Virtue has become its own reward for Juddmonte

Lost Virtue wasn't the most obvious candidate to create an important Juddmonte family when she came on the market, in foal to Topsider, in 1986. She was unraced, by a nondescript sire in Cloudy Dawn, and ten years old.

But she had produced two smart horses, American Listed winner Full Virtue and French Group 3 winner Over The Ocean, to a pair of average stallions in Full Out and Super Concorde. Offered at the Keeneland November Sale, a few months after Over The Ocean had run second in the Prix d'Harcourt, Lost Virtue was bought for Prince Khalid Abdullah's breeding empire - freshly gilded by Dancing Brave's Arc - for $375,000. While quite an advance on her previous price tag of $37,000, realised six years before, it was not a terrific amount for a mare whose influence burned brighter than ever in New York last weekend.

Lost Virtue's second living foal for her new owners was the Riverman filly All At Sea, who went from a Wolverhampton maiden to winning the Prix Jacques le Marois within a year for Sir Henry Cecil. Two years later she foaled Quandary, a Listed winner by Blushing Groom now regarded as an important mare in her own right. The Topsider colt she was carrying at the time of her purchase, Doubtful Motive, is also worthy of mention as a 14-time winner in a career that spanned 126 starts.