Zamindar's Air Pilot descends from Timeform 129 star

AIR PILOT (GB) - 2009 bay gelding

Juvenile champion and impressive Group 1 2000 Guineas star Zafonic (by Gone West) compiled a good record at stud and he has several sons getting stakes and pattern winners, including at Group 1 level – most notably international classic sire Iffraaj.

His Group 3-winning full-brother Zamindar also got a chance at stud, and although he is without a sire son to carry on his line, he did some up with with Group 1-winning daughters.

One of those is Zenda, the classic-winning dam of brilliant miler and popular young Banstead Manor Stud stallion Kingman (by Invincible Spirit), but his standout performer was the undefeated Arc and classic heroine Zarkava, and she is the dam of the classic-placed pattern winner Zarak (by Dubawi).

Zamindar's sons of note include the prolific Air Pilot, and Lady Cobham's homebred is now a triple Group 3 scorer following his narrow defeat of Success Days in the Dr Vincent O'Brien Centenary Alleged Stakes at Naas eight days ago.

He got up on the line to score by a head from the talented grey and had the classic-placed US Army Ranger three and a quarter lengths farther back in third, with Stellar Mass also performing below expectations in fourth.

All four of his blacktype victories have come over 10 furlongs, two of them on good ground, last week's one on was on yielding, and last summer he beat subsequent Group 1 scorer Elliptique by two lengths in the Group 3 La Coupe on soft at Chantilly. The 113-rated gelding is trained by Ralph Beckett and his career earnings stand at just over £260,000.

Air Pilot is the best of several winners out of one-time scorer Countess Sybil (by Dr Devious), a mare whose string of successful siblings includes Mint Crisp (by Green Desert). That five-time winner stayed a little farther than most by her famous sire, getting her top win in the Group 3 Grand Prix de Vichy over 10 furlongs.

The best of her offspring, however, was the Undeterred (by Zafonic), whose 11 wins included the Listed Rockingham Stakes over six furlongs. In fact, nine of his wins came over that trip and, although his form deteriorated, he stepped up in trip later in his career and was successful over eight and a half furlongs at Wolverhampton and in an 11 and a half-furlong handicap at Windsor, both at the age of 10.

Group 3 Park Stakes heroine Countess Candy (by Great Nephew) is the grandam of Air Pilot, she was a half-sister to listed scorer and Group 3 Princess Royal Stakes third Countess Tully (by Hotfoot) and also to Intimidate (by Formidable), who was runner-up in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes and Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes as a juvenile and third to Prince Of Birds in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas the following spring.

Countess Tully went on to produce six winners at stud, most notably Russian Countess (by Nureyev), the stakes-placed dam of the Group 1-placed stakes winners Alboostan (by Sabrehill) and Crown Of Light (by Mtoto). The Group 1s in which the latter was placed were the Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks.

Russian Countess is also the grandam of multiple Group 2-placed stayer, dual listed scorer and prolific gelding Balkan Knight (by Selkirk) and of Charlie Farnsbarns (by Cape Cross), the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy runner-up whose five wins included the Group 3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket.

Countess Tully, on the other hand, is also the grandam of Orange Sunset (by Roanoake), who won the Listed Victor McCalmont Memorial Stakes at Gowran Park before going on to become a Grade 2-placed stakes winner across the Atlantic.

Zepha, a three-time winning full-sister to Countess Tully, also did her part for the family as her descendants include the speedy pattern-placed Irish stakes winners Sunset Reigns (by Taufan) and Irish Jig (by Celtic Swing).

If you go back farther then you find that the fifth dam of Air Pilot is Kandy Sauce (by Hard Sauce), the Queen Anne Stakes and Atalanta Stakes heroine of 1956, a three-year-old campaign for which Timeform rated her 129.