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A progressive three-year-old took this last year and that feat can be repeated by Remmooz, whose only defeat in four starts came when a creditable fourth in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes. He rewarded market support on his handicap debut in a similar race over this course and distance last month on his first try over a mile, and he may have been let in lightly by a 4lb rise.

Jakob Dalhoff, one of the new joint-owners of Sunday’s Prix Jacques le Marois winner Diego Velazquez since the four-year-old Frankel colt was purchased from Coolmore and syndicated by Sam Sangster, is not your average stallion investor. 

The businessman was born in Denmark but lives in war-torn Ukraine with his partner Maria, and has been involved in racing and breeding for only a relatively short time.

In spite of all that, with a group of friends from Scandinavia, he was behind the Mehmas colt who became the first horse to make seven figures at Doncaster when he was sold by Greenhills Farm to Godolphin for £1 million at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale in April.

Now he has got into the stallion business too, and all because he was so captivated by the book Horsetrader, Patrick Robinson’s account of Robert Sangster’s attempt to build a breeding empire with John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien, which he has read twice.

“I bought my first racehorse in 2018, the year I moved to Ukraine, and had a bit of good luck, so I got one more, and then another and then another,” says Dalhoff.  “Then I had some horses with other friends, including Slava Ukraini. He was a colt no-one wanted at auction, but we bought him after a couple of gin and tonics and he ended up winning the Danish Derby carrying the silks of the Ukrainian flag.”

Slava Ukraini, a Danish-bred son of Moohaajim, was invited to race in Dubai, where he finished a close fourth in the Jumeirah Derby at Meydan, and Saudi Arabia, where he was far from disgraced when ninth in the Saudi International Handicap at Riyadh.

The popular horse’s prize-money earnings were put towards building a bomb shelter in an apartment complex in Dalhoff’s adopted hometown of Lviv in western Ukraine, which had come under fire from a Russian missile attack.

“Then I began to look into breeding,” continues Dalhoff (pictured right, with Sam Sangster and Christophe Soumillon). “It was a totally new world to me but I quickly became fascinated by it. We bought some mares to get them covered and got in contact with the National Stud in Newmarket to board some.

“Margrethe, the first horse I bought, was quite good, finishing second in the Danish Oaks and fourth in the Danish Derby, so I decided to breed from her. She was covered by Oasis Dream at Juddmonte in her first season and has a yearling filly by him who looks amazing, so much so we sent her back to the sire this year.

“In fact, the first horse we ever bred ourselves, Red Moondancer [a Danish-bred son of Appel Au Maitre and Matchoffice, a winning daughter of Barocci named in honour of a property company founded by Dalhoff] won last week. It was only a small maiden race at Aarhus and not worth a lot of money, but it wasn’t about that. Breeding a winner is just an incredible feeling. You can’t describe it, it’s unique.”

As Dalhoff grew more and more interested in breeding, his good friend and adviser and all-round Scandinavian racing and bloodstock superbrain Filip Zwicky introduced him to Horsetrader. The book set the experienced entrepreneur’s synapses crackling.