Worthadd looking for the wow factor

Not many people will have expected Worthadd to get a sale-topper from a first crop of just 19 foals, conceived at a fee of €6,000, but that is what happened at the Tattersalls Ireland Ascot Breeze-Up Sale last month. There will be corresponding interest, then, in the debut of Bustam - as he has since been named - at Ayr on Wednesday.

Bought for £130,000 by Peter and Ross Doyle, on behalf of Al Shaqab Racing, the colt has since been under the care of John Quinn - who also supervised the career of The Wow Signal, the sale's outstanding past graduate as winner of both the Coventry Stakes and Prix Morny three years ago.

At the time, Ross Doyle said: "He's a fantastic physical, a big strong horse who's probably not your typical breeze-up hose. But he looks like the type who has a future. I've seen a handful of Worthadds at the sales and he's the best by a mile."

Bustam was bred by Lady O'Reilly's Skymarc Farm out of the winning Dansili mare Malayan Mist. She in turn is a half-sister to Inara, a multiple Group 1 winner in South Africa, and the dam of triple Canadian International scorer Joshua Tree.

Worthadd, bred by Compagnia Generale, was trained for most of his career by Vittorio Caruso in Italy where he won the Premio Parioli and Derby Italiano (the Italian 2,000 Guineas and Derby). He became the first son of Dubawi to stand in Ireland when retired to the Irish National Stud in 2014.