Eclair

Family 22d

1930 b. f. Ethnarch - Black Ray (Black Jester)

Eclair, the 1933 Falmouth Stakes winner, was a middle-aged mare when purchased by the Aga Khan III and Prince Aly Khan at the 1942 Newmarket July Sales. Regarded by handicapper Phil Bull as the ‘best of her year’ when racing, Eclair was bought in foal to Hyperion and there were immediate rewards when the foal she was carrying turned out to be Khaled. The colt was an undefeated winner of the Middle Park Stakes for Frank Butters at two and ran second in the 2000 Guineas during a three-year-old campaign that was ultimately compromised by a wind problem. That infirmity failed to deter Californian horseman Rex Ellsworth, who paid $160,000 for Khaled as a stallion prospect and later bred the iconic 1950s runner Swaps by him.

Eclair’s later foals for the Aga Khan included 1950 Irish Derby and Eclipse Stakes runner-up Eclat and the Listed-placed Emali, whose granddaughter Runaway Bride foaled champion Blushing Groom. By that stage Runaway Bride had been sold; Blushing Groom joined the fold as a foal purchase and became a brilliant two-year-old and Classic-winning miler prior to becoming a champion sire in Kentucky.

The Aga Khan’s Prix Vermeille winners Sharaya (1983), Shawanda (2005; and also winner of the Irish Oaks) and Shareta (2012; and also winner of the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille) each belong to this line, in their case via the branch that runs through 1966 Prix Minerve winner Flaming Heart. Shawanda also foaled the 2012 St Leger winner Encke for Godolphin.

Leading Japanese sire King Kamehameha and top miler Where Or When are others to descend from Eclair.