'Every week goes by they're getting better and stronger' - St Mark's Basilica breaks Group 1 duck with €1,700,000 diamond

The most regal of broodmares took St Mark's Basilica to the pinnacle with his first crop of runners as Diamond Necklace sparkled in Sunday's Prix Marcel Boussac.

Coolmore's young son of Siyouni, trained like his daughter by Aidan O'Brien, had two of his biggest days on the track in France. He claimed the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and the Prix du Jockey Club four years ago, among his five career Group 1s.

The unbeaten Diamond Necklace was already one of St Mark's Basilica's three black type winners, from last month's Listed Ingabelle Stakes, with 17 of his first foals already off the mark worldwide.

However, this filly is something different as his most expensive yearling to have gone through the ring. 

MV Magnier of Coolmore went to €1,700,000 to acquire Diamond Necklace from Arqana August Yearling Sale last year. Bred in a partnership between Haras des Monceaux and Skymarc Farm, she is the tenth foal of the blue hen Prudenzia, a Listed winner by Dansili who is already responsible for Irish Oaks winner Chicquita and Coolmore's international Group 1 star Magic Wand.

Prudenzia's most recent offspring to have been put on the market, a filly by Night Of Thunder, broke the Arqana August record when claimed by Amo Racing for €3,000,000.

"The first for St Mark's Basilica makes it very special," O'Brien told Sky Sports Racing. "She's going to be lovely, she's a Classic filly obviously. I'd say she'll be very comfortable starting at mile and she will stay probably the Oaks trip, I'd imagine. She's very exciting. It's typical St Mark's; every week goes by they're getting better and stronger."

Henri Bozo, the director of Monceaux, was also emotional after the race.

“It was quite bold to send a mare of that calibre to a young stallion just starting his career," he told France-Galop. "But it paid off. We like to send older mares to younger stallions. I try to avoid pairing older mares with older stallions. 

"The bloodline of St Mark’s Basilica – his power, depth and turn of foot – made us want to try it. Together with Patricia Boutin, who managed Lady O’Reilly’s interests, we decided to send her to that stallion. The information I got from Coolmore was that they thought Diamond Necklace would be better at three than at two. 

"So this is great. It’s a family that usually peaks in midsummer of their three-year-old season, and they tend to prefer good ground. It’s not a family of big-framed horses – and she herself isn’t very big. We sold her sister this year at Deauville; she might have been a bit taller.”

The Ballydoyle and Coolmore axis rolled on with Puerto Rico's victory in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere having great significance as his father Wootton Bassett, who will be sorely missed by the operation after his untimely recent death, won the same event back in 2010.

This colt is the first foal of Galileo mare April Showers, whose sisters Misty For Me and Ballydoyle were among O'Brien's six winners of the Marcel Boussac to date, and led home a Wootton Bassett one-two from Nighttime. The sire later claimed a Group 1 double through Maranoa Charlie in the Prix de la Foret.

Daryz (near) beats Minnie Hauk in the Arc at LongchampCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Daryz, a fitting tribute to his breeder the late Aga Khan, in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, was completing a rare feat for his exceptional sire Sea The Stars, for whom he was a 24th Group 1 winner.

The Aga Khan Studs reported that Gilltown Stud-based Sea The Stars is now the seventh Arc winner to sire an Arc winner after Biribi, Djebel, Ribot, Sea-Bird, Rainbow Quest and Montjeu. The colt's dam, Daryakana, landed the Prix de Royallieu on the same weekend in 2009 of Sea The Stars' Longchamp swansong.

She went on to claim the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase and is already the dam of Group 1 Prix Ganay scorer Dariyan among six black type earners.

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