DAWN APPROACH DOMINATES QIPCO 2000 GUINEAS

Watch Dawn Approach winning the QIPCO 2000 Guineas
(Image : CNN - Footage : Racing UK)

QIPCO 2000 GUINEAS (Group 1)
Newmarket, Turf, 1609m
4 May 2013

After a few days that have done much to derail the Godolphin train, one of the operation’s finest buys of recent times Dawn Approach (Ire) (New Approach) sprung to the rescue with a dominant display in Saturday’s Group 1 QIPCO 2,000 Guineas.

Briefly threatened for favoritism in the betting market beforehand and in the race itself by Toronado (Ire) (High Chaparral), the unbeaten Dawn Approach, who had already garnered the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, Group 1 National Stakes and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, settled the so-called “match” in a matter of strides heading down into Newmarket’s “dip”. Surging away up the rising ground, the 11-8 favorite scored by five lengths from the enterprisingly-ridden 150-1 outsider Glory Awaits (Ire) (Choisir) and in doing so justified his breeder and trainer Jim Bolger’s description of him as “awesome” earlier this spring. More importantly, he was also providing Bolger’s Coolcullen yard with a long-overdue first success in this Classic.

“I didn’t expect him to win by five lengths, but was very impressed and, as you, the press, would say, I am blown away,” the elder Statesman of the Irish training ranks said. “He can only improve from here, as he has been very lazy at home and it has not been easy to get the right amount of work into him and be kind at the same time.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

FASTNET ROCK BUSIEST SHUTTLE STALLION IN 2011

Fastnet Rock (AUS)
(Photo : Stallions)

FASTNET ROCK (AUS)
Danehill (USA) - Piccadilly Circus (AUS)

Coolmore shuttler Fastnet Rock was officially the busiest shuttle stallion in 2011, covering no fewer than 364 mares throughout the year.

Fastnet Rock covered 214 mares at a fee of A$132,000 during the Southern Hemisphere season at Coolmore’s Australian base in the Hunter Valley, on top of the 150 mares he covered during his second shuttle trip to Ireland.

Fastnet Rock’s popularity stems from his status as one of Australia’sleading sires. Although still only ten-years-old, the son of Danehill is the sire of 24 stakes winners including eight at Group 1 level. His first European crop are yearlings and he is set to stand his third Irish season at Coolmore at a private fee.

Fellow Coolmore shuttler, So You Think’s sire High Chaparral, was also in demand down under, covering 180 mares at a fee of A$99,000. That figure, however, was a drop from the 2010 Southern Hemisphere season when the son of Sadler’s Wells covered 235 mares, the most served by any stallion in Australia that year.

Excellent Art covered 147 mares while Choisir was the recipient of 157. Darley’s American shuttlers Lonhro and Bernardini were also popular in Australia, with books of 149 and 126 mares.

King’s Stand and Golden Jubilee Stakes runner-up Star Witness had a busy first season, covering 143 mares at a fee of A$33,000 at Widden Stud.

Extract from Racing Post

THE MAKING OF MACHIAVELLIAN

Click above to watch Machiavellian as a 2 Year Old winning the
1989 Prix De La Salamandre (Group 1) at Longchamp
(Photo : Sport Horse - Footage : YouTube)

40% of Danehill’s foals out of
Machiavellian mares are Stakes winners

Students of the “noble art” will recall our piece in the Summerhill Sire’s Brochure of two years ago on the Machiavellian and Danehill factors. That announcement divulged the strategy behind our thinking, given the preponderance of Northern Dancer blood in the female strains on the farm, and the success which Danehill and Machiavellian had enjoyed with these internationally. This wasn’t happenstance. There was another factor, and that was the origins which all of Northern Dancer, Machiavellian and Danehill have in common; last weekend in America, a filly by the name Justaroundmidnight, revealed again the chemistry which a combination of these genes seems to inspire. Before we hand you over to Andrew Caulfield and his insights in the Thoroughbred Daily News, there’s one statistic really worthy of notice, and it comes in his final paragraph. 40% of Danehill’s foals out of Machiavellian mares are Stakes winners, which provides the succour for next season’s matings. Over to Andrew :

The excellent Irish stallion Danehill Dancer has recently enjoyed a notable few days with his American-based daughters. On Sunday, his ex-Irish filly Justaroundmidnight sprang a surprise in taking the Marshua’s River Stakes G3, and this week, his Grade I-winning daughter Ave came under the hammer at Keeneland, selling for $1.4 million.

