Danehill Part 1: The Early Years

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

The curtain is coming down on one of the most important chapters in Australasian bloodstock history. The recent retirements of veterans Exceed And Excel and Fastnet Rock from stud duty means that the pool of Danehill (USA) sons available to an Australian audience has been greatly reduced in a single swoop. A handful remain in service but for all their respective merits, it’s at a far lower level.

Of course, there are numerous second, third and even fourth generation male-line descendants available thanks to the brilliance of various sons, chiefly Redoute’s Choice, Exceed And Excel and Fastnet Rock.

Much of Danehill’s magic lay in his ability to work in both hemispheres and those above followed suit to varying degrees on their shuttle trips to Europe, where the Danehill legacy was quick to gain a foothold through other sons such Danehill Dancer (Ire), himself another effective shuttler, Dansili (GB) and Kodiac (GB). The latter still remains in service today at the age of 23 at Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland while another son, 20-year-old Holy Roman Emperor (Ire), remains on Coolmore’s Irish roster at its Castlehyde Stud division.

84 winners at the highest level

Danehill’s stud career stretched from 1990 until his death aged 17 in May 2003. As a prolific shuttler, he left behind a volume of foals - 2,502 to be exact. Yet this wasn’t a case where opportunity diluted the product. There were 347 stakes winners, which equated to a 14 per cent black-type winners to foals of racing age strike-rate, of which 84 were at Group or Grade 1 level, alongside nine Australian sires’ championships and another three in Britain and Ireland.

Little was out of reach; from G1 Golden Slipper colts to outstanding middle-distance talents in the southern hemisphere to accomplished speedsters, an Epsom Derby winner and champion stayer in Europe, Danehill touched the industry in a global way not seen before. And while various sons went on to secure his legacy via their own branches, his daughters were also quick to become an important part of the bloodstock landscape, perhaps none more so than Kind (Ire), the dam of Frankel (GB).

Even today, 35 years on from Danehill’s 3-year-old career, we as an industry are arguably no further closer to identifying the real breed-shapers of the future.

Opinions can be formed by some of the industry’s finest minds and in-depth research undertaken but the fact remains the majority of stallions fail and some of those that exceed expectations are also capable of creeping up on you; Written Tycoon being an example in Australia and Havana Grey (GB) currently in Europe.

As far as Danehill was concerned, however, he went to stud with the powerful package of race record, one underpinned by speed, and pedigree behind him.

The building of Juddmonte’s powerful broodmare band

His dam Razyana (USA) (His Majesty) was brought into the Juddmonte fold during the early 1980s at a time when Prince Khalid Abdullah was laying the foundations to what is today one of the most powerful broodmare bands in the world.

Numerous important mares were acquired at that time through the eye of James Delahooke and Humphrey Cottrill, whether as yearlings or later in life. Razyana, as a His Majesty granddaughter of Northern Dancer’s dam Natalma (USA) (Native Dancer) and great-granddaughter of another E. P. Taylor blue hen Almahmoud (USA) (Mahmoud), would have sat nicely in any broodmare band worldwide, but as it turned out, Delahooke was able to secure her for $350,000 when she came up for sale from John Galbreath and Daniel van Clief on August 12, 1982 at Saratoga.

“This was quite a result because I had agreed with Prince Khalid that if necessary we would go to $1.6 million to secure this amazing pedigree,” recalled Delahooke once in a letter to the Racing Post. “Happily none of the big battalions competed for her and, after a modest racing career, she joined the Juddmonte broodmare band. The rest is bloodstock history.”

By sending Razyana to Danzig (USA), Juddmonte doubled up on Natalma, 3x3 to be exact. There’s no doubt that this element to his pedigree was an important part of Danehill’s make-up, as it was to another inbred horse, Machiavellian (USA), who wielded his share of importance after him.

Machiavellian was inbred to Almahmoud and interestingly various descendants of his line have gone on to forge strong affinities with those carrying Danehill.

As was the case with the Abdullah stock at the time, Razyana was sent to Britain to be trained by Jeremy Tree at Beckhampton in Wiltshire. Abdullah had made a quiet foray into British racing in the mid-1970s with a handful of horses, including with Ron Smyth at Epsom. However, he was ambitious.

Cottrill was appointed to oversee his racing interests and upon the recommendation of his new racing manager, became an owner at Beckhampton - which at that stage also housed the European horses belonging to Jock Whitney, whose Rockfest (USA) (Stage Door Johnny) family would later supply Frankel.

Among the first crop of Abdullah horses trained at Beckhampton was a $225,000 son of In Reality, who turned out to be the 1980 2,000 Guineas winner Known Fact (USA). Another, a lesser $50,000 yearling Abeer (USA) (Sharpen Up), won the Queen Mary Stakes within a year of her purchase.

“There were four yearlings the first year,” says Roger Charlton, who joined Beckhampton as Tree’s assistant in 1978 and took over the reins in 1990.

“Then it got more and more, and then one year Jeremy had the choice of all the yearlings. There was a time when out of 65 horses we had here, maybe 40 odd were Juddmonte horses. The Prince and Jeremy respected each other and I think the Prince gained a lot of confidence from the relationship.”

Gallery: Prince Khalid Abdullah was laying the foundations to what is today one of the most powerful broodmare bands in the world

Razyana was among the intake of 1983. Described by Timeform as ‘quite an attractive filly’ and a ‘good mover’, she ran an encouraging second in a 26-runner maiden at Newmarket as a two-year-old but didn’t cut much ice over 1m2f at three, with a third in minor company at Nottingham the highlight of two starts.

The birth of a legend

Danehill, foaled at Juddmonte’s Kentucky base on 26 March, 1986, was the first foal out of the mare and ultimately her best, for all that subsequent visits to Danzig yielded the Group/Graded stakes winners Eagle Eyed (USA), Harpia (USA) and Shibboleth (USA).

Scott Walker, yearling manager of Juddmonte Farms in Kentucky, has had numerous fledgling stars under his watch during his lengthy tenure with the operation. It is 37 years since Danehill stepped into his barn but memories have not been dimmed with the passage of time.

“He was highly thought of here as a young horse,” says Walker. “He was a strong yearling and very good-looking. Razyana threw them all like that, all good-bodied, good-looking individuals. She was a tough mare, very strong herself.

“A lot of the Danzigs could be tough-minded but he wasn’t that bad. I remember we had 21 colts that year. In those days, they were rated 1 through 21 and he was rated in third. The only negative on him was that the riders found him uncomfortable to ride. He was short coupled and stocky and a little straight through his hocks. And he had a sprinters action. But we knew there was ability.”

Tree would tend to fly over several times in the second half of the year to view the Kentucky yearlings and make his choice. Work with the youngsters would start on August 1 with the idea that the horses would be in Europe by the first part of December.

“We would break them here to ride and they learned how to gallop in the fields and in company,” says Walker. “And Danehill always did that really well.

“Jeremy Tree would come and see them, often while he was over for the sales in July and September. He had first pick. Then he would come back in November, see them all under tack and make his final selection then.”

“When Danehill came here, he was a plain yearling,” says Charlton. “He had big ears and quite a big head. He was clearly back at the knee on both forelegs. I don’t really know where that came from - Razyana certainly wasn’t back at the knee.

“He was ridden regularly by David Quinn, who was Jeremy Tree’s travelling head lad. He was a very relaxed 2-year-old, especially early on, but when it came to doing more, he lit up pretty quickly. He switched on and showed that he had plenty of speed.”

The next installment in this series on Danehill, to appear in TTR AusNZ over the coming days, will focus on him as a racehorse. Arrowfield Stud's John Messara will also weigh in with some insights.