Tarana continues good run for Cape Cross with stylish Stakes win

Cape Cross sired three Black type performers at the weekend, with Windhoek’s victory in the Anatolia Trophy (a local G2 contest) coming just hours after Balty Boy finished second in the G3 Superior Mile on Saturday, while Theme Astral ran a creditable third in the G3 Prix de Lutece at Longchamp yesterday.

On 8 September, his four-year-old daughter Tarana continued her sire's purple patch when sweeping down the Galway straight to take the Listed Oyster Stakes. John Oxx’s charge was settled off the early pace under Declan McDonagh and coming with a run as the field turned for home, quickened impressively to soon take the lead and was never troubled from then on, winning the 12-furlong contest by two and a quarter lengths.

Owned and bred by HH The Aga Khan, Tarana is out of the Stakes-winning and Group-placed Dr Fong mare Tarakala.

Kildangan Stud stalwart Cape Cross, sire of nine G1 winners to date, is also grandsire of this year’s Oaks winner and broodmare sire of Derby winner Australia. He has sired 22 individual Black type performers so far in 2014.