Golden boy of the week has to be Starspangledbanner (though Wayne Lordan and Karl Burke both deserve consideration for that title). To have had both Cartier champion two-year-olds last year was a big enough feather in his cap but for both Gstaad and Precise to progress into Classic winners in the space of 24 hours at the Curragh cements their sire's position among the elite.A more in-depth look at the Starspangledbanner story to date in TDN back in December put forward the suggestion that the best days were still ahead for the son of Choisir, and it is hard to argue with that now.We can but hope for a meeting of the English, Irish and French 2,000 Guineas winners Bow Echo, Gstaad and Rayif in the St James's Palace Stakes, a situation we last saw when Galileo Gold led home The Gurkha and Awtaad for a 1-2-3 at Royal Ascot ten years ago.Gstaad's Classic win gave another boost to the pedigree of his half-brother, young Cheveley Park Stud sire, Vandeek, and continues the dream run which breeder Kelly Thomas and her family have enjoyed with their dam, Mosa Mine (Exceed And Excel), who was herself bred by Thomas under her maiden name of Strong, and sold as a yearling for £9,000 then bought back as a four-year-old for £800. The latter now looks like buy of the century.Gstaad, bred at Thomas's Maywood Stud, follows Saoire (Pivotal) as a Curragh Classic winner to have emerged from Wales. Saoire, who struck for Frances Crowley in the Irish 1,000 Guineas of 2005, was bred by another small breeder in Louise Parry of Pantycoed Stud. Her dam Polish Descent (Danehill) had changed hands for as little as 650gns as a three-year-old. At this level, results like these don't come around too often, but when they do, they give a welcome boost to small breeders everywhere to just keep your head down and keep going. Aidan and Annemarie O'Brien cannot be classified as small breeders but they have long proved to have a knack for selecting broodmares for relatively modest sums and producing some notable results with their offspring – though of course access to a wide range of top-level stallions also helps.The latest example of this is in the breeding of Precise. Her great granddam Lady Icarus was bought by Annemarie O'Brien from the Darley draft at the 2004 Goffs November Sale for €25,000. Her progeny include Group 3 winner Furner's Green (Dylan Thomas), Listed winners Lady Lupus (High Chaparral), Palace (Fastnet Rock) and Mystical Lady (Halling), the latter being the dam of Precise's mother, Way To My Heart (Galileo). Way To My Heart's full-brother, the Dee Stakes winner Kingfisher, ran tenth in Australia's Derby and then second behind him in the Irish Derby as well as finishing second to Trip To Paris in the Gold Cup. It is easy to see why, despite Precise's more sprint-orientated sire, she is being considered for the Oaks.The same Curragh meeting also provided another breeding triumph for Annemarie O'Brien when Commanche Brave (Wootton Bassett) took the G2 Greenlands Stakes, trained by her younger son Donnacha. Commanche Brave's granddam Song Of The Sea (Bering) joined the O'Briens' broodmare band after changing hands for €23,000 at Goffs' 2006 November Sale and went on to breed several good horses including Commanche Brave's Irish 1,000 Guineas-placed dam Ishvana (Holy Roman Emperor).Dam fine performances Along with Mosa Mine, two other broodmares deserve a mention in this week's dispatches.Talmada (Cape Cross) had the rare distinction of her sons Almaqam (Lope De Vega) and Saddadd (Pinatubo) finishing first and third in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup on Sunday. From a family which stretches back to Gerald Leigh's great matriarch Brocade – a Group 1 winner herself and dam of Barathea and Gossamer – this female line came into the possession of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum when his late trainer Michael Jarvis bought Almaqam's granddam Aryaamm (Galileo) on his behalf for 360,000gns. Her three stakes winners include Talmada, who was trained by Jarvis's protégé Roger Varian to win the Listed John Musker Fillies' Stakes as well as finishing runner-up in the G1 EP Taylor Stakes. Her first foal, Saleymm (Dubawi), was useful, earning black type and a rating of 103, but he has been well and truly surpassed by younger half-brothers.Almaqam's biggest claim to fame prior to Sunday had been that he'd beaten Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder) in last year's G3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes. He was subsequently third when Ombudsman was runner-up to Calandagan in the Champion Stakes. Saddadd, too, has shown a liking for Sandown, when winning the G3 Gordon Richards Stakes last month. All four of those horses could well meet in the Prince of Wales's Stakes. Cape Cross's legacy as a broodmare sire continues to grow. The Derby winners Australia and Masar are both out of daughters of Cape Cross, as is Japanese Derby winner Croix Du Nord, South Australian Derby winner Russian Camelot, the Group 1-winning half-sisters Tarnawa and Tahiyra, and the brilliant Laurens among many others. It was a rewarding weekend for Kieran Shoemark and Ed Walker | Racingfotos The same claim can be made for Teofilo, whose latest star daughter is Livia's Dream. The 