Remember the name Maglietta Fina – she could be Europe's next blue hen mare

Could this be Europe's next celebrated blue hen mare?

The first three foals out of Maglietta Fina, an 11-year-old daughter of Verglas, have all won in July – and two of them have struck in Group races.

Speak In Colours, a five-year-old son of Excelebration and the mare's debut offspring, has notched victories in the Greenlands Stakes and Ballycorus Stakes on his last two starts for Joseph O'Brien.

His four-year-old half-sister Lady Bowthorpe, by Nathaniel, justified her trainer William Jarvis's high opinion of her with a wide-margin score in the Valiant Fillies' Stakes at Ascot on Sunday, while their three-year-old half-sister Pretty In Grey, a Brazen Beau filly, made it four wins on the bounce for Marco Botti in a competitive handicap at Newmarket on Saturday.

What makes Maglietta Fina's achievements all the more admirable is the fact that all of her first three progeny are by mid-range rather than the most expensive members of the stallion ranks. Speak In Colours was conceived at a cost of €20,000; Lady Bowthorpe, £20,000; Pretty In Grey, £10,000.

Speak In Colours: won both his last starts in Group company for Joseph O'BrienCredit: Patrick McCann

The grey mare's two-year-old filly by Mayson, the result of a £6,000 mating, was a commercial triumph as she was a 100,000gns purchase by John Foote at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale before her export to Australia.

Maglietta Fina is owned by Paolo and Emma Agostini's Scuderia Archi Romani, who bred and raced the mare.

Originally a multiple winner in Italy, at four she joined Robert Cowell, for whom she won a Class 4 handicap at Bath – achieving a decent peak Racing Post Rating of 90 in the process.

She is a half-sister to Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds' durable multiple Group winner and Lockinge runner-up Tullius, a son of Scuderia Archi Romani's homebred Italian Group 1 winner Le Vie Dei Colori.

Maglietta Fina and Tullius are in turn out of Whipped Queen, a winning Kingmambo half-sister to Prix Jean Prat third Monsagem.

The mare's pedigree is free of the usually ubiquitous pair Sadler's Wells and Danzig, which makes her easy to mate and even hotter property.

Pretty In Grey (left): daughter of Brazen Beau and Maglietta Fina scores at NewmarketCredit: Mark Cranham

She is boarded at Sara Cumani's Fittocks Stud in Newmarket. Cumani said: “What Maglietta Fina has done is rather amazing, she's surprised everybody.

“She's a little on the small side and is very sweet – you wouldn't even know she was there.

“The curious thing is that her sprinting foals – Speak In Colours, Pretty In Grey and her Mayson yearling – have been grey and were very similar to each other, but Lady Bowthorpe, who stays a mile, is bay.

“Sadly the mare produced no foal this year but she is now in foal to Holy Roman Emperor and she has a very nice Muhaarar yearling colt scheduled to sell in Book 1.”

The Agostinis are likely to be inundated with offers for Maglietta Fina, whose name is taken from the opening lyrics of 'Questo Piccolo Grande Amore', one of the most famous songs by Italian superstar singer Claudio Baglioni – Emma's brother-in-law.

The fact that the mare is proving a smash hit at stud is unlikely to have escaped the attentions of the biggest breeding operations.

Read more...

Goresbridge wild card provides latest smart pinhook for Ger and Yvonne Kennedy

First-season sire Coulsty comes up with Ascot Group 3 winner Santosha

Golden Horn's 3,100,000gns half-brother Dhahabi makes a winning debut