J J THE JET PLANE : All Summerhill and Hartford

Northern Guest
(Photo: Summerhill Stud)

You read our piece on J J The Jet Plane’s fine performance in the Leisure Stakes last week. A few notes on his origins.

Firstly, he’s another example of close and successful in-breeding to the grand old man of the game, Northern Dancer. But closer to home, J.J. is out of Majestic Guest, who was bred and raised at Summerhill, the daughter of the fellow who’s paid for most of what you see around us today, Northern Guest. Of course Northern Guest, is the most decorated broodmare sire in South African history, so it’s no surprise that one of his daughters pop up with a horse of J.J’s ilk.

That said, Majestic Guest was a product of a granddaughter of the one-time incumbent of our barn, Home Guard, from a family which is all Hartford, going back to the days of the Ellis family. Majestic Guest’s granddam, Fantastic, was a winner of the Grade One Breeders Champion Fillies Stakes, in turn a daughter of one the best racers to grace the Hartford paddocks, Panjandrum.

As for Jet Master himself, J.J’s sire, his great granddam resided at Summerhill as the property of the late Dickie Dunn, and her daughter, Jolly Laughter, was bred and raised at Summerhill. To complete the circle, Jet Master’s own mother Jet Lightening, was sold for the paltry sum of R10,000 at the annual KZN Broodmare Sale, which in those days was hosted in Malhub’s paddock alongside the Summerhill office. Talk about rags to riches.

There’s a lot of sentiment riding on J J The Jet Plane’s entry at Royal Ascot in a fortnight, particularly in this quarter, and we’re tipping him to make it a double notwithstanding the Aussie assault from Takeover Target. Both the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr.1), and the race which made Malhub famous, the Golden Jubilee Sprint (Gr.1), beckon.

BIG ACCOLADE FOR STRONGHOLD

Stronghold
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

 “BIG ACCOLADE FROM BIG NEWSPAPER FOR A BIG HORSE”

Thursday’s issue of England’s Racing Post, the foremost daily newspaper on racing, carried a story on the significance of times down Ascot’s straight course. Of significance to Summerhill and Stronghold, the horse we proclaimed one of the best to enter our stallion ranks, is the fact he posted the best time performance in the history of Ascot’s course in his big effort in the 2006 renewal of the Royal Hunt Cup.

Stronghold’s effort should be seen in the context that the same course is the venue for the running of one of the world’s most celebrated Group One miles, the Queen Anne Stakes, which takes place during Royal Ascot week, coming up in a fortnight’s time.

His trainer, John Gosden, always believed Stronghold had a Group One race in him, and it was for that reason that he did not get to his second career at Summerhill until 2008.

Following his big run at Ascot in 2006, Stronghold was injured as the starting favourite for the season end Challenge (Gr.2) at Newmarket, and then suffered a career-crippling injury in recovery after keyhole surgery on his knee in the off-season. As a result, he only saw the racecourse once thereafter, and that was in the Hungerford Stakes (Gr.2) where, after a twelve month layoff, he snatched the lead with a furlong to go, only to go down to a flying Red Evi (triple Group One heroine) in the dying strides, when both his condition and his soundness finally yielded to the demands of a spectacular finish.

Either way, this survey in the Racing Post reminds us how fortunate we are to have a horse of Stronghold’s credentials on the roster. No wonder the man who bred Danehill and the best Danehills since, Prince Khalid Abdullah, retained a rare breeding interest in this fellow, just as he did with Danehill.

Racing Post Thursday 4 June 2009

“Since Ascot re-laid the straight course in 2005, it is fair to say that there have been some unusual results at the track which have left students of the form book scratching their heads.

For starters, you can never be confident about where the fastest ground is, although you only have to look at the stalls numbers of the horses who dominated last season’s Golden Jubilee – the first five home were drawn in the five lowest-numbered stalls – to see that track biases can have a massive impact on the outcome of these races on the straight course.

Then there’s the track’s slick drainage, which means that it nearly always rides fast - just look at the GoingStick readings, which often imply it is riding much quicker than the official going description – with the possible exception being those races staged in the immediate aftermath of a heavy downpour.

