Bay Bridge’s ascent into the major league of middle-distance horses, illustrated by his fine second to State Of Rest in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last Wednesday, is another feather in the cap for his breeder and joint-owner James Wigan.

The renowned agent’s achievements in the bloodstock industry, as outlined on the website of his London Thoroughbred Services, is worth a look for the jaw-dropping list of racehorses and stallions he has either bred, bought, sold or managed.

Wigan has signed for many top lots over the years, including the then record-priced broodmare Magical Romance for 4,600,000gns, and has struck numerous private deals for other blue-chip stallions and mares – including in-form blue hen Magnificient Style, dam of Derby winner Desert Crown’s sire Nathaniel and ancestress of the past week’s Listed winners Dubai Future and Glenartney, on behalf of Waddesdon Stud.

But as his roll of honour also shows, he isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and get stuck into the lower end of the market in pursuit of accomplished horses, either.

So it was with Bay Bridge’s (pictured below) dam Hayyona, who has a somewhat unusual profile for a dam of a potential superstar, being an unplaced daughter of Multiplex out of a King Of Kings mare – but also, in mitigation, being a half-sister to Group 2 scorer Shimraan from the top Aga Khan family of Classic winners Shahrastani and Shemaka. She was purchased as a breeding prospect by Wigan for a mere 18,000gns from the Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale of 2013, at the end of her three-year-old season.

The New Bay colt Bay Bridge is one of two winners that London Thoroughbred Services has since bred from Hayyona, along with five-time scorer Nataleena, a six-year-old mare by Nathaniel still in training with Ben Haslam.

Another good example of Wigan’s eye for a bargain is Masskana, an unraced Aga Khan Studs-bred daughter of Darshaan and Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Masarika. She was bought for a very reasonable 48,000gns in 1994 and went on to produce three Group/Grade 1 winners in Dank, Eagle Mountain and Sulk.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree when it came to Wigan’s skill for pinpointing and nurturing broodmare talent as his father Dare, once the racing correspondent for the Financial Times, and mother Dawn, who inherited West Blagdon Stud in Dorset from her father Charles Gordon upon his death in 1959, also had good form in this department.

The key family developed by Wigan’s late parents at West Blagdon Stud re-entered the limelight in spectacular fashion at the weekend.

Dawn Wigan acquired Pelting, a 1958-foaled daughter of King’s Stand Stakes winner Vilmorin and Princess Elizabeth Stakes third Firmament, as a yearling from her father’s executors – along with his racing colours of ‘cherry, cornflower blue sash and cap’, which are still carried with such distinction by Bay Bridge.

Pelting took after her sire, being both a grey and a classy sprinter, and she won twice over five furlongs for Arthur Budgett, including in the Stewards’ Handicap at Epsom on Derby Day. She went on to found the most remarkable dynasty at West Blagdon Stud, producing 12 winners from 14 foals headed by the retained fillies Splashing, a 1971-foaled daughter of Petingo who won the Cornwallis Stakes, and Glinting, a 1975-foaled daughter of Crepello who finished third in the Nell Gwyn Stakes.

Fighting, the 1968-foaled daughter of Aggressor and Pelting, was sold as a foal – this family helped West Blagdon to become one of the leading vendors of foals at Tattersalls for many years – but two of her daughters were later acquired by the Wigans.

All of Pelting’s nine daughters left considerable legacies in the stud book, but it was arguably Fighting and Splashing who turned out to be the most effective agents of extending her influence.

Fighting is the ancestress of top-notchers Battaash, Braashee, Central Park, Etlaala, Fantastic View, High Standing, Moon Ballad, Priceless, Rebelline and Telescope, not to mention freshman sire of the moment Tasleet.

Splashing, meanwhile, can count among her descendants the Middle Park Stakes victors Awzaan and Bassenthwaite, Prix de l’Abbaye winner Keen Hunter, smart performers Kool Kompany, Living The Life and Magical Fantasy, and now Sunday’s Prix de Diane heroine Nashwa.

Blue Diamond Stud’s homebred Frankel filly is out of Gillies Fillies’ Stakes winner and Prix Jean Romanet runner-up Princess Loulou, a daughter of Pivotal who had been bought from her breeder David Brown’s Furnace Mill Stud as a yearling for 310,000gns.  

Princess Loulou was out of Aiming, a daughter of Highest Honor trained by Richard Hannon snr for Dare Wigan – who faithfully gave members of this family names that are present participles of verbs – to finish placed in several low-grade mile contests before being sold to Brown at the end of her racing days for 30,000gns.

Aiming was a half-sister to dual Listed-winning sprinter Watching out of the Listed-placed Indian King mare Sweeping, and Sweeping was in turn out of Glancing, a Listed-winning Grundy half-sister to Bassenthwaite out of Splashing.

The Pelting family is no longer represented in the West Blagdon Stud broodmare band, the few strands that once belonged to James Wigan having fallen away, but suffice to say both parties are doing very well without each other, for the time being, anyway.