PLACE DE L'OPERA (GB)
13-y-o (February 1993)
b m Sadler's Wells (USA) - Madame Dubois (Legend Of Life)

It is 19 years since Louis Freedman's Cliveden Stud enjoyed its finest hour when the home-bred Reference Point, in the hands of Steve Cauthen, landed a famous Derby success at Epsom and caused great celebration at the Buckinghamshire nursery where he was born and raised.

Freedman, who died in 1998, also bought Beech House Stud in Newmarket from Lady Sassoon in 1971 but - despite selling it four years later - maintained the bloodlines he acquired, and it is Place de l'Opera, a relative of Bally's Mill, a mare dating back to that purchase, who is proving the current jewel in the Cliveden broodmare band.

The impact of Bally's Mill, a daughter of Ballymoss who was trained for Lady Sassoon by Noel Murless, has long been felt at Cliveden. Her daughter Milly Moss won the 1973 Cheshire Oaks for Freedman and went on to be fourth at Epsom before producing nine winners at stud.

Among those was Shadywood, the 1985 Lancashire Oaks second, who is the grand-dam of Richmond and Champagne Stakes winner Daggers Drawn and dam of 1990 Park Hill Stakes heroine Madame Dubois, herself a broodmare of some note.

Irish 2000 Guineas hero Indian Haven, Group One-winning two-year-old Count Dubois, now a successful stallion in South Africa, and Place de l'Opera herself count among Madame Dubois's best winners.

Cecil connection

Place de l'Opera was trained by Henry Cecil to win twice as a three-year-old, including when taking a Leicester conditions event by seven lengths, before adding further black type to a family already rich with Pattern performers when finishing third in the Listed Aphrodite Stakes at Newmarket.

Her first foal, by Indian Ridge, made a modest 38,000gns as a yearling when bought by Leonidas Marinopoulous but - named High Pitched - followed many of his ancestors to Warren Place in Newmarket and won the Group Three St Simon Stakes.

David Barron's smart handicapper Zero Tolerance, by Nashwan, has carried on the good family record, but it is two performers whose best is almost certainly ahead of them this year who look like adding most to Place de l'Opera's record.

Royal Ascot winner

Imperial Stride, a full-brother to High Pitched, topped Tattersalls' 2002 October Yearling Sale when bought for 375,000gns by Charlie Gordon-Watson for his client Saeed Suhail. Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, he won his first two juvenile starts before finishing sixth in the Dewhurst Stakes but failed to trouble the judge as a three-year-old.

Last season began on an inauspicious note, when he came home tenth in a handicap at York, but, returning to the Knavesmire for Royal Ascot, he bounced back to form with a vengeance when defying odds of 25-1 in the Listed Wolferton Handicap.

A Listed and Group Three victory at Newmarket and a Group Two Scottish Classic win at Ayr were to follow before Imperial Stride was bought by Godolphin. He underwent ankle surgery in Dubai, but many shrewd form followers believe there could be much better to come this year.

Meanwhile, Place de l'Opera's three-year-old Hala Bek, a son of Halling who made 130,000gns as a yearling, was such an impressive winner of a Newbury maiden in April that trainer Michael Jarvis would not rule out a bid to land a second Epsom Derby victory for the Freedman family's longstanding breeding operation.