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and fourth to Angelic Light when stepped up to six furlongs in the Listed Bosra Sham Fillies' Stakes at Newmarket.

Though Easy To Imagine and her first three dams were all bred in the US, the family has made its mark on this side of the Atlantic.

Her third dam Sunday Purchase produced the 1984 Dante Stakes runner-up Hatim - who would later strike at the highest level in the US - and 1979 Horris Hill Stakes scorer Super Asset.

Like Easy To Imagine, Sunday Purchase is also the dam of two top-flight winners with her son Bates Motel landing the San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita in 1983.

Another of her daughters, Sunday Bazaar, supplied the 2001 Lingfield Derby Trial winner Perfect Sunday, while her US Listed-winning daughter Emmaline is the dam of Coronation Stakes third Zarani Sidi Anna - the mother of Easy To Imagine - and granddam of last season's Italian Group 2 scorer Raymond Tusk.

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