Sweet's stamina gives Stimulation a first stakes winner

Last year’s Cesarewitch winner Sweet Selection continued her upward trajectory on Wednesday when making a winning reappearance in the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes at Ascot.

Not only was Sweet Selection’s success her first at stakes level, but it also provided a first stakes win for her sire, the Llety Farms resident Stimulation.

Despite Wednesday’s winner scoring over the marathon trip of two miles, her sire is in fact by the top-class sprinter Choisir.

It is not just the top line of Stimulation’s pedigree that features speed, as his dam, who was placed at around a mile in France, is also by a noted speed influence, the 1979 July Cup winner Thatching.

Bred by Alun Douch, Sweet Selection has also showed scant regard for her own female line, being out of Sweet Coincidence, a daughter of Dewhurst winner Mujahid who won a 6f Chepstow maiden on her third and final start, all of which came at two.

Sweet Selection's younger-half sister did a better job of adhering to her pedigree, as Lightning Thunder, a daughter of Dutch Art, won twice over 6f and also finished runner-up in both the 1,000 Guineas and the Irish equivalent in 2014.

Her three-year-old half-brother, the Sayif colt Gulliver, was also a winner over 7f at York last autumn for Hugo Palmer.

Stimulation retired to David Hodge’s Llety Farm in 2011 and, having stood most of his career at the bargain fee of £3,000, has gone on to produce a steady supply of winners at a winners-to-runners strike-rate of 28 per cent.

Stimulation primarily plied his trade over 7f and a mile, winning the 2008 Group 2 Challenge Stakes, and finishing runner-up in the Betfair Cup behind Paco Boy and the 2007 Horris Hill Stakes behind Beacon Lodge. He was trained throughout his 16-race career by Hughie Morrison, who also oversees Sweet Selection.

Memorable double gives Douch Sweet satisfaction