Zambezi Sun winning the Juddmonte Grand Prix de
Paris
DANSILI
Taken from the TDN
Article by Andrew Caulfield
It
was pretty much business as usual in Europe’s four G1 contests last
week, with champion sire Danehill striking twice through Simply
Perfect in the Falmouth S. and Peeping Fawn in the Irish Oaks,
while Danehill’s son DANSILI supplied the winner of the Juddmonte
Grand Prix de Paris for the second successive year. The early
stages of the Grand Prix were certainly controversial, but there
was no escaping the promise of Zambezi Sun’s display, which
suggested that this very progressive colt has the potential to
follow in Rail Link’s Arc-winning footsteps. The only stallion to
break the Danehill stranglehold was the interesting Sakhee, whose
first crop provided the July Cup hero Sakhee’s Secret.
Peeping Fawn and Simply Perfect are among a total of three G1
winners in Danehill’s final Irish crop, which continues a rich vein
of form dating back to Danehill’s 1998 crop. In his last seven
Irish crops, foaled between 1998 and 2004, Danehill sired a
magnificent total of 27 G1 winners, including such stars as Banks
Hill, Mozart, Westerner, Rock of Gibraltar, Intercontinental, North
Light, Dylan Thomas and George Washington. It wasn’t always like
that, though.
The start of Danehill’s purple patch coincided with his return from
a year in Japan, with his fee raised to IR25,000gns in 1997. The
rise reflected his feat of having taken the title of champion sire
of two-year-olds in 1995 and 1996.
Danehill’s fee had gone in the other direction earlier in his
northern hemisphere career, during a period of falling values.
After starting out at IR20,000gns in 1991, his fee quickly fell to
IR12,500gns and then to IR9,000gns in his third and fourth seasons.
This makes it fair to compare Danehill’s early years with those
of DANSILI who stood his first season at £8,000, his
second at £10,000 and his third and fourth at £12,500.
The facts are that Danehill sired four G1 winners in his first four
crops, which totalled around 288 foals. Zambezi Sun follows Price
Tag, Rail Link and Passage of Time as the fourth G1 winner from
DANSILI’s first three crops, which – neatly enough -
number 287 foals. Dansili has only around 60 two-year-olds this
year, from that often difficult fourth year, but this crop has
already made a bright start. His daughter Proviso was named a TDN
Rising Star when she eased home four lengths clear in a newcomers’
race at Deauville last Wednesday, with her victory being followed a
few hours later by a seven-length success for another Juddmonte
debutante, Famous Name, in a six-furlong maiden.
Needless to say, success on this scale has prepared the ground for
even richer harvests in the future for DANSILI. Even
with his fee raised from £12,500 to £30,000, Dansili was in
tremendous demand from breeders this year. He attracted more than
60 stakes winners, including 30 Group winners, and his book also
included the dams of the recent Prix du Jockey-Club winners
Dalakhani, Blue Canari and Darsi. The dam of Danehill’s
Derby-winning son North Light was another visitor, as was the dam
of that excellent mare Soviet Song.
Juddmonte continued to support DANSILI
strongly, as it has done from the start. However, only seven of the
30 Group-winning visitors this year are owned by Juddmonte, which
shows the extent to which outside breeders have now embraced
DANSILI.
This year’s Juddmonte mares included Nebraska Tornado (G1 Prix de
Diane and G1 Prix du Moulin), Quiff (G1 Yorkshire Oaks), Dance
Routine (G2 Prix de Royallieu), Daring Miss (G2 Grand Prix de
Deauville) and Phantom Wind (a G3-winning daughter of Ryafan). The
dams of the G1 winners Reefscape and Powerscourt were other
Juddmonte visitors, together with Verbose, already dam of Dansili’s
G3 winner Thousand Words, and Mooring, a stakes-winning half-sister
to Rail Link’s dam.
While Juddmonte has bred nine of DANSILI's
stakes winners, there was some sensitivity earlier this year about
a comment made in a British magazine. “I’ve heard from some
quarters,” the writer reported, “that the success of DANSILI is
due to the fact that the broodmare barn at Juddmonte is carrying
the horse.”
Although Juddmonte has enthusiastically supported DANSILI, it
wouldn’t have made sense to send lots of the most highly-qualified
mares to an unproven horse standing at £8,000, £10,000 or even
£12,500. The facts of the matter are that none of DANSILI’s
four G1 winners is out of a mare which earned black type. Rail
Link’s dam Docklands did her winning in the French Provinces, while
Zambezi Sun’s dam Imbabala gained her only success at
Fontainebleau. Passage of Time’s dam Clepsydra had a Timeform
rating of only 78 and Tarocchi, the dam of Price Tag, was a useful
winner who fell short of stakes class. Incidentally, the dams of
all four G1 winners are all in foal to DANSILI once
again.
Of Juddmonte’s other DANSILI stakes winners, Early March and
Quenched are out of unexceptional winners, while Daring Diva and
Thousand Words are out of Listed-placed mares. Only Home Affairs
has a stakes-winning dam, so what might DANSILI
achieve now that he has earned much greater opportunities?
Zambezi Sun’s dam Imbabala is a daughter of the exceptional Zafonic
and had the attraction of being a descendant of Peace, one of
Juddmonte’s most successful foundation mares. Interruption, another
Zafonic mare from the Peace family, is the dam of Much Faster, one
of the speediest juvenile fillies in France in 2003, when she won
the G2 Prix Robert Papin and was second in the G1 Prix Morny.
Peace is one of the most widely represented mares in the Juddmonte
stud book, through the descendants of her daughters De Stael,
Balabina and Intermission. De Stael, best known as the dam of the
Eclipse Award-winning Wandesta, is the second dam of DANSILI's
talented daughter Cantabria. Cantabria’s dam also produced the very
speedy Deportivo.
Zambezi Sun’s third dam, Intermission, earned a Timeform rating of
117 in winning three of her six starts, including the prestigious
Cambridgeshire H. Although Intermission produced nothing
better than a GIII winner – the Sadler’s Wells filly Interim – she
is the dam of several successful broodmares. One of them – Zambezi
Sun’s second dam Interval - was third in the 1000 Guineas and is
the second dam of Continent, a winner of two of Europe’s G1 sprints
in 2002.
Imbabala has more than justified her retention, as Zambezi Sun is
her second Group winner from her first four foals. His predecessor
Kalabar was a G2 winner over 1¼ miles. Interestingly, Kalabar was
by Kahyasi, the sire of DANSILI’s astonishing dam Hasili.
Zambezi Sun isn’t the only reminder that the versatile Peace family
is still very much alive. Interim, the Sadler’s Wells filly
mentioned above, is the dam of Mizzen Mast’s two-year-old son
Midships, who made an impressive winning debut in a hot maiden in
June. Also, Proviso – the DANSILI filly who gained TDN Rising Star status
last week – is out of Binche, a great-grand-daughter of Peace, so
the rest of this year could be an exciting time for the
Dansili-Peace alliance.
Date:
17 July 2007