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.

Danehill, Machiavellian and Northern Dancer: The Nexus

(Rudolpho Clix)

It’s a well known fact that the female line which spawned Northern Dancer in the early 60’s, has since produced a flood of great horses, including three world-class stallions, Danehill, Machiavellian and Halo. That they have proceeded to influence international breeding to a greater degree than any other family in thoroughbred history is probably beyond dispute, and it’s become a preoccupation among pedigree buffs to find ways of exploiting the potential that flows from line-breeding to these influences.

Most of the major breeding jurisdictions of the world, through their obsession with Northern Dancer, have a surfeit of the “Emperor’s” blood, and the challenge is to establish the optimal means of matching it. Finding the perfect outcross is one way of doing so, yet, for exponents of the art, line-breeding must be sorely tempting.

For those who have the blood of Northern Dancer among their broodmares, the use of either Danehill or Machiavellian-line stallions (both of whom carry at least two strains of the female line of Northern Dancer) is the obvious route, and it’s now becoming indelibly evident that the use of Danehill with Machiavellian has a potency which, whilst not necessarily apparent at first glance, must be irresistible in the light of recent results.

We all know Andrew Caulfield as one of the world’s great pedigree commentators, and in a recent article in the Thoroughbred Daily News, he alluded to this very point;

“These achievements can only have helped boost Danehill’s reputation in Europe, where eventually he became Champion sire in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Part of Danehill’s appeal as a stallion, from a pedigree viewpoint, was that he was inbred 3x3 to Natalma, one of three daughters of Almahmoud to have produced a Champion stallion. It is worth pointing out that the last few years have seen a flourishing partnership develop between Danehill and Machiavellian, another stallion with a parent inbred tO  Almahmoud through Cosmah and Natalma. Danehill sired four Stakes winners (40%) from only 10 foals out of Machiavellian mares and Machiavellian’s son, Medicean has two Group winners (25%) among his first eight foals out of Danehill mares”.

By the way, he said it: we didn’t.

The presence at Summerhill of three Danehills and three sons of Machiavellian is no coincidence. We’ve already seen the power of the cocktail between Kahal (by Machiavellian) and the Northern Dancer-line mares we have on the farm, in the outstanding achievements of horses such as Emperor Napoleon, Bold Ellinore, Galant Gagnant, Khebraat, Evening Attire, Bhekinkhosi, Emir, Tap Tap and Art Of War, all of whom were bred on that cross, and we’re only just at the beginning of this episode.

The permutations for the use of this genetic opportunity are endless, particularly as the Danehill and Machiavellian horses, as specimens, appear to be the perfect complement for their “Northern Dancer” mates. Of course, Danehill’s affinity for Northern Dancer is already legend, with the likes of Horatio Nelson, Peeping Fawn and Passage Of Time, among several other standards, accruing in rapid-fire fashion in recent seasons.