Ace Impact's victory in the Prix du Jockey Club gave Darley stallion Cracksman a vital Group 1 winner with his first-crop of three-year-olds.
The Oppenheimer-owned colt retired to Dalham Hall Stud as the best son of Frankel and remains at the top of the rankings with an official rating of 130.
A maiden winner at Newmarket on his sole start as a juvenile, Cracksman started favourite for the Epsom Derby and finished third behind Wings Of Eagles.
A trip to the Irish Derby saw another defeat by a Ballydoyle runner – this time, it was a neck second behind Capri.
Trainer John Gosden remained confident in his talented colt and gave Cracksman a short break before returning in the Group 2 Voltigeur Stakes at York, where he routed the field by six lengths and earnt his place at the top table again.
The colt closed off the three-year-old campaign with a victory in the Group 2 Prix Niel and a seven-length success over shorter in the Group 1 British Champion Stakes.
With two more Group 1 victories recorded at the beginning of the 2018 season (Prix Ganay and Coronation Cup), Cracksman ended his career with a second win in the British Champion Stakes, this time by six lengths.
Cracksman commenced his stallion career in 2019 (£25,000) with a general expectation that his offspring would be seen to best effect as three-year-olds and upwards.
Yet the stallion surprised many by producing ten individual juvenile winners in 2022, including his first Group winner when Aloa landed the G2 Premio Dormello at Milan.
In the UK, Dance In The Grass won the Listed Star Stakes at Sandown Park in July, despite being out of a Listed half-sister to Grade 1 winning hurdler Knight Salute.
Ace Impact set a new track record in the Prix du Jockey Club, maintaining his unbeaten record and achieving the same Timeform rating (125p) as Epsom Derby winner Auguste Rodin.
He has not been the only Stakes winner for Cracksman in the three-year-old crop, with Cracksmania taking the Listed Prix Caravelle and Weracruz scoring in the Listed Grosser Preis der Sparkasse Hannover.
Darley revealed that Cracksman had achieved a rating of C:C in the PlusVital Speed Gene Test, which assesses the likely optimum race distance of a runner - C:C would indicate Cracksman was best suited over five furlongs to a mile.
Although genetic testing for speed is a relatively new concept for the industry, PlusVital boasts an impressive client list and the result goes someway to explaining the unexpected success of his juvenile runners.
