Danehill Part 2: His ability and pedigree pique Messara’s interest

Cover image courtesy of Sportspix

Danehill was unleashed at Newmarket’s July meeting, where he ran second in a hot maiden won by Chief’s Image (GB) (Chief Singer), a colt who was Group 1-placed on his next start.

“We then ran him in the Convivial maiden at York,” says Roger Charlton. “Disappointment isn’t quite the right word because he won but we were all expecting him to win more easily than he did because his work had been very solid.

“We then took him to France for the Prix de la Salamandre and he pulled very hard, which became a characteristic.”

Danehill finished down the field that day but he remained on course for the following year’s G1 2,000 Guineas. As it turned out, a mile stretched Danehill but at the time, the programme for three-year-old sprinters in Britain was weak, leaving plenty to try their hand in a Guineas before cutting back to sprint distances against older horses later on.

Danehill again pulled hard on his seasonal return in the Free Handicap over 7f at Newmarket but got away with it, winning easily as a 6/1 shot.

Juddmonte had three runners in that year’s Guineas and Danehill was the choice of retained jockey Pat Eddery; he ran well in third but was unable to peg back the winner Nashwan (USA), an exceptional colt that season, and was overhauled late on by the Abdullah second string Exbourne (USA).

“He ran well in that good Guineas and he settled ok that day but then he went to the Irish Guineas where he again pulled too hard and climbed all over the back of horses,” says Charlton. “It was then that we dropped him back in distance.

“We went to what was the Cork and Orrery Stakes [then a Group 3, it is now the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes] and because he was a three-year-old, he had 8 stone to carry and so Willie Carson rode him, being a lightweight. He won that really well [in course record time]. The July Cup came after that, where he came third in a good renewal to Cadeaux Genereux, and then he finished up by winning the Haydock Sprint Cup.

“He was a very easy horse to train. He just had this speed influence from Danzig. He should have stayed a mile but he wanted to be a quick horse and his best trip ended up being 6f.”

Messara emerges on the scene

Tree, who had announced that he would retire from training at the end of the season just prior to Danehill’s Royal Ascot success, was preparing the colt for the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye when a minor joint injury prompted his retirement.

By that stage, Danehill’s future at stud was assured - but not under the Juddmonte banner. Abdullah had dabbled early on with the stallion game through Known Fact, firstly standing him at Juddmonte’s Wargrave Farm in Berkshire.

By 1990, Known Fact was ensconced in Kentucky having made a quiet enough start to his stud career while Rainbow Quest (USA), another Group 1 colt trained by Tree, had taken up residence at Juddmonte’s new Newmarket property Banstead Manor Stud.

Underpinned by the early success of Rainbow Quest, the early 90’s were a time of steady expansion for Juddmonte’s stallion arm, but not every good colt was retained, with the 1993 Derby winner Commander In Chief (GB) and Danehill being notable examples. John Messara had been on the lookout for a son of Danzig to stand at his Arrowfield Stud, then based at Jerry Plains (on what is now Coolmore). With shuttling still in its infancy, there wasn’t the volume of northern hemisphere stallions available that is the norm today but Messara had been quick to bring an international element to his roster in the addition of the leading French sire Kenmare (Fr). Danehill was to follow.

“We had been following the rise of Northern Dancer to Chef de Race status and also the exploits of Vincent O’Brien and Robert Sangster with his progeny,” recalls Messara. “It became clear that acquiring a high-class direct son of the great stallion for Australia was going to be beyond our means, so we decided to analyse all of Northern Dancer’s sons at stud and then determine which of them would produce a son that might be suitable for our programme. So we launched a desk-top study of the progeny characteristics and results of all Northern Dancer’s sons then standing in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Our study indicated that Danzig, while less in vogue than other sons such as Nijinsky, Nureyev and Sadler’s Wells, had the credentials to suit Australia. His progeny were achieving an impressive rate of stakes winners to runners, essentially over sprint distances, and they had an aptitude for grass surfaces….all necessary for success in Australia. That was why we focused on Danzig and then on Danehill who had by then won the Cork and Orrery Stakes and had run a respectable third in Nashwan’s Guineas.”

