'The family has yielded all sorts of talented horses in different disciplines'

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It’s uncanny how some pedigrees seem to suddenly burst into life.

The Royal Studs family from which Saturday's deeply impressive Finesse Juvenile Hurdle winner Pied Piper hails is a case in point. It has yielded all sorts of talented horses in different disciplines the world over in the last few years.

The son of New Approach, purchased by Joey Logan from the Queen for 225,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale after compiling some smart form for John and Thady Gosden, is the first foal of Pure Fantasy, a dual ten-furlong winner by Fastnet Rock.

The dam was sent to New Approach in her second season at stud, too, and that repeat mating certainly seems to have been a shrewd choice, as the resultant produce is the three-year-old filly Fresh Fancy, who carried the royal silks to victory in a Kempton maiden last September, her sole start to date.

Pure Fantasy is out of the Grade 3-winning Machiavellian mare Fictitious, who bred five other winners including two smart Danehill Dancer offspring in Quadrille, who came within a short head of giving the Queen a winner at Royal Ascot when second in the Hampton Court Stakes, and Free Verse, who has no black type but a peak Racing Post Rating of 102 for her high-class efforts in handicap company. Two of Free Verse’s progeny won last year – Bookmark, another by New Approach, and Frontispiece, by Shamardal.

Fictitious was meanwhile out of Trying For Gold, by Northern Baby out of Ribblesdale Stakes winner Expansive. Trying For Gold produced six winners including Phantom Gold, a full-sister to Fictitious who also won the Ribblesdale and is responsible for much of the family’s blitz of black type in recent seasons.

She produced nine winners, the best of whom was the dual Listed scorer Golden Stream (by Sadler’s Wells), who in turn is the dam of last season’s Solario Stakes winner Reach For The Moon and Noel Murless Stakes second Chalk Stream, both by Sea The Stars. Golden Stream is also, via her unraced daughter Thames Pageant, the granddam of recently crowned Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Twilight Gleaming.

Flight Of Fancy, the Queen’s Oaks runner-up by Sadler’s Wells out of Phantom Gold, produced Winter Hill Stakes winner Fabricate and is granddam of Listed scorer Momentary, and her influence is deepening with Momentary’s son Wink Of An Eye taking four handicaps in a row last season, culminating in success at Glorious Goodwood.

Hypoteneuse, a full-sister to Flight Of Fancy, is the dam of Sextant (by Sea The Stars, so bred on the same cross as his close relations Reach For The Moon and Chalk Stream), a regular feature in good middle-distance contests last year, and Maths Prize, a son of Royal Applause renamed Kungfumaster Panda and still running with credit in Happy Valley handicaps.

Daring Aim, a winning daughter of Daylami and Phantom Gold, produced the smart pair Bold Sniper and Daphne, as well as the winner Queen’s Prize, whose first three foals – Award Scheme, Tynwald and West Newton – have all won and run to a decent level in recent seasons.

Yet another winning daughter of Phantom Gold, the Oasis Dream mare Silver Mirage, is the dam of Silver Screen, a three-year-old daughter of Lope De Vega who holds promise for this year, having won a Wolverhampton novice stakes on her last start for Clive Cox, as well as a horse who has already brought Pied Piper’s trainer Gordon Elliott significant success.

Realist, a four-year-old by Camelot out of Silver Mirage, was bought by Elliott with Aidan O’Ryan for just 36,000gns at last year’s Tattersalls July Sale and was subsequently sent across the Atlantic to win the Gladstone Hurdle at Far Hills and resold to American owner Ben Griswold, presumably for a tidy profit.

Pied Piper and Realist are far from the only talented jumpers to emerge from this remarkably multi-faceted family, as Scottish Champion Hurdle winner Border Castle was out of Tempting Prospect, a Listed-placed half-sister to Phantom Gold and Fictitious, and useful handicap hurdler Aladdins Cave was out of Flight Of Fancy.

In fact, Pied Piper isn't even the first jumper from this family to notch black type in the early days of 2021, as Scipion – a son of Shantou out of a Montjeu half-sister to Border Castle – finished a close third to Stag Horn in the Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick one week before our hero's Cheltenham exploits.

Furthermore, if Pure Fantasy were to eventually produce winners at both the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot – which doesn’t seem entirely implausible on the evidence of her first two offspring Pied Piper and Fresh Fancy, with fillies by Australia and Le Havre still to come – she wouldn’t be the first of the Queen’s mares from this family to do so.

She and Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Film Script, the dam of Chesham Stakes winner Free Agent and Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup scorer Domesday Book, are descended from Amicable, a 1960-foaled daughter of Doutelle who carried the royals silks to victory in the Nell Gwyn Stakes and Lingfield Oaks Trial.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

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Pedigree pick

Spring Meadow, a son of Fame And Glory trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies for co-owners Dai Walters and James and Jean Potter, has breeding that makes him stand out from his fellow newcomers in Tuesday’s Ffos Las bumper (4.20).

The five-year-old is a half-brother to Vienna Court, who won the New Year’s Day Handicap Chase at Cheltenham last month and was a fair second in a Listed event at Huntingdon last Friday.

The siblings were bred by Colman O’Flynn jnr out of the Presenting mare Gales Present, who in turn is out of a half-sister to the O’Flynn family’s masterpiece Denman.

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Martin Stevens, a doyen among bloodstock journalists, provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday