Encosta de Lago sired his fourth Irish bred winner when Barbieri broke her maiden at Kempton Park on Wednesday evening.

Barbieri (2f Encosta De Lago — Glenmara by Known Fact) has another Aussie connection through her OTI Racing owners Terry Henderson and Simon O’Donnell.  And, she is trained by Jeremy Gask who relocated from Adelaide to England several years ago.

The filly was held up at the rear of a nine horse field over 1000 metres but made good progress when jockey Steve Drowne shook the reins at the furlong.  She ran on well to defeat Manoori (Dalakhani) by a neck.

Barbieri was bred by Padraic Connolly and was a 16,000gns (AUD 27,375) buy for agents Hughie De Burgh and Dermot Farrington as a weanling at the 2008 Tattersalls November Sale.  Her dam Glenmara had already thrown the Danehill Dancer filly Leitra.  She won at Cork and was stakes placed in the 2005 Blenheim Stakes and 2006 Flying Five Stakes at the Curragh.

Encosta de Lago shuttled to Coolmore Ireland for a one-off season in 2007.  His northern service fee was not publicised but it was in the region of 40,000 euros.

His first winner from that crop arrived in June when Griffin scored at Tipperary.  He is a half-brother to the the Aga Khan’s French 2000 Guineas winner Ashkalani (Soviet Star).

Indigo Way was next cab off the rank at Doncaster in July and he doubled up at Goodwood on September 7.  The Brian Meehan trained gelding was denied a hat-trick when he was beaten a nose at Newmarket on September 30.

Encosta De Lago had opened his account in Europe back in October 2009 when the Aidan O’Brien trained colt Utrillo won at Tipperary.  His Australian based dam Mary McGlinchy (Pleasant Colony) was covered by Encosta to northern hemisphere time in March 2006 and was exported to Ireland three months later.

Encosta De Lago’s first Irish bred yearling to be auctioned was a bay colt out of the Machiavellian mare Nicole And Krista.  He was consigned by Darby Dan Farm at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale and made US$500,000 to the bid of leading trainer Bob Baffert.  He now races as Lagoon Of Diamonds but hasn’t returned a cheque in three starts so far.