It is part of racing lore how Danzig’s career was restricted to three starts in minor company. But there was brilliance in those performances, which led to a berth at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. By the time Danehill came along in his fifth crop, there had been an American champion in Chief’s Crown (USA), an American Classic winner in Danzig Connection (USA) and a leading European sprinter in Green Desert (USA).

Indeed, Danehill arrived in the same crop as two other talented European Danzig sons in Sheikh Mohammed’s Polish Precedent (USA), one of the top French milers of 1989, and Shaadi (USA), Danehill’s conqueror in the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas. Both were regarded as strong commercial stallion prospects for Darley, especially Polish Precedent who was rated quite a bit superior to Danehill.

Messara, however, had correctly identified the Danzig that would ultimately make most impact.

“We elected to wait and see if Danehill was able to win at Group 1 level before making our approach,” he says. “We inspected him at Jeremy Tree’s yard in the company of the late Dr. Percy Sykes, the renowned vet, who was a director of Arrowfield. Danehill had won his Group 1 at Haydock and was the Champion 3YO Sprinter, but we noted as he emerged from his box that he was back at the knee. I remember clearly Percy telling me not to be concerned at this as the then reigning great sire-line in Australia was that of Star Kingdom, who Percy said was also back at the knee.

“In any event, that characteristic did not affect Danehill’s stallion career. Otherwise, we found him attractive, but no Adonis.”

An offer of £4 million, which equated to A$8 million, was accepted and Danehill was on his way to Australia. But not everybody was convinced it had been the right move on Juddmonte’s part.

“I do remember when John Messara came to see the horse,” says Charlton. “Jeremy was begging and encouraging Prince Khalid not to sell - he said ‘he’s exactly the type of horse that your mares want’. But I suppose £4 million and a few nominations left over was a very good price in those days.

And Prince Khalid said ‘well we’ll breed another one’. Which they did in Eagle Eyed and Shibboleth, but none of them were of major significance and didn’t go on at stud, whereas Danehill was obviously magic from the beginning.”

Messara adds: “In my negotiations, especially initially, we appointed the young agent John Ferguson to deal with Juddmonte’s Racing Manager Grant Pritchard-Gordon. Grant played his cards very close to his chest, but we felt that there wasn’t the respect for Danzig and his progeny in the UK that other sons of Northern Dancer enjoyed.

“It soon became clear that it was going to come down to price. As you might imagine, it became a little more difficult to conclude a deal when Coolmore joined us in the acquisition, as they were regarded to have more substantial means than the “poor battlers” from Australia! One of the concessions we had to make was ceding Juddmonte five lifetime breeding rights, one of which we assume was used to breed Kind, the dam of Frankel.”

The Arrowfield - Coolmore partnership

For a brief moment, Danehill had been solely an Arrowfield project. But then a chance meeting with the Coolmore team in Ireland changed the agreement - and as it turned out, the course of history.

“Robert Sangster was a great mate of Percy Sykes and through him I developed a nice friendship with Robert, who was a regular visitor to Australia and making his mark on our bloodstock scene, especially in association with Colin Hayes,” says Messara.

“In 1986, Arrowfield purchased 70 per cent of Robert’s Australasian breeding stock. Subsequently, Robert had suggested that on my next trip to the UK, I should slip across to Ireland to meet John Magnier of Coolmore, as we could develop an association for the shuttling of stallions.

“I did this during my trip to acquire Danehill.

“After constructive negotiations as to terms and conditions for shuttling horses between Coolmore and Arrowfield, and the settlement of a pro forma agreement for doing so, as I stood up to leave Magnier asked if we had been looking at any stallion prospects in Europe. At this moment I had to