There is also the track’s crossover with the all-weather, as we’ve seen many horses whose form has suggested they’re much better on artificial surfaces, particularly Polytrack, run well on the turf at Ascot.

This could be down to the fact that some horses really let themselves down on the unique racing surface and it places an emphasis on speed by rewarding horses who travel well in their races.

Nearly all of all-weather racing is staged on oval circuits, but I suspect that if we had all-weather racing on straight courses, the style of racing would be similar to what we’ve been seeing at Ascot.

In short, it’s a track for specialists, and as many of the races at Royal Ascot are staged on the straight course I thought it would be interesting to bring attention to some of the horses, many of whom are heading to Royal Ascot, that have been able to post significant performances on the clock on the straight course.

Races over 7f and 1m

The big handicap over 7f at Royal Ascot is the Buckingham Palace Stakes, but the entries for that race are yet to be published, and hopefully Clive Brittain’s Al Muheer will be handed an entry.

As a three-year-old last August he recorded an adjusted time of 74.64 over 6f, the sixth best time for that distance by a three-year-old and the best by a three-year-old in a handicap, while he also recorded a good time over a straight mile in July. He is on an attractive mark of 96 and 7f should be perfect for him.

But the big ante-post handicap over the straight mile is the Royal Hunt Cup. It’s routinely run at a strong pace and the top three adjusted times were all posted n the race.

Stronghold, who finished second off 9st 8lb in 2006, leads the way on 99.90 seconds, while last year’s second Docofthebay and winner Mr. Aviator fill second and third spots.

Docofthebay carried 9st 6lb when recording that time, but has slipped down the handicap, so will shoulder just 8st 11lb this season. If he can recapture his peak form, he looks extremely well handicapped.”

ASCOT BEST TIME PERFORMERS
(Straight course since 2006)

HORSE	AGE	ADJUSTED TIME (sec)
5f
Miss Andretti June 07	6	60.20
Dandy Man June 07	4	60.34
Magnus June 07	5	60.40
Takeover Target June 07	8	60.50
Takeover Target June 06	7	60.83
6f
Soldier’s Tale June 07	6	73.53
Takeover Target June 07	8	73.57
Asset June 07	4	73.67
War Artist	5	73.68
Red Clubs June 07	4	73.77
7f
Jeremy June 06	3	87.40
Red Clubs	3	87.75
Laa Rayb	4	87.79
Nans Joy Aug 08	4	87.79
Asset June 06	3	87.80
1m
Stronghold June 06	4	99.50
Docofthebay Aug 08	4	100.49
Mr.Aviator Aug 08	4	100.50
Soviet Song June 06	6	100.59
Cesare June 06	5	100.82

MR PROSPECTOR to the fore at Royal Ascot

Mr. Prospector
(Stallions Premium)

What was very striking about the results of the mile races is that all six placings were filled by horses from the Mr. Prospector sire line: the Australian version of Fusaichi Pegasus , Zamindar, and Mr. Greeley in the Queen Anne; and Kingmambo, Elusive Quality, and Observatory in the St. James’s Palace. Three of the six are by sons of Gone West: Zamindar, Mr. Greeley, and Elusive Quality. Only two of the six stand in Europe: Zamindar and Observatory, both bred and raced by Juddmonte, and both standing at Banstead Manor.

However dominant the Northern Dancer line has become in Europe, it seems there’s always room for that high-quality, essentially American, Mr. Prospector blood. Oh, and Takeover Target is also Mr. Prospector-line; he’s from an Australian crop by Celtic Swing, who stands in Ireland.

Encouraging from a Summerhill perspective is that eight of the eleven stallions on our 2008 roster carry the blood of MR PROSPECTOR, which we believe to be perfectly suited to our local conditions. Already his two sons, SECRET PROSPECTOR and MUHTAFAL have broadly advertised “Mr P’s” merit, while grandson WESTERN WINTER must rank with the all-time great stallions in South Africa.

Click here to view the Summerhill Stallions

Stallions 2008, the Three Musketeers and the Danehill Mystery

Dr Gene Tsoi and William Choi from Hong Kong with their $800 000 Karaka Yearling Sale purchase; a bay colt from Cambridge Stud, Danehill x Nine Carats
( Phil Walter /Getty)

Leading Australian bloodstock correspondent, Andrew Reichard, had the following article published in Friday’s edition of Stallions Daily Bulletin.  

