Victoire Pisa - Dubai World Cup (Grade 1)
(Photo : AP Photo / Kamran Jebreili)
NORTHERN DANCER, MACHIAVELLIAN
AND DANEHILL
Pedigree students and readers of these columns will recall our various pieces on the “Machiavellian Factor”, and the strategic reasoning behind our introduction to the Summerhill genetic fold of the influences of Northern Dancer, Machiavellian and Danehill. We are not going to regurge all that now, other than to say there was a purpose behind it, and that the events which unfolded as the Japanese swept the Dubai World Cup on the weekend, have served to reinforce the course we embarked upon.
Victoire Pisa’s nation-building victory in the world’s richest race, added credence to another pillar of our thinking, with the introduction of the Sunday Silence element into the debate. Besides the fact that the continent of Africa was bereft of the influence of this, one of the world’s greatest strains, we had in mind the alchemy which the Halo tribe (from whence Sunday Silence descends) has displayed in combination with the descendants of both Machiavellian and Danehill.
Followers of these things know Andrew Caulfield, and they know him as one of racing’s most astute commentators on pedigree. He wrote thus in Friday’s Thoroughbred Daily News.
Way back in 1970, Sir Michael Sobell’s homebred filly Boulevard showed considerable potential in winning her first three races, notably defeating Hecla and Super Honey in the Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot. Hecla went on to give the peerless Mill Reef a hard time in the Imperial Stakes, while Super Honey later found only the triple Classic winner Altesse Royale too good for her in the 1000 Guineas. Whereas her rivals flourished, Boulevard failed to build on her excellent start after being transferred to France.
Her chances of making amends as a broodmare weren’t helped when this half-sister to the top-class Sun Prince produced only four foals for Ballymacoll Stud.
However, each of her two daughters has exerted an influence on no less a race than the Dubai World Cup. Boulevard’s younger daughter, the Classic-placed Riverman filly Waterway, is the second dam of the impressive 2002 World Cup winner Street Cry. And now her elder daughter, the Nassau Stakes third Silken Way, ranks as the second dam of Neo Universe, sire of the hugely welcome 2011 World Cup hero, Victoire Pisa.
Victoire Pisa has proved admirably tough and versatile. Officially ranked joint-third among the Japanese 2-year-olds of 2009, when he won his last three starts, he received the top ranking of 121 among the Japanese-raced turf 3-year-olds of 2010, just ahead of his old rival Rose Kingdom and the outstanding English filly Snow Fairy. Now, he is unbeaten in two 4-year-old starts, one on turf and one on Tapeta.
His impressive record stands at eight wins from 13 starts.
In winning last year’s Satsuki Sho, he provided Neo Universe with his second successive winner of this Japanese equivalent to the 2000 Guineas, following the success of Unrivaled in 2009 - a year that also saw Logi Universe, another colt from Neo Universe’s first crop, land the Japanese Derby. To come up with three Classic-winning sons in his first two crops represents a considerable achievement on Neo Universe’s behalf, even allowing for the fact that these crops totalled more than 300 foals.
I first pointed out the stallion’s potential in these pages in December 2008, writing : “Keep an eye out too for Neo Universe, who provided Sunday Silence with his fifth victory in the Japanese Derby in 2003, when he also won the 2000 Guineas. Neo Universe’s first 2-year-olds raced in 2008, and he appears to have an excellent prospect in Logi Universe, an unbeaten winner of two Japanese Group 3 events, including the Radio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes three days ago.”
I went on to make an observation which has taken on more significance since the emergence of Victoire Pisa : “An interesting aspect of Neo Universe’s pedigree is that he is by a son of Halo and his dam Pointed Path is a granddaughter of Boulevard. Street Cry is another hot young stallion out of a granddaughter of Boulevard and he, too, has Halo in his pedigree, as the broodmare sire of his sire Machiavellian. It looks as though Logi Universe’s breeders were intent on strengthening the links between Neo Universe and Street Cry, as the youngster’s second dam is by none other than Machiavellian (creating 3x5 to Halo).”
Victoire Pisa has a high-class daughter of Machiavellian as his dam, so he is inbred 3x4 to Halo, America’s champion sire of 1983 and 1989 (thanks to the Kentucky Derby triumphs of his sons Sunny’s Halo and Sunday Silence).
In addition to Logi Universe and Victoire Pisa, another with two lines of Halo is the exciting young stallion Shamardal, who is out of Street Cry’s sister Helsinki. Shamardal, who has Halo is his fifth and fourth generations, was represented over the weekend by Dunboyne Express, winner of the G3 Leopardstown 2000 Guineas Trial. Others inbred to Halo include the high-class Australian filly More Joyous (3x3) and the major Japanese winners Asakusa Den’en (a half-brother to Victoire Pisa, inbred 3x4) and Danon Chantilly (3x3).
PEDIGREE
VICTOIRE PISA (JPN), Colt, 2007
| VICTOIRE PISA (JPN) |
Neo Universe (JPN) |
Sunday Silence (USA) |
Halo (USA) |
| Wishing Well (USA) |
| Pointed Path (GB) |
Kris (GB) |
| Silken Way (FR) |
| Whitewater Affair (GB) |
Machiavellian (USA) |
Mr Prospector (USA) |
| Coup de Folie (USA) |
| Much Too Risky (GB) |
Bustino (GB) |
| Short Rations (GB) |
Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 
