DANEHILL
Over the years, Juddmonte Farms has bred many outstanding
performers, including Eclipse Award winners and winners of all five
British classics, but the farms’ greatest contribution to the
international bloodstock world so far has unquestionably been
Danehill, the phenomenal Coolmore stallion who died on May 13.
Stallions of Danehill’s achievements come along only very
rarely.
Danehill’s death came just two days after this son of Danzig had
been represented by first and second in the French 2000 Guineas,
and his extraordinary total of stakes winners already stood at a
record 209.
Ironically, Danehill’s dam, the His Majesty mare Razyana, is
still going strong at the age of 22, having conceived to her first
2003 mating to Distant View. Danehill was her first foal and his
excellent racing record, which featured victories in the Gr.3 Cork
& Orrery Stakes and Gr.1 Ladbroke Sprint Cup, plus third place
in the 2000 Guineas, resulted in Razyana becoming a regular visitor
to the extremely gifted Claiborne stallion.
Altogether, the partnership of Danzig and Razyana has produced
nine foals, the youngest being their 2002 filly. No fewer than four
of them – Danehill, Eagle Eyed, Harpia and Shibboleth – became
Group or Graded winners and two others – Anziyan and Quick To
Please – earned black type. Tragically, Shibboleth succumbed to
laminitis in the autumn of 2002,shortly before he was due to
commence stallion duties at Banstead Manor, but Danehill’s sisters
Harpia, Quick To Please and Family are all part of Prince Khalid’s
American broodmare band. Harpia has already produced eye-catching
youngsters by Chester House and Kingmambo.
Danehill’s own legacy to Juddmonte Farms has also been very
valuable. His stakes-winning broodmare daughters at Juddmonte
include the Eclipse Award winner Banks Hill (now carrying her first
foal, by Kingmambo), Prove (in foal to Zamindar, having produced a
2003 filly foal to Sadler’s Wells), Kithira (now carrying her first
foal, by Elusive Quality), Half Glance (who will produce her first
foal, by Sadler’s Wells, in 2004) and Danefair (dam of Juddmonte’s
highly talented Zafonic colt Trade Fair and now visiting Zafonic’s
brother Zamindar).
Banks Hill, of course, is part of a wonderful dynasty being
established by sending Juddmonte’s stakes-winning Kahyasi mare
Hasili to sons of Danzig. Hasili’s Green Desert filly Heat Haze is
currently establishing herself as one of the finest female turf
performers in the USA, having used her dazzling acceleration to win
two Grade 3 events, including the hotly-contested Citgo Distaff
Turf Mile on the Kentucky Derby card..
Hasili’s Danehill filly Intercontinental is also proving herself
one of the best fillies of her generation. Her only defeats have
come in the Grand Criterium, when she was beaten only half a length
and the same by the colts Hold That Tiger and Le Vie Dei Colori
(later winner of the Italian 2000 Guineas), and in a vintage
edition of the 1000 Guineas, in which she came to win her race,
only to run out of stamina in the final furlong.
In finishing third in the 1000 Guineas, Intercontinental
extended a remarkable sequence for her dam. Hasili’s first foal,
the Danehill colt Dansili, contested the 1999 French 2000 Guineas,
finishing clear of 13 others when second to Sendawar. Her second
foal, Banks Hill, failed by only a head to snatch victory in the
2001 French 1000 Guineas, despite having to be switched at a
crucial stage. And her third foal, Heat Haze, came through from the
rear to finish fifth of 17 in the 2002 French 1000 Guineas. So
Hasili’s first four foals have all been good enough to contest a
Guineas race and none has finished worse than fifth.
Juddmonte Farms have every hope that this impressive sequence
will continue. Cacique, Hasili’s two-year-old Danehill colt looks a
serious prospect. Hasili has produced another colt by
Danehill in 2003 and has been scanned back in foal to him, so the
dynasty is set to grow. Hasili’s record-setting sister Arrive also
produced a good-looking Danehill colt in February and is again in
foal to him.
The frequency with which Danehill and Hasili have produced
top-notch performers with impressive finishing speed encourages the
belief that their progeny are going to be very dependable
transmitters of the family’s substantial talents. Dansili
demonstrated the full extent of his acceleration in the 2000
Breeders’ Cup Mile, when he flashed through from tenth place
entering the short straight to be beaten only a neck and a nose.
“Dansili didn’t have anywhere to go,” reported rider John
Velasquez. “I had to wait and wait and wait. He finished
unbelievable and if I could have gotten out just a little sooner, I
would have won.”
Dansili’s first-crop progeny are now yearlings. He has been in
such great demand from breeders that his fee has had to be adjusted
from £8,000 in his first season, to £10,000 in his second and then
to £12,500 in his third, in 2003. In common with Danzig and
Danehill, Dansili is a dominant bay and he is stamping his stock
well.
Prince Khalid has supported him strongly and Juddmonte has 21
Dansili yearlings, including good sorts out of High And Low (second
in the St Leger), Houseproud (French 1000 Guineas), Dockage (dam of
the Group-winning two-year-old Wharf), Fetish (dam of the
Group-winning Polar Way), Hunt The Sun (dam of a Gr.2 winner and
sister to two Gr.1 winners), Illusory (dam of the Gr.1-placed
Illustrator), Orford Ness (a Gr.3 winner), Post Modern (sister to
the Oaks winner Reams of Verse and dam of the Group-placed Risk
Taker), Quandary (a stakes-winning daughter of Blushing Groom) and
West Devon (dam of the very useful Salcombe).
This year Juddmonte has Dansili foals out of such good mares as
Andaleeb, Aquamarine, Arabesque, Docklands, Interval, Shining Water
and Valencia.
As several of Danehill’s older sons, such as Danehill Dancer,
Flying Spur and Danzero, have quickly sired Gr.1 winners, Danehill
already has a reputation as a successful sire of sires and there is
every reason to think that Dansili will quickly add to that
reputation
Date:
10 June 2003