Caravaggio could prove to be pure gold

Flash in the pan, or cue for a new genetic gold rush? That’s a question some of us were asking after North American bloodlines appeared to make a renewed impression on the European scene last year.

From Caravaggio, Lady Aurelia and Tepin at Royal Ascot, to a regiment of War Front juveniles at Ballydoyle, to Godolphin’s Hawkbill and Boynton: in all, there were 17 individual Group winners in Britain and Ireland bearing a USA suffix – up from 12 the previous year.

As ever with thoroughbreds, we must guard against hasty extrapolations. If this happens to represent the beginning of a trend, then it would actually be in reaction to a decline. Go back to 2006, for instance, and you can tot up 25 American-bred Group winners in Britain and Ireland.