The first foal of the French-bred Treve, twice winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, was born on February 1 and served to highlight the saturation of the Northern Dancer and Mr Prospector cross which exists in the modern thoroughbred.

The foal is by Dubawi, champion sire of France in 2015 and record holder for the quickest to ever reach 50 Group winners. Dubawi also has more Group winners at present than any other sire at the same stage of their careers. He has 26 Gr 1 winners to date and is the flagship stallion of Darley, the worldwide stallion operation of Sheik Mohammed, Ruler Of Dubai.

Treve’s first foal has two lines of Mr Prospector mixed in with six lines of Northern Dancer. She stunned the racing world in 2013 by scooting to a five length victory in the Arc at odds of 9/2, annihilating the 2/1 favourite Orfevre. She had an interrupted 2014 season and went into the Arc as an 11/1 shot on the back of three losses in succession. However, she romped to an easy two length victory.

Ironically, she was an even money favourite to make it three-in-a-row in 2015, but could only manage fourth. Treve, trained by Criquette Head-Maarek, won nine races in 13 starts and six of those wins were Gr 1s. She is owned by Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani (Al Shaqab Racing) of Qatar. Her first foal was born at Sheik Joaan’s Haras de Bouquetot at midday last Wednesday.

Meanwhile in the USA the brilliant racehorse but luckless broodmare Zenyatta is due to foal down to Medaglia D’oro soon. Zenyatta won her first 19 starts, including 13 Gr 1s, but was beaten in her 20^th and final start in the Breeders Cup Classic, although she only just failed in that race and was most unlucky.

As a broodmare her two runners to date are yet to win in a combined total of six starts. Her other two foals tragically had to be euthanized. The foal by Medaglia D’Oro out of Zenyatta will be 4×4 to the Northern Dancer and Mr Prospector cross.

Meanwhile, Rachel Alexander, who ousted Zenyatta as Eclipse Horse Of The Year in 2009, was not covered in any of the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons due to complications in the birth of her last foal.

However, her two foals to date have both won. The second of them, Rachel’s Valentina by Bernadini, was a Gr 1 winner and finished second in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Rachel Alexandra’s first foal was a colt, Jess’s Dream, and his impressive debut win proved to be his only start. He is now a sire. Rachel Alexandra was by Medaglia D’Oro. There is, of course, a long list of great race mares who have not made it at stud.

However, South Africa are fortunate to have the blood of one of the North American greats who did succeed at stud too.

Glorious Song, a Canadian-bred daughter of Halo, won four Gr 1s and at stud produced three notable racehorses-turned-sire, Rahy, Singspiel and Rakeen.

Rakeen was imported to South Africa and won a Gr 2 and a Gr 3 as well as finishing third in the Durban July. At stud he sired Jet Master, five-time Gr 1 winner and twice Horse Of The Year, before becoming the greatest SA-bred stallion in history, winning the national sires title seven times.

However, Glorious Song is in stark contrast to Jet Master’s own dam, Jet Lightning, who only won two races and whose ten foals yielded only one stakes winner.

By David Thiselton