Santiago's son Khan lands big punch for Highest Honor line

Santiago was on the verge of gaining real recognition when he succumbed to an incurable intestinal melanoma aged just 14 in December 2016. Any breeder will attest that this is a business of peaks and troughs and those associated with the German stallion experienced extremes of both during the autumn of 2016.

It had been announced only weeks before his death that Santiago, the German 2,000 Guineas winner of 2005, was to move from Gestut Graditz to Gestut Martinushof in the hope of capitalising on an upsurge in interest. His first small crop had contained Chopin, whose runaway victory in the 2013 Grosser Ehrmann Cup-Dr Busch-Memorial at Krefeld prompted Qatar Racing not only to purchase the colt but supplement him for that year’s Derby at Epsom.

Chopin went on to land the HH The Emir’s Trophy at Doha in 2017 under different ownership, by which time another promising representative had emerged in Fashion Queen, a two-year-old Listed winner at Hanover.