“What a title, I hope it has piqued your interest. How on earth, I hear you thinking, can that mouthful all be turned into one story. Well, here goes, I’ll give it a try.

The Australian version of Stallions 2008 is now at the printer, almost finished. Of the 306 stallions entered, an incredible 135 are descendents of DANZIG (Northern Dancer-Pas de Nom by Admiral’s Voyage), with 71 sons of Danehill (Danzig-Razyana by His Majesty) and another 33 grandsons or great grandsons of Danehill. So with 104 Danehill line sires, the representation of that marvellous sire is over one third of all the entries in this year’s book.

I don’t believe that there has ever been such a preponderance of stallions descended from one sire in any of the world’s major racing jurisdictions. Danehill was truly a wonder horse, ideally suited to Australian conditions, siring Golden Slipper winners, champion sprinters, wfa winners, classic winners, stars of both sexes, you name it, he did it. OK, no Melbourne Cup winner but that’s hardly surprising for although he has sired some very tough stayers in the Northern Hemisphere, Danehill’s ideal milieu was the speed saturated environment of Australia as his record nine sires titles attests.

His sons have proved to be excellent sires themselves, the early success at stud of Golden Slipper winners Danzero and Flying Spur providing a foretaste of what was to come with Redoute’s Choice and Flying Spur being champion sires in successive years in the last two completed seasons. Little wonder that studmasters around the nation are clamouring for sons and grandsons of Danehill, there is no more obvious path to the summit in the current circumstances and in the world of speed of which we Australians are the masters.

A world of speed that, on the racetrack, is presently dominated by the three musketeers of sprinting, the Athos, Porthos and Aramis of equine brilliance - better known as Takeover Target , Apache Cat and Weekend Hussler . These three quintessentially Australian sprinters should in all probability have a Danehill connection of some sort. But here comes the complete surprise, the three musketeers don’t have a skerrick of Danehill blood anywhere. Bit of a mystery really, at a time when the commercial bloodlines of this country are so dominated by the sons of one sire (and don’t forget Danehill is currently the champion broodmare sire as well), the three really outstanding sprinters of the day are entirely free of his blood.

Athos, Porthos and Aramis do have quite a few other things in common though, that’s why I’ve Musketeerised them (if Musketeerised wasn’t a word before then it is now). All three are great crowd favourites, all three are trained by relative battlers, all three were purchased inexpensively at public auctions (Weekend Hussler at AUS $80K certainly not expensive by select sale commercial standards), all three are by Mr Prospector line sires and all three have only one strain of Northern Dancer, amazingly in exactly the same position in the pedigree as the great grandsire of their dams. I would love to be able to also tell you that they were all foaled under a full moon, but I’d only be guessing.

Anyway I’ve done it, solved the riddle of the title of this story, by demonstrating that Australia’s three best sprinters, who are arguably the three best horses overall, the three musketeers, are all by Mr Prospector line stallions, mysteriously without any blood of Danehill anywhere between them, at a time when Danehill exerts such a massive dominance over the commercial thoroughbred population that over one third of the stallions in the industry’s leading stallion register are his sons, grandsons or great grandsons.”

Footnote : Surprising then that South Africa has such a dearth of quality Danehill blood, but hardly surprising that his three best sons are at Summerhill. 

WAY WEST gets a handshake

Way West (Quentin J Lang)

Yesterday we pointed to the compliment STRONGHOLD received from CESARE’s big run in the Lockinge (Gr1), and today’s story revolves around SANZIRO, third to TAKEOVER TARGET in Sunday’s Krisflyer International Sprint (Gr1) in Singapore.

SANZIRO was beaten just a half length and a nose in the $1 million event, a considerably lesser margin that the 1,5 lengths he went down to Summerhill resident sire, WAY WEST in Australia’s time-honoured “stallion maker”, the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr3).

Way West
Blue Diamond Prelude 2004

Takover Target
Krisflyer International Sprint 2008