Can a 230-year-old record be matched? Will Camelot break his duck? Here's Martin Stevens' Epsom Classic angles

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens runs through some potential bloodstock angles for the Derby meeting – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Merry Christmas, fellow breeding nerds! It’s the Epsom Classics: the most wonderful time of the year: so magical, in fact, that the Derby was actually visited by Santa Claus in 1964.

What presents might we be unwrapping this year? I’ve given everything under the Christmas tree a good sizing up, a probing squeeze and a bit of a shake. Here are my findings . . .

A once-in-a-blue-moon broodmare feat

Perhaps the best gift for history buffs would be a 230-year-old record being matched.

It was all the way back in 1796, when George III was on the throne, William Pitt the Younger was prime minister and the French were still revolting (so to speak), that an unnamed mare owned by Sir Frank Standish was represented by a second Derby winner in two years, thanks to Didelot emulating the success of his half-brother Spread Eagle at Epsom 12 months earlier.

Some 11 other mares have also bred two Derby winners – including, most recently, Urban Sea with Galileo and Sea The Stars – but that anonymous 18th century producer is the only one to have done it in consecutive years.

Action, a Frankel half-brother to last year’s Derby hero Lambourn, might just change that, though. He could accomplish the extraordinarily rare feat for his dam Gossamer Wings, a Queen Mary Stakes runner-up by Scat Daddy. 

Action is certainly in the right hands, as he is trained by Aidan O’Brien, who is going for a record-extending 12th victory in the race. He also showed top-class form at two, including when runner-up to Hawk Mountain in the Futurity Trophy and third behind Bow Echo in the Royal Lodge Stakes, and was an honourable second in the Dante Stakes on his last outing.

Market leaders’ miraculous coincidence

Another treat that will amuse pedigree aficionados is the fact that the two colts who, according to the market, hold the best chance of denying Gossamer Wings her place in the record books are bred on remarkably similar lines.

Benvenuto Cellini, Derby favourite on account of his scintillating display when winning the Chester Vase, and Item, the leading British hope since his decisive victory over Action in the Dante, are both by Frankel and out of Lope De Vega mares who were Grade 1 winners in North America. For good measure, their maternal granddams were both by sons of Danehill too.

Benvenuto Cellini was bred by co-owners Coolmore and White Birch Farm out of Newspaperofrecord, who was sent out by Chad Brown to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs at two and the Just A Game Stakes at Belmont Park at three. Giselle, a Frankel filly who was the first foal of the mare, won the Lingfield Oaks Trial by nine lengths and was not disgraced in fifth behind Minnie Hauk in the Oaks last year.

Newspaperofrecord was bred by Allan Belshaw’s Times of Wigan outfit out of Sunday Times, a Holy Roman Emperor mare who won the Sceptre Stakes and finished second in the Cheveley Park Stakes and also produced the Listed-winning sprinter Classical Times. Irish Derby victor Latrobe and Oaks runner-up Pink Dogwood are close relations.

Item: one of two runners bred on the Frankel-Lope De Vega cross in this year's DerbyCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Item, meanwhile, was bred by Juddmonte out of Capla Temptress, who took the Natalma Stakes at Woodbine at two and the Grade 3 My Charmer Stakes at Gulfstream Park at four, before being sold privately to the late Khalid Abdullah’s operation in the twilight of her career.

Capla Temptress – who has also clicked with Kingman to produce Prix Matchem winner Temptable – was bred by Pier House Stud out of the Dansili mare Mrs Beeton, who was sent out by three-time Derby-winning rider Walter Swinburn to win a Salibury maiden and hailed from a fine family belonging to Swinburn’s father-in-law Peter Harris that contained the likes of Leporello, Poppy Carew and Stotsfold.

Those who like their nicks might be interested to know that Benvenuto Cellini, Giselle and Item are among five winners from six runners by Frankel and out of Lope De Vega mares on the Racing Post database. The other two scorers were far from superstars, mind you.

It’s a kind of magic

Frankel holds a strong hand at Epsom, with Newmarket Stakes winner Ancient Egypt set to line up alongside Action, Benvenuto Cellini and Item in the Derby, and wide-margin Salsabil Stakes scorer Thundering On seemingly holding a decent chance in the Oaks.

The unbeaten dual world champion’s dam Kind is well used to occupying the position of paternal granddam in Classic winners by now, but she could appear as maternal granddam of one for the first time today, thanks to Musidora Stakes winner Legacy Link.

The John and Thady Gosden-trained filly is by Dubawi and is the first foal out of Chiasma, a winning Galileo full-sister to Frankel who has a two-year-old filly by Dubawi (named Zhuri) and a yearling colt by the same sire to come. 

