Valeria Messalina (Ire)

Racehorse owner Marc Chan saw his silks in the spotlight not once, but twice last week at Glorious Goodwood when Angel Bleu (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) supplied a significant Tuesday double in the G2 Vintage S. and G2 Lennox S. And while the rise of Chan--an owner in Britain for just a year--to the pinnacle of the sport seems to have happened suddenly, it is in fact the apex of a lifelong passion that was sparked when Chan started going to the races with his...

Group 3 winner Valeria Messalina (Ire), a 3-year-old filly by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire), carries a name heavy with reputation--good and bad but never indifferent. There were many Roman Emperors in the life of the historical Valeria Messalina, who lived in the first century, during the first decades of the Empire: her husband Claudius (she was his third wife), her cousin Caligula, her cousin Nero, and her great-granduncle Augustus. The emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty did not appear to be exemplary models of conservative family values, and Valeria Messalina was...