The Commons Ground mare Coffee Cream was inherited by Henry and Claire Robinson on the death of Claire’s father, Viscount Portman. His legacy has provided a summer of excitement which was beyond the couple’s wildest dreams.
Already dam of winners Mocha Java, by Bertolini, and Carte Noire, Coffee Cream’s latest runner, the two-year-old Kheleyf filly Percolator, has already surpassed her siblings only halfway through her juvenile season.
“She’s a little bit better than the other two put together,” says Henry with a grin. “There’s no way we could have anticipated what she has done this year but it has been wonderful.”
If for no other reason, Percolator would have had her footnote in history as the first ever winner for her young sire. She recorded that distinction back in March and since then she has won on another three occasions, each time in France, with her successful outings including the Listed Prix la Fleche in June and the G3 Prix du Bois the following month in record-breaking time at Maisons-Laffitte. Most recently, she was runner-up in the G2 Prix Robert Papin. Her racing record now stands at six runs for four wins and two seconds.
“One of her great advantages is that she breaks well and often gets a length and a half lead almost from the start,” says Henry of Percolator. “She’s tiny, very close-coupled but very tough indeed.”
The Robinsons are undoubtedly relieved that Coffee Cream has been able to conceive this season after undergoing surgery to remove one of her ovaries last year. She and another of their mares Beejay, are both in foal to Byron, meaning Coffee Cream’s resultant foal will be very closely related to Percolator as both he and Kheleyf are sons of Green Desert.
They are both boarders at Lady Sarah Whent’s Raffin Stud near Newbury, alongside the Robinsons’ other mare, Rakata. By Darley America stallion Quiet American, she won four times before being retired at the end of last year and has been bred to Singspiel. The homebred Beejay, a winner at two and three, has a yearling from the final crop of the now retired Mark Of Esteem.
Percolator may be the most illustrious member of the Kheleyf winners' club but it is one whose membership is swelling all the time. At last count, it numbered 22 but watch this space: the figure increases almost daily.
