The Weatherbys Super Sprint might not be a black-type race but its roll of honour features some brilliantly talented horses, from the ‘pocket rocket’ Lyric Fantasy through the speedball Superstar Leo to the popular rags-to-riches filly Mrs Danvers.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of another of the five-furlong dash’s iconic winners: the captivatingly quick Tiggy Wiggy.

It was in July 2014 that the bay filly, trained by Richard Hannon for Potensis Bloodstock, Chris Giles and Merriebelle Stable, blazed a trail under Richard Hughes and bolted up by six lengths at Newbury, stopping the clock in under one minute.

Tiggy Wiggy had already blown away the opposition in a maiden at Kempton, a conditions race at Salisbury and the National Stakes at Sandown, and finished second in the Marygate Stakes at York and Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

She rounded off an outstanding season with decisive victories in the Lowther Stakes at York and Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket to be crowned joint-champion two-year-old filly in Europe with Prix Marcel Boussac heroine Found.

Tiggy Wiggy might not have subsequently achieved as much as Found, who landed the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and defeated Golden Horn to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but she did a lot more than many other physically forward juvenile sprinters, finishing a gallant third to Legatissimo in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Tiggy Wiggy was bred by Paul and Marie McCartan of Ballyphilip Stud under the CBS Bloodstock banner. She hailed from the fifth crop of her then still upwardly mobile sire Kodiac and was the second produce of the winning mare Kheleyf’s Silver, a Kheleyf half-sister to Norfolk Stakes scorer Masta Plasta.

Paul McCartan remembers: “It was still early days for Kodiac and he was standing at small money, but we’d seen some very nice horses by him and so decided to use him and sent him Kheleyf’s Silver, a lovely young mare from a fast family.

“We were happy with the foal, who turned out to be Tiggy Wiggy. She developed into a nice yearling: straightforward, with good limbs, strength in depth and action. She always looked quick, but obviously we never dreamed she’d turn out to be that quick!

“She had her first run on the 29th of March and won the Cheveley Park Stakes on the 27th of September, so it was a very enjoyable six months following her.”

McCartan pinpoints her Weatherbys Super Sprint success as her signature run.

“It was probably her best performance,” he says. “She seemed to accelerate twice, which is something you rarely see. She was really amazing that day.

“Funnily enough I’d been at Newmarket for the July meeting the week before, and I'd bumped into Richard Hannon’s senior head lad Tony Gorman on the way out and had a quick chat with him. I said it was a pity she hadn’t run in the Cherry Hinton Stakes that week and he replied ‘don’t worry, she’ll win the Super Sprint’.”

Tiggy Wiggy is one of a number of blisteringly quick horses bred by Ballyphilip Stud, along with Battaash and Harry Angel. Fairy Godmother, who weaved her way to victory in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, is another farm graduate.

“She might not be the fastest horse we’ve bred, but she’s definitely one of them,” says the unfailingly modest McCartan with a laugh.

Tiggy Wiggy was bought by agents who are also associated with numerous fast horses in Peter and Ross Doyle. The father-son talent scouts bid £41,000 to secure her from the Ballyphilip Stud draft at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale of 2013.

“Doncaster has been a happy hunting ground for the Doyle family for a long time,” says Ross Doyle. “I remember the first time we saw Tiggy Wiggy quite clearly. We were doing our shortlist before the trainers and owners had got there, and she caught the eye as a very nice, neat and racy filly.

“She was a good combination of Kodiac and Kheleyf, as they both get good-looking horses, and she was from a fast family. She also came from a very good home, of course; the McCartans are brilliant breeders. We felt lucky to get her for £41,000.”

The Doyles’ haul at that year’s Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale included three other high-class two-year-olds in Estidhkaar, Kool Kompany and Limato, but Tiggy Wiggy upstaged them all in 2014.

“It was an unbelievable season,” recalls Ross. “She ran eight times, won six and was beaten narrowly into second on the other two occasions. She didn’t win again at three but finishing third in a deep renewal of the 1000 Guineas was an amazing effort considering she was such a speedball.

“Richard’s team did a wonderful job keeping the lid on her at home, and Hughesy was magnificent with her. She’d think about things a bit when she got to the track so he’d take his legs out of the irons for a while before each race to calm her down.

“She must have been very tough, and possessed a lot of class, to stretch out to a mile in the Guineas like she did. She let down into a lovely model and was sold at the end of her three-year-old season to Coolmore for 2,100,000gns.

“She was the filly of a lifetime for everyone involved with her. We wouldn’t mind another one like her, that’s for sure.”

Coolmore sent Tiggy Wiggy to their own sire phenomenon Galileo for her first five seasons at paddocks. Four of the resultant foals have run and three have won, including her first produce, the colt Year Of The Tiger, who finished third in the Vertem Futurity at two but was sadly fatally injured on his first run at three.

The mare, now 12, was sent to Australia in foal to Frankel to southern-hemisphere time last year. The colt she was carrying, currently a weanling, will reportedly be sent to a select yearling sale early in 2025.

Coolmore Australia also confirmed that she is in foal to St Mark’s Basilica and is booked into Wootton Bassett this year.

Australia might be the best in the world at producing sprinters, but its gene pool will surely still be enhanced by the top-class and tenacious Tiggy Wiggy, a true legend of the Weatherbys Super Sprint.