Frankel's champion Soul Stirring a potential classic star

SOUL STIRRING (JPN) - 2014 bay/brown filly

Frankel was one of the greatest racehorses of all times and when his daughter Soul Stirring won the Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies over a mile in Japan in December, the Timeform 147-rated superstar and Banstead Manor Stud stallion became yet another son of Galileo (by Sadler's Wells) to sire a top-level winner on the flat.

A total of nine Galileo sons are on that list, so far, and there is a high degree of probability that, in 2017, Frankel will join New Approach and Teofilo on the more select list of Galileo stallions who have been represented by at least one northern hemisphere Group 1 classic star.

He had six pattern-winning juveniles in his first crop - the others were Fair Eva, Frankuus, Mi Suerte, Queen Kindly, and Toulifaut - a string of promising maiden winners and, no doubt, plenty more high-class prospects still to emerge from that initial batch.

Some have looked like being sprinters, others like milers and/or middle-distance horses, and the latter include the aforementioned Soul Stirring. She extended her unbeaten record to four with an odds-on success in the Group 3 Tulip Sho over a mile at Hanshin today and so she remains the top candidate for the Group 1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) over the same course and distance next month.

Her sire was never tried beyond 10 and a half furlongs, her dam's string of top wins includes the Prix Vermeille over 12 at Longchamp, and this also makes the Kazuo Fujisawa-trained star a prime prospect for the Group 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) over a mile and a half at Tokyo in May.

Soul Stirring is a daughter of the French champion Stacelita (by Monsun) who, in addition to the Vermeille, won the Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks), Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary, Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet, Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes, and Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes.

Her pattern-placed, juvenile stakes-winning dam Soignee (by Dashing Blade) is one of four blacktype scorers out of Suivez, who was a dual stakes-placed German winner from the tiny sole crop of Fioravanti (by Northern Dancer), a $2.3 million yearling and juvenile Phoenix Park listed scorer that Timeform rated 115p at two.

Soignee's half-brother Simoun (by Monsun) won the Group 2 Hansa-Preis and Group 2 Grosser Mercedes-Benz Preis, and he could be described as being a three-parts brother to Stacelita. Their half-brother Shining (by Sutumu) won 10 times, including a listed contest in Germany, and the fourth of the high-class siblings is Soudaine (by Monsun), a German listed scorer who has become a notable broodmare.

Her dual stakes-winning son Sussudio (by Nayef) has won seven times in France and Savoir Vivre (by Adlerflug) was among the leading classic-age colts of 2016 when he won the Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville and took the runners-up spot to Isfahan in the Group 1 Deutsches Derby at Hamburg in July, beaten by just a head in heavy ground.

Several of Suivez's daughters have also been blacktype producers at stud, notably the unraced Suisun (by Monsun). She is the dam of Secessio (by Konigstiger), who has won listed races in Germany and Australia, and of Silvaner (by Lomitas), the dual Group 3 scorer who finished third to Earl Of Tinsdal in the Group 1 Rheinland-Pokal six years ago.

Fioravanti's single-digit foal count also included the speedy Group 3 and dual listed-winning filly Wixon, but it is Suivez's descendants who represent his legacy.

If you go farther back into the family then you will find Group/Grade 1 standouts such as Steinlen (by Habitat), Zagreb (by Theatrical), and Sagace (by Luthier) in its branches, although their connection to Japan's leading three-year-old filly is remote.

As for Soul Stirring, this dark bay filly has the potential to win two classics in 2017, and if she does fulfil that promise then it would be exciting to see Shadai Farm's homebred daughter of Frankel have a go at one or more of the best races in Europe and/or the USA.