Art Deco (IRE)

3 ch c Peintre Celebre (USA) - Sometime (IRE) (Royal Academy)

Owner: Evelyn Hankinson
Trainer: Charles Egerton
Breeder: Charles H Wacker III

During five months in 1997, Alidiva achieved something no broodmare had previously managed in over quarter of a century of the European Pattern.

That May, her then three-year-old daughter Sleepytime registered a Classic success in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket; in the July her year-older son Ali-Royal landed the Group One Sussex Stakes at Goodwood; while two months later her first foal, five-year-old Taipan, took the Group One Europa Preis at Cologne.

Alidiva's first three foals had - uniquely at the time - won events at racing's highest level.

International success

Owned by veteran American owner Charlie Wacker - whose horses race under the name of Greenbay Stables - the Listed-winning mare is a grand-daughter of Shore, whom Wacker purchased as a two-year-old from Claiborne Farm owner Bull Hancock in the States in 1966.

And Alidiva's story of success is far from finished. Her four-year-old daughter Oonagh Maccool, winner of both her British starts when trained by Marcus Tregoning, won the Grade Two Louisville Breeders' Cup Handicap at Churchill Downs for trainer Todd Pletcher on 5 May and a step up in class to the top echelon looks the logical next move.

Meanwhile, Alidiva's ten-year-old daughter Sometime, who failed to make the racecourse herself, is proving a real hit in the breeding shed. Her first foal Manyanna, a 65,000gns yearling by Alzao, gained black type when winning the 2004 Listed Predominate Stakes for Godolphin, while this year she has another impressive Derby trial winner in Art Deco.

Dee for Deco

The last-named, a Peintre Celebre colt bought for 140,000gns as a yearling by Charles Egerton for owners Derek and Evelyn Hankinson, won a Sandown maiden as a juvenile last year and there could be still better to come after he held off the fast-finishing Ivy Creek to secure the Group Three Cheshire Regiment Dee Stakes at Chester on 12 May, with a tilt at the Vodafone Derby as his possible next assignment.

A good showing at Epsom would do no harm to the record of Art Deco's sire. The Wildenstein home-bred Peintre Celebre, who carried all before him in 1997 when winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and French Derby, made no more than a steady start to his stud career, but is now building an increasingly credible record.

Breeze-up highlight

Dai Jin, winner of the 2003 German Derby, Group One-winning juvenile Pearl Of Love, Vallee Enchantee, who won the Hong Kong Vase, and Castledale, a dual Grade One winner in the US, have all scored for him at the highest level, while Pride, a half-sister to the dam of 1000 Guineas winner Speciosa, is a multiple Group Two winner who looks certain to show her sire in a good light this year.

Furthermore, Sometime could have another high-class son running in the next couple of seasons. The mare's Galileo two-year-old colt was sold for no less than 390,000gns at Tattersalls' Breeze-Up Sale in Newmarket in April when bought by Ger Lyons for Galway-based owner Stephen Harris's Glenview House Stud.