Chiasma pictured with Kind as a foalCredit: Juddmonte Farms

Producing a filly as exciting as Legacy Link at the first attempt raises the hope that Chiasma might be as proficient a broodmare as Kind’s only other daughter, Joyeuse, a dual Listed winner by Oasis Dream.

Joyeuse produced seven winners, including Mill Reef Stakes scorer Array and black type-placed Jouncy, Jovial, Jubiloso and Maximal. Jovial’s son Jonquil has won the Greenham Stakes, Celebration Mile and Paradise Stakes and was beaten a head into second by Henri Matisse in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains last year.

Kind’s tail-female line is quite fragile, with only those two daughters to continue it, but their good deeds at stud means it is getting stronger and stronger as time goes by.

A new chapter in a much-loved legend?

Camelot holds a special place in the hearts of Derby die-hards, having won the race so convincingly himself before being denied the Triple Crown in a controversial St Leger, and then carrying the baton for his wonderful sire Montjeu in the Flat stallion ranks.

A first Epsom Classic winner for the Coolmore resident, with Pink Dogwood and Los Angeles having managed only placings in the past, would be gratifying, then. There is a realistic chance of it happening this year, and even him doing the Derby-Oaks double.

Camelot’s Oaks entourage includes likely favourite Amelia Earhart, a daughter of Irish Oaks runner-up Venus De Milo who won the Cheshire Oaks in stylish fashion, and On Message, a member of her owner Car Colston Hall Stud’s fabulous Wiener Wald family who finished third in the Height Of Fashion Stakes on her last outing.

Camelot: bidding for a first Epsom Classic winnerCredit: Coolmore

Camelot is the sire of one of the biggest movers in the Derby market this week in Leopardstown Derby Trial runner-up Pierre Bonnard, a son of Nassau Stakes heroine Sultanina, as well as Dante third Christmas Day, a half-brother to three-time Santa Anita Grade 3 winner Missed The Cut out of the Listed-winning Sea The Stars mare Beauly.

The sire also makes his presence felt in this year’s Derby as damsire of Lingfield Derby Trial winner Maltese Cross. The William Haggas-trained colt is by Sea The Stars out of the winning and well-related mare Nabatea, and is thus bred on the reverse cross to Christmas Day.

German breeding über alles

Germany’s role as an incubator of staying lines while much of the rest of Europe has turned away from middle-distance breeding means that it has a big say in the Derby field again.

Maltese Cross was bred in France by Ecurie du Sud and Ecurie Gribomont but Nabatea, whom they purchased for €110,000, was bred by Freiburg banker Jürgen Imm from the prolific ‘N’ family that has yielded his German top-flight winners Nightflower, Nutan and Nymphea. 

Two of his rivals, admittedly rank outsiders, bear the GER suffix: A Taste Of Glory, a son of Soldier Hollow bred by the late German champion sire’s custodians at Gestüt Auenquelle; and Balzac, a half-brother to Hampton Court Stakes winner Claymore from the first crop of Japan bred by popular horse transporter Günther Schmidt.

Maltese Cross after victory in the Lingfield Derby TrialCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

You could be forgiven for thinking that I’m shoehorning my pet subject of German breeding into the conversation unnecessarily, when German-breds aren’t exactly winning the Derby year in, year out.

But bear in mind that Germany can lay a strong claim to ownership of Urban Sea, who not only produced Galileo and Sea The Stars but, thanks to her sons’ success at stud, has also featured in the pedigree of every Derby winner since Masar, who was inbred to her, in 2018.

Urban Sea’s tail-female line was, after all, nurtured in Germany for most of the 20th century. Her dam Allegretta, though foaled in Britain, was the product of a mating between two German-breds in Lombard and Anatevka, and she has a family tree full of GER suffixes.

Enjoy bloodstock Christmas. I’ll be back next week during Twixmas, that depressing lull between the Epsom Classics and Royal Ascot. 

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“The pedigree of Maltese Cross is very German, a lot of mile-and-a-half staying blood and a high-class page,” says Sam Haggas about his father William’s Derby hopeful Maltese Cross.

Pedigree pick

A slightly belated debut and tongue-tie suggest not everything has gone exactly according to plan with Green Amoro, who makes his debut for Joseph O’Brien in the seven-furlong maiden at Fairyhouse today (4.55), but it might be worth giving the three-year-old colt the benefit of the doubt.

He is by Dark Angel and is the first foal out of Que Amoro, a daughter of Es Que Love who was a Listed winner at Ayr and found only Battaash too good in the Nunthorpe Stakes in a glittering career with Michael Dods. Que Amoro is a half-sister to sales race winner Bolo Neighs out of Onomatomania, a daughter of Mr Greeley and the Listed-placed Seattle Slew mare Seattle Queen. 

Green Amoro will carry the double green silks of Isaac Souede and Simon Munir, having been bought by Highflyer Bloodstock for €140,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.