Triple Crown winner American Pharoah heads into the summer racing season with momentum, getting his first stakes winner on Saturday in Europe. Maven won the Group 3 Prix du Bois on Saturday at Chantilly in France for trainer Wesley Ward, known for his talented and well-traveled juveniles. Earlier that day, the American Pharoah colt Monarch of Egypt had finished second in the Group 2 Railway Stakes on the Irish Derby undercard at The Curragh for Aidan O’Brien. American Pharoah, a champion juvenile before going on to sweep the 2015 Triple Crown, never raced on turf or synthetic surfaces, but his sire, the late Pioneerof the Nile, won on turf and was a multiple Grade 1 winner on synthetic and is the sire of turf horses including Grade 1 winner and millionaire Midnight Storm. His sire’s success was one factor in the international popularity of young Coolmore stallion American Pharoah, who was well-supported by international interests at auction and also shuttles to Australia. Maven, who runs in the colors of Richard Ravin, had been targeted for a start at the Royal Ascot meeting, but was scratched by Ward owing to soft turf. The colt, who also was bred by Ward, was American Pharoah’s first U.S. winner on April 19 when he won on debut on the dirt at Aqueduct. He is out of the Any Given Saturday mare Richies Party Girl, who was owned by Ward and Ravin. The mare was a three-time stakes winner sprinting on the turf and is out of Grade 3 winner Very Special Lite, making her a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Strategic Partner. Ward has a long association with Coolmore and bred his own Eclipse Award champion Judy the Beauty to American Pharoah in his first season. “It’s fantastic for racing, for Coolmore, for owner Richard Ravin, and for me,” Ward said after Maven’s debut. “What I see is that he’s going to be a good sire. The dam was a turf sprinter, and I think this one is going to be a turf sprinter as well. He’s had outstanding works over the Polytrack at Turfway which translates to turf. . . . Hopefully, we can put American Pharoah on the big scale as a sire.” Monarch of Egypt won his debut on April 13 at Naas. The colt is out of the multiple group stakes-winning Galileo mare Up, runner-up in the 2012 French 1000 Guineas and a half-sister to Group 1 winner Dutch Art. Up was a $2.2 million purchase by RanJan Racing, the breeder of this colt, at the 2015 Keeneland January sale of horses of all ages. Monarch of Egypt was purchased for $750,000 last year at the Keeneland September yearling sale by Peter Brant and Coolmore, which strongly supports its young stallions in the auction ring. “My grandfather founded Ballydoyle on American dirt horses – that’s where Galileo comes from, that’s where Sadler’s Wells came from,” Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier told Racing Post. “It all goes back to the American classic horse, and we strongly believe in American Pharoah. He really could be the next big thing. Be it him, or Justify, we think that a horse of that type can once again have a transforming impact on European bloodlines. So that’s what we want to do; to get the best American Pharoahs we can, put them in Ballydoyle, and try to make him a new Northern Dancer. Remember, Scat Daddy was an all-American hero, too, and look what he has been able to do on turf in Europe.” American Pharoah’s first-crop 2-year-olds was conceived on an advertised stud fee of $200,000 at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky. He covered 208 mares that season, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred; of those, 55 were Grade 1/Group 1 winners or the dams of winners at that level. Ten members of the crop were sold as weanlings, fetching an average of $445,500. American Pharoah went on to average $453,273 from 70 yearlings sold worldwide last year – a staggering figure for a first-crop stallion in a market that trends toward proven sires. He averaged $396,876 in the recently-concluded 2-year-old sales season. He recorded nine seven-figure lots overall from his first crop, led by a $2.2 million colt purchased by Godolphin at Keeneland September. Named Confidential Act, the colt was exported to Great Britain earlier this year, according to Equineline records. American Pharoah sports a career progeny record of 16-4-1-3 from 11 starters for earnings of $182,651. He is the first among this year’s highly anticipated North American freshman sire class to record a stakes winner, and his bankroll places him second among all North American freshmen and first among Kentucky’s group. Juvenile racing began in April and is about to heat up, with the summer meets at Saratoga and Del Mar, where standouts are often unveiled, on the horizon. Leading all North American freshman sires by both winners and earnings is Khozan, a half brother to champion Royal Delta standing at Journeyman Stud in Florida. From 15 starters through June, he has recorded seven winners – all of those at Gulfstream Park, where Khozan won both his career starts, and five of those in maiden special weight company. His progeny have earned $311,633. Following Khozan by number of winners is Tapiture, who has five winners from 15 starters to sit third on the earnings list, at $165,268.