Danehill Dancer has been represented by some topnotch sons in Europe and Australia, such as the Group 1 winners Mastercraftsman, Choisir, Where Or When, Alfred Nobel and Light Fantastic, but he owes his reputation in North America largely to his daughters.

Justaroundmidnight is his seventh daughter to win a North American stakes event, her predecessors including Ave (G1 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes), Alexander Tango (G1 Garden City Stakes), Callwood Dancer (G2 Nassau Stakes and second in G1 E.P. Taylor Stakes), Carribean Sunset (second G1 Diana Stakes), Good Mood (G3 Regret Stakes) and the Grade 3-placed Golden Balls.

The interesting aspect of Justaroundmidnight’s pedigree is that she is out of a daughter of Machiavellian, the champion European two-year-old of 1989.

Although best known in America as the sire of Street Cry, Machiavellian was certainly no one-hit wonder, and the influence of this son of Mr. Prospector is spreading far afield.

What makes Machiavellian of particular interest to many breeders is the fact that his dam Coup de Folie - a two-year-old group winner with a Timeform rating of 112 - was inbred 3x3 to Almahmoud. This remarkable mare had only three daughters, but each of the three became the dam of a champion sire, with Cosmah being responsible for Halo, Natalma for Northern Dancer and Bubbling Beauty for the French champion Arctic Tern.

As Machiavellian was himself inbred 3x4 to Native Dancer, he had two lines to each of Natalma’s parents.

This encouraged breeders to send him numerous granddaughters of Northern Dancer, and this cross resulted in 13 of his group winners, including his Group 1 winners Medicean, Storming Home, West Wind and Rebecca Sharp.

The two lines of Native Dancer and Almahmoud in Machiavellian’s pedigree also encouraged the idea of coupling his descendants with those of Danehill, a magnificent stallion inbred 3x3 to Natalma.

Danehill’s 10 foals out of Machiavellian mares featured nine winners, including four at stakes level. These stakes winners comprised Scintillation, a multiple Group 1 winner in Hong Kong, his sister Shania Dane, a dual Group 2 winner in Australia, and the British listed winners Miss Pinkerton and Coy. We also saw Danehill do well with Rafina, a sister to Machiavellian.

Their son Admiralofthefleet looked a fine prospect when he won the G2 Royal Lodge Stakes in 2006.

INGLIS PREMIER YEARLING SALE : Prices surge continues

The expanded Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, bolstered by the inclusion of many youngsters initially slated to appear at Magic Millions and Inglis Sydney sales, continued to surge forward ahead of today’s final Premier I Yearling session in Melbourne. The topper yesterday was Lot 318, a filly by Encosta de Lago (Aus) who was purchased by agent Paul Guy for AUS$490,000. Offered by Sean Buckley’s Ultra Thoroughbreds, the daughter of Almighty Sister (Aus) is a half to listed winner Mighty Raja (Aus) and stakes-placed Grace and Power (Aus). “I was managing the farm in 2005-06 and planned the mating,” Guy said. “I inspected the filly three months ago at the farm and really liked her, so I went out and got a group of people together to buy her. Sean Buckley will retain a share in her. We went over budget, but she is probably an Easter-quality filly out of a really good producer.” Guy, who bought Group 1 winners Perfect Promise (SAF) and Miss Andretti (Aus) for Buckley in the past, indicated that the filly would be trained by Chris Waller in Sydney.

Adam Sangster’s Swettenham Stud provided the day’s top-priced colt, Lot 405, who was knocked down to trainer Mick Price for AUS$300,000. By Emirates Park freshman sire Al Maher (Aus) (Danehill) and out of multiple city winner Cosmic Beam, the colt is related to Group 1 winner Desert Eagle (Aus) (Hurricane Sky {Aus}). Hong Kong based Ricky Yiu gave AUS$250,000 for the second-highest priced colt of the session, a son of Danehill Dancer (Ire). Offered as Lot 215 by Glentree Downs, the colt is the second foal out of the listed-winning mare Storming Bai (Aus) (Geiger Counter).

