Mutual Trust (centre) beats Zoffany and Strong Suit in the Prix Jean Prat

From five matings with Danehill, Hasili produced four Group or Grade 1 winners, with the only one of the quintet not to make it quite to the top level on the racecourse being Dansili.

Only against such outstanding siblings could such a horse be found wanting, and even then only just, for he managed seven Group 1 places, a Group 2 and two Group 3 victories from his 14 starts. Hardly a slacker.

And even if there is that one tiny omission on his racing résumé, Dansili, has more than made up for it since retiring to stud, with Group 1 winners Proviso, Harbinger, Zoffany, Zambezi Sun, Price Tag, Rail Link and Passage Of Time to his name.

On Sunday, Zoffany came close to adding a second top-flight win to last year’s Phoenix Stakes success when just outdone by Mutual Trust on the line in the Prix Jean Prat.

The winner was sired by Dansili’s full-brother Cacique, who has little chance of emulating his sibling in the stallion ranks owing to his poor fertility, but from just 29 foals from his first crop and four from his second, the retiree is already looking like a real loss to the gene pool both for Juddmonte and for breeders.

His Juddmonte-bred son Mutual Trust has also won the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac, while Slumber, another to bear Prince Khalid Abdullah’s silks, has been placed in two Group 3 contests, the Chester Vase and the Tercentenary Stakes (formerly Hampton Court Stakes) at Royal Ascot.

In France last week, Cacique was also respnsible for the Listed Prix Yacowlef runner-up Katerini, while the Roger Varian-trained Dominant, for Highclere Racing, is another colt worth keeping an eye on.

While it is of course regrettable for a stallion with such obvious promise to be missing from the ranks, Juddmonte can take some solace in the fact that, not only does Dansili continue to keep his illustrious family very much to the fore of world thoroughbred breeding, but another full-sibling, Champs Elysees, has already been retired to Banstead Manor Stud. His appeal is no doubt greatly enhanced by the success of his big brothers.