Wuheida represents branch of famous Group 1 family

WUHEIDA (GB) - 2014 chestnut filly

Juvenile maidens at the best tracks are contests to which we often look in our search for potential top-class performers, and the seven-furlong fillies' maiden at Newmarket on 26th August has been attracting a lot of attention.

Spatial, who had been runner-up in a similar event on her only previous start, 20 days before, was an odds-on winner, beating the newcomer Unforgetable Filly by two and a half lengths. Sobetsu was a length back in third, also making her debut, and the once-raced Flying North was another neck away in fourth.

Since then, Flying North has won over a mile at Ascot, Unforgetable Filly romped home by seven lengths at Lingfield before being short-headed in a conditions race back at Newmarket, and Sobetsu's 10-length victory over a mile, also at headquarters, was one of the most impressive by any two-year-old of 2016.

As these winners emerged, it was time to look back at Spatial's debut. Who beat her that day?

It was a Dubawi (by Dubai Millennium) debutante, that length-and-a-quarter scorer had not run since, and there would be an understandable temptation to think that this one could be a potential star, given the collateral form that followed.

Often it does not work out that way, but now that chestnut has had her second start, and with the way that Wuheida beat Promise To Be True, Dabyah and Senga in the Group 1 Total Prix Marcel Boussac – Criterium des Pouliches over a mile at Chantilly this afternoon, she could indeed be anything. The margins were three-parts of a length, a short-neck, and another three-parts of a length, and there was an additional two-length gap back to the fifth, Group 3 scorer Cavale Doree.

Wuheida was bred by Darley, she is trained by Charlie Appleby and she carries the famous colours of Godolphin. She is a first European juvenile Group 1 scorer for her outstanding sire Dubawi (by Dubai Millennium), although not his first ever top-level two-year-old winner as was reported in some places. Summerhill Stud's new stallion Willow Magic won the Grade 1 The South African Nursery at Turffontein at that age in 2013.

Her three-year-old half-sister Lacey's Lane (by Street Cry) was a wide-margin winner of a 10 and a half furlong maiden in the French provinces in August, her dam's third foal is a Dubawi filly born in April of this year, and the mare is Hibaayeb (by Singspiel), winner of the Group 1 Fillies' Mile at Ascot and of the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Invitational Stakes over 10 furlongs at Hollywood Park.

A half-sister to the twice-raced stakes-placed Irish sprint winner May Meeting (by Diktat), Hibaayeb is out of Lady Zonda (by Lion Cavern), a dual winning half-sister to two stakes-placed horses and out of the stakes-placed Zonda (by Fabulous Dancer).

One of her winning siblings is the dam of two stakes-placed runners and grandam of the pattern-placed dual stakes winner Pelerin (by Shamardal), and one of her unraced siblings is the dam of the pattern-winning sprinter Arnold Lane (by Footstepsinthesand), but these are the highlights of the first four generations of the pedigree.

That might sound as though Wuheida and her top-class dam are the best that the family has produced but, instead, they are reviving the strength of what was a famous classic family.

Zonda was the only winner among three foals out of Oh So Hot (by Habitat), the unraced fourth dam of Wuheida, but that older mare was a full-sister to Our Home and Roussalka and a half-sister to the outstanding Oh So Sharp (by Kris).

Our Home was not a stakes winner, but she was runner-up to the tragically ill-fated Quick As Lightning in the Group 1000 Guineas at Newmarket and also placed in the Group 2 Coronation Stakes, Group 3 Child Stakes (now Falmouth Stakes), Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes and Group 3 Musidora Stakes.

Roussalka's seven wins featured the Group 2 Coronation Stakes, Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes and two editions of the Group 2 Nassau Stakes, and her descendants include the Group 1 1000 Guineas heroine Ameerat (by Mark of Esteem) and the gelding Collier Hill (by Dr Devious), winner of the Group 1 Irish St Leger, Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes and Grade 1 Hong Kong Vase.

Oh So Sharp, of course, won the Fillies' Triple Crown in England 1985 – the 1000 Guineas, Oaks and St Leger – a treble that had not been achieved since Meld 30 years before.

She won the Solario Stakes and the Group 3 Fillies' Mile at two, lost her unbeaten record when going down by a neck to Petoski in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, and was also a runner-up to Commanche Run in the Group 1 Benson & Hedges Gold Cup (now Juddmonte International Stakes) at York.

Oh So Sharp, who Timeform rated 131, became the dam of the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Rosefinch (by Blushing Groom) and of Grade 2 Long Island Handicap scorer Shaima (by Shareef Dancer), and the latter is the dam of the Group 1 St Leger and Group 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club e Coppa d'Oro star Shantou (by Alleged).

These celebrities are distantly related to leading Guineas and Oaks contender Wuheida, but this rising star, the daughter of multiple Group 1 winners Dubawi and Hibaayeb, is bred to achieve anything, and it will be disappointing if today's win remains her only one at the highest level.