Trainer Paul Perry went to AUS$210,000 for a colt by Encosta de Lago (Aus) out of Group 2 placed Titanic Rose (Aus) (Fly Spur {Aus}) and also gave AUS$200,000 for Lot 394, a filly by Choisir(Aus) out of stakes-placed Clevedon (Aus) (Keltrice {Aus}). Perry is returning to what has worked for him in the past, having trained MG1SW Choisir, whose oldest progeny are now three-year-olds.

Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm continued its spending spree, acquiring a further six yearlings, including a filly by Elusive Quality out of Victory River (Aus) (Salieri) for AUS$190,000. Consigned by Eliza Park, the filly is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Reactive (Aus) and to stakes winner and producer Fleischer (Aus) (Danehill), the dam of listed winner Roubechon. “She was a lovely, well conformed, beautiful filly and she has done everything right, the preparation was great,” said Eliza Park’s John Jeffs. “We thought she might fetch about AUS$150,000, so we were delighted.”

Encosta de Lago (Aus), selling off a fee of AUS$120,000, is leading the way on the sire table with five sold at an average of AUS$276,000, ahead of Exceed and Excel (Aus) with 10 sold for AUS$60,500. Darley’s Shamardal is leading first-season sire with four going under the hammer for AUS$127,500. Offspring of Anabaa also did well yesterday, including Lot 188, purchased by Tristarc Bloodstock, representing Arrowfield, for AUS$180,000. Consigned by Widden Stud’s Ryan McEvoy, the colt is out of Group 3 winner Sister Patricia (Aus) (Geiger Counter), who won twice in the U.S. before returning to Australia to go to stud. The bay colt, who is Sister Patricia’s third foal, helped push Anabaa’s average to AUS$117,000 for eight sold thus far. “This colt is a full sibling to smart two year-old Beynac who is trained by Pat Hyland,” said McEvoy. “He is in a similar mould to Beynac, a two-year-old horse, not overly big, but a real runner.” Anabaa-the sire of nine Group 1 winners including five bred at Widden-will not return to Australia again, having shuttled for 11 seasons since 1997. His current crop of yearlings numbers around 70 and the Danzig stallion has about 80 foals on the ground; he covered 80 mares in his final southern season before returning to Haras du Quesnay.

A broader buying bench, with first-time purchasers from South Africa and Singapore, helped contribute to a robust clearance rate of 81.4 percent. Average was increased to AUS$81,814 over last year, while median increased by 40 percent to AUS$70,000. With 311 horses sold over two sessions, aggregate increased to A$26,406,000 at the conclusion of yesterday’s session. “The depth of buying bench shows that if the right horses are in the catalogue that people will come to Melbourne,” Inglis director Peter Heagney said.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

European Freshman Sires Race Hotting Up

Last week’s blog topics included a piece on the battle for the European First Season Sires premiership in 2006, which developed into a shootout between INVINCIBLE SPIRIT and JOHANNESBURG.

MalhubThough in the final analysis, it was the short head margin of the former’s victory over MALHUB in the Haydock Park Sprint (Gr1) which eventually cost the Summerhill resident the European Sprinter’s title, both INVINCIBLE SPIRIT and JOHANNESBURG were victims of MALHUB’S memorable closing burst on his big day in Royal Ascot’s Golden Jubilee Sprint (Gr1). In the end, MALHUB was the only one that got to meet the Queen. If the way INVINCIBLE SPIRIT and JOHANNESBURG’S stud careers have progressed since, is any kind of omen for MALHUB’S future, roll on 2008. Meanwhile a Titanic struggler for the Freshman’s title for 2007 is under way, where the leading protagonists include CHOISIR, ACCLAMATION, DUBAI DESTINATION, CATCHER IN THE RYE and HAWK WING. Four of the five are very close to the numbers posted at the same stage in the reason by INVINCIBLE SPIRIT, who went on to exceed 30 by the year’s close, and both Darley and Coolmore will be more than encouraged by their lot, particularly as DUBAI DESTINATION, HAWK WING & CATCHER IN THE RYE would’ve been expected to get slightly later sorts.