Toronado blows through Moulin as Wootton Bassett adds new Group 1 winner to his resume

Al Shaqab's homebred colt Sahlan upset his better-known rivals in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin to become the 16th individual Group 1 winner by Coolmore stallion Wootton Bassett and the first as a broodmare sire for Al Shaqab's Toronado.

The Sussex and Queen Anne Stakes winner by High Chaparral is currently based at Adam Sangster's Swettenham Stud in Victoria, Australia and the farm announced on Sunday that the 15-year-old, who is one of the best sires in Victoria, will miss the southern hemisphere breeding season as he receives treatment for a 'significant infection'.

Toronado had shuttled between Al Shaqab's base of Haras de Boquetot in Normandy and Swettenham but the Group 2 Champagne Stakes winner, who split Charm Spirit and Night Of Thunder in the 2014 renewal of the Moulin, has been a permanent fixture at Swettenham since 2022.

He is the sire of six individual Group 1 winners from a total of 44 stakes winners but Sahlan is the first black–type winner from the 24 winners produced by Toronado's daughters.

Trained by Francis Graffard, Sahlan came into the mile contest as a Group 3 winner but lived up to his illustrious pedigree with a breakthrough top-level success by a diminishing margin from Rosallion, with The Lion In Winter showing glimpses of his two-year-old form in third.

The winner is the first foal out of Wasmya, who won the Coolmore Cup at Baden-Baden for Al Shaqab, and is a half-sister to the Group 2 -placed Wahdan by Siyouni and Talbah, a Group 3-placed daughter of Style Vendome.

Wootton BassettCredit: Zuzanna LUPA

Wasmya is a homebred for Al Shaqab, who purchased her dam Lamorlaye for €200,000 at the end of her three-year-old career from Monceaux at the 2013 Arqana December Sale.

Lamorlaye is a winning daughter of Danehill Dancer and her dam, Love To Dance, was third in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes at the Curragh and is a Sadler's Wells half-sister to the Classic, dual Irish Champion Stakes and Arc hero Dylan Thomas, who is a son of Danehill.

Another of Lamorlaye's half-siblings is the European champion-two-year-old Queen's Logic, dam of the Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Queen Kindly and granddam of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner and young sire Big Evs.

Love To Dance is also a half-sister to 1,000 Guineas heroine Homecoming Queen, who is the dam of Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Shale. Another of her half-siblings is Remember When and she in turn produced Derby winner Serpentine.

Wasmya has a two-year-old filly by Mehmas named Demah who is in training with Graffard, a yearling colt by Starspangledbanner and foaled a brother to Demah this year.

With Sunday's victory, Sahlan becomes the sixth Group 1 winner from the first crop sired by Wootton Bassett following his purchase by Coolmore. The cohort is made up of French Classic winners and juvenile Group 1 victors Henri Matisse, who was fifth in the Prix du Moulin, and Camille Pissarro and the dual Group 1 winner and Oaks runner-up Whirl. The group is completed by Tennessee Stud and Twain, who were both successful at the highest level as two-year-olds.

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