DALAKHANI sired yet another Group 1 winner out of a daughter of Sadler’s Wells when Second Step moved up in class on Sunday to land the 125th Grosser Preis von Berlin. The Luca Cumani-trained four-year-old gelding is owned and was bred by Merry Fox Stud and the owners twice catalogued him for sale, but withdrew him on both occasions.

He was first catalogued as a yearling but did not make his date with the auctioneers. Last October he was included in the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale but a couple of weeks before he was due under the hammer he won a listed race at the Curragh. He has continued to improve this year and won and was runner-up (to Big Orange) in Group 2 races before his big win at the weekend. Among those he beat on Sunday was this year’s German Derby winner Nutan. Second Step’s dame My Dark Rosaleen is the dam of two winners with her first two foals and she is a placed full-sister to Silk And Scarlet who won the Group 2 Robert H Griffin Debutante Stakes at the Curragh and has quickly become an elite broodmare, being the dam already of three Group 1 winners; Eishin Apollon in Japan, Master Of Hounds in Dubai and Minorette, winner in 2014 of the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes. Merry Fox Stud is owned by Craig Bennett and is based in Cheshire. Last year they won the Moyglare Stud Stakes with Cursory Glance and bred the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner Charming Thought.

Dalakhani commanded a fee of €17,000 for this season at Gilltown Stud and it was announced yesterday that he will move to Haras de Bonneval in 2016. He has eight crops aged three years or more and Second Step is his eighth Group 1 winner. The previous winners at this level out of Sadler’s Wells mares were the dual Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit, Reliable Man who was a winner at this level in both hemispheres, and the Pretty Polly Stakes winner Chinese White. Integral, Duncan, Seismos and Moonstone are his other Group 1 winners.