Super 24 hours for Invincible Spirit as sons complete Group 1 double

For a long way up the home straight in the Criterium International at Chantilly on Sunday, it looked as though Hermosa would raise her dam Beauty Is Truth to new heights by becoming the Pivotal mare's third Group 1 winner.

But then the Invincible Spirit colt Royal Meeting cut into her lead and went on to win by the best part of a length, becoming his sire's second juvenile Group 1 winner of the weekend after Magna Grecia's heroics in the Vertem Futurity at Doncaster on Sunday.

The only other sire to notch up two juvenile Group 1 winners in Europe this season is Dubawi with Quorto and Too Darn Hot.

Father-and-son teams have also made their presence felt this season with Oasis Dream and Showcasing getting on the scoresheet early in the year with Pretty Pollyanna and Advertise, and Scat Daddy and No Nay Never responsible for Skitter Scatter and Ten Sovereigns.

Royal Meeting joins some illustrious names on the Criterium International roll of honour including this year's Dubai World Cup hero Thunder Snow (2016), as well as Ectot (2013), French Fifteen (2011) and Roderic O'Connor (2010), all of whom found a place at stud.

Hailing from a family closely associated with the Maktoums, the Godolphin homebred is a half-brother to Heavy Metal, a son of Exceed And Excel who won three Group races in Meydan last spring.

Showing the same level of juvenile ability as his half-brother, Heavy Metal finished second to Blaine in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes when trained by Mark Johnston.

The pair are out of Rock Opera, a juvenile Group 1-winning sprinter in South Africa, who in turn is out of the unraced Drummer Girl, a mare inbred 3x3 to the influential Nashua broodmare Bramalea through her sons Roberto and Molineaux.

Royal Meeting - who is the 18th top-flight winner for Invincible Spirit - looks an exciting prospect for next year's Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas, for which he holds an entry.

Juvenile Group 1 winners in Europe in 2018

Phoenix Stakes Advertise Showcasing

Prix Morny Pretty Pollyanna Oasis Dream

National Stakes Quorto Dubawi

Moyglare Stud Stakes Skitter Scatter Scat Daddy

Middle Park Stakes Ten Sovereigns No Nay Never

Cheveley Park Stakes Fairyland Kodiac

Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere Royal Marine Raven's Pass

Prix Marcel Boussac Lily's Candle Style Vendome

Fillies' Mile Iridessa Ruler Of The World

Dewhurst Stakes Too Darn Hot Dubawi

Criterium de Saint-Cloud Wonderment Camelot

Vertem Futurity Magna Grecia Invincible Spirit

Criterium International Royal Meeting Invincible Spirit

Earlier in the day, the admirably consistent six-year-old gelding Holdthasigreen made his Group 1 breakthrough in the Prix Royal-Oak, becoming just the second top-flight winner for Hold That Tiger.

A $1.1 million yearling purchase, Hold That Tiger was a top-class two-year-old for Aidan O'Brien in 2002 winning the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on his fourth start.

O'Brien also campaigned the son of Storm Cat in the US the following year, when he finished second to Mineshaft in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes.

Retired to Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky and later transferred to Haras de la Haie Neuve, Hold That Tiger is responsible for one other elite winner, with his US-bred son Smiling Tiger having won three Grade 1 races over less than a mile.

Hold That Tiger last stood in France in 2012.

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