17-year-old mare has been mentioned in this space already this year but her season is going from strength to strength. On Saturday, her four-year-old daughter Dreamasar (Masar) came out best of a classy field for the Listed Hedge of Oak Stakes at Haydock, following her two elder sisters, the dual Group 1 winner Dreamloper (Lope De Vega) and dual Group 2 winner Santorini Star (Golden Horn) into the black-type club.Two days earlier Santorini Star had posted one of the most eye-catching performances of the week when almost making all in the G1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier, eventually going down by just a short neck to Caballo De Mar in a bid to collect Group 1 honours of her own for Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy.Ed Walker and Kieran Shoemark provide a bridge between Talmada and Livia's Dream as the trainer and rider respectively of both Almaqam and Dreamasar (as well as Dreamloper) on a deservedly good weekend for their relatively new partnership. Though Sunnyhill Stud resident Masar didn't hit the hoped-for heights during his time standing at Dalham Hall Stud, he has enjoyed a few nice results on the Flat over the last week, with Dreamasar's stakes win being backed up by the smart Selwood Bloodstock-bred three-year-old novice winner Mother Dear, and juvenile winner Tina Fromtransport, who gave Emma Banks the thrill of her first homebred winner when scoring at Windsor on her second start for Dylan Cunha.Inis Mor takes another leap forwardWhether you remember it as the Lupe or the Height Of Fashion Stakes, the latest winner of that Goodwood contest, Inis Mor, looks to be following in some illustrious footsteps for trainer David Menuisier and her owners in the Quantum Leap Racing syndicate.The Galiway filly, who had finished fourth in the Nell Gwyn Stakes, was down the field when tenth in the 1,000 Guineas, but the step up to ten furlongs on Saturday plainly suited and will set her up nicely for her next target, the G1 Prix de Diane.The same owner/trainer combination struck only recently with Tamfana (Soldier Hollow), who was placed in both the 1,000 Guineas and the Diane before going on to win the G1 Sun Chariot Stakes. Famously bought by Jeremy Brummitt for just €20,000, Tamfana was sold last December to Coolmore for 2.6 million gns.Inis Mor is another reasonable Brummitt purchase. Bred by Al Shaqab Racing, she was offered at Arqana's October Yearling Sale by Haras de Castillon and fetched €72,000. She may well have claims to staying beyond the 2,100 metres of the Diane, too, as Inis Mor is out of the Deep Impact mare Mellow, a winner over 3,000 metres, who is in turn out of the G1 American Oaks winner Harmonious (Dynaformer). Inis Mor and Saffie Osborne at Goodwood | Racingfotos In the Height Of Fashion, Inis Mor narrowly held off Earth Shot, the Time Test filly belonging to Paul and Sally Flatt of Childwickbury Stud who had made a favourable impression when breaking her maiden at Newmarket during the Guineas meeting. Bred by Anthony Oppenheimer's Hascombe and Valiant Studs, Earth Shot retains an entry for the Oaks. Her dam Precious Ramotswe (Nathaniel) had been the inaugural winner of York's G3 Bronte Cup back in 2018 and this year's race also went to a Hascombe and Valiant homebred in Danielle (Cracksman), who put up a likeably determined performance to see off Miss Alpilles (Sea The Stars). A good staying test clearly helps members of this family as Danielle, whose sire was also bred by Oppenheimer, is a three-parts-sister to Gold Cup winner Courage Mon Ami (Frankel).That same family was represented by another Group winner on Monday when Title Role (Too Darn Hot), who is out of a full-sister to the dam of Danielle, won the G2 German 2,000 Guineas. France Galop tackles problems head onFrance Galop's decision to switch the G1 Prix Aga Khan (formerly the Prix d'Ispahan) and G1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier from Sunday to Thursday was a smart one. The string of JeuXdi nights at ParisLongchamp through the summer is plainly going from strength to strength and, last week, just as the heatwave started to take hold, the racecourse attracted 10,000 mostly young racegoers to the Bois de Boulogne.What a dish they were served even before the DJ took to the stage, from the continued triumphant romp of Daryz as he marches on Ascot to a four-way thriller from a deep field for the Vicomtesse Vigier in only its second year as a Group 1.As we reported on Saturday, however, following a refreshingly candid press briefing with France Galop's president and vice president president Guillaume de Saint-Seine and Arnaud de Seyssel, plus its new c0-deputy CEO in charge of commercial matters, Guillaume Hernberger, not all is rosy in the garden of French racing. France is not alone in its spiral of diminishing returns from betting leading to a shortfall in funding from prize-money, but de Saint-Seine and his colleagues are taking an admirably pro-active stance in their attempts to return French racing to full bloom. If you missed this report first time around you can catch up on the news of the newly launched task force via this link. The post Seven Days: Starspangledbanner Yet Waves appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.