SPICY PERFORMANCE

Smasher is the second foal of the Honours List mare, Ras El Hanout whom, after a “no letters home to mum” racing career, visited Written Tycoon in her first three years at stud.

(Smasher’s unraced, year younger full brother, Hanwritten, is in training with Bjorn Baker and evidently has his share of ability too).

But where does the name Ras El Hanout come from?

Turns out Ras El Hanout is a blend of spices from Morocco and the name itself is Arabic for ‘head of the shop’ … implying a mixture of the best spices the vendor has to offer.

Amazing what you can learn from Wikipedia, but in the past, Ras El Hanout included cantharides (whatever that is!) for its aphrodisiac properties, but don’t bother hopping on the next plane for Casablanca as evidently that particular ingredient has been banned in Morocco since the 1990s.

So, what makes up Ras El Hanout? Cardamom, clove, ground chili, chili peppers, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, peppercorn, tumeric, ash berries, chufa, grains of paradise, orris root, monk's pepper, cubebs or dried rosebud.

Now, before I start sounding like Nigella Lawson without the looks, one of the other ingredients is cinnamon.

Evidently when the owners of Ras El Hanout couldn’t think of a name, they turned to the Stud Book for help who came to their assistance … Ras El Hanout is out of Cinnamon Splendor!