Penny has certainly dropped for Kheleyf juvenile

Kheleyf may have made a big splash with his first-crop runners, with 31 individual winners but, as a son of Green Desert, whose stallion sons regularly feature prominently in the freshman sires’ list, that should have come as no surprise.

Those talented two-year-olds of 2008 included his first ever winner Percolator, who won the Listed Prix La Flèche and G3 Prix du Bois in a string of four juvenile successes, and also went on to finish runner-up in the G2 Prix Robert Papin. Group performers Sayif and Playfellow also hailed from the same crop and their promising early starts saw many mares booked back to Kheleyf in 2009, with the resultant offspring from those matings hitting the track this season.

One who has been particularly fast out of the blocks is the French-trained Penny’s Picnic, who won as early as 27 March on debut at Saint-Cloud and has subsequently scored again at Chantilly on April 30.

The first foal of the Kingmambo mare Zerky from the further family of the highly talented Mrs Penny, who won the Prix de Diane and Prix Vermeille following her Cheveley Park Stakes victory at two, Penny’s Picnic is co-owned by Thierry Delegue.

He says: “We are delighted with this colt and we hope he will confirm his two successes. He doesn't seem like a two-year-old but rather more like a three-year-old. He is very strong both physically and mentally, and always quiet and relaxed.”

The delighted owner hopes that Penny’s Picnic will follow a similar route to Percolator, with his intended targets being the Prix La Flèche on June 8 and then the Prix Robert Papin on 22 July.

He adds: “He’s very easy to train and to ride he is able to run in front of the others or to wait behind with a good turn of foot in the last furlong. His jockey, Thierry Jarnet, and his trainer, Didier Guillemin, feel that he is not only precocious but a really classy horse.

“On the breeding side Penny's Picnic is the result of the successful mating between Green Desert blood and Kingmambo blood, like the good 2011 performer Family One (by Dubai Destination from a Desert Style mare), winner of the Prix du Bois, Prix Robert Papin and second in the G1 Darley Prix Morny. We hope for such results with Penny’s Picnic!”

Kheleyf has another promising juvenile this year in the form of first-time-out winner Tennessee Wildcat, whose victory at Dundalk on May 4 earned him a Timeform rating of 88p. The Ger Lyons-trained colt holds an entry at Naas on May 16.

Among the sire’s other good performers already in 2012 are the dual Meydan winner Addictive Dream, who is rated 117 by Timeform and is entered for the G3 Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh later this month along with his paternal half-brother Waffle, while three-year-old filly Heartsong, has recorded her two victories this year with a cumulative winning margin of 12 lengths and now holds a Timeform mark of 90.