Vayrann [SEP] father
moderate success as a sire of winners.
Background.
Vayrann was a brown horse with a large white star and a white coronet on his left hind foot officially bred by his owner Aga Khan IV in Ireland. He was one of the best horses sired by Brigadier Gerard who won seventeen of his eighteen races between 1970 and 1972 and is rated the second best British-trained racehorse since 1947 (after Frankel by the independent Timeform organisation. Vayrann's dam Val Divine (bred by Francois Dupre) was a moderate racehorse
out of training) and it was widely expected that Vayrann would be disqualified. The Aga Khan's team of experts argued that it was possible for a male horse to produce Estrane naturally as a breakdown product from testosterone, and that the Jockey Club's list of prohibited substances only covered those which were administered externally. The committee accepted these arguments and allowed Vayrann to keep the race.
Assessment.
In 1981 the independent Timeform organisation gave Vayrann a rating of 133, making him the fourth best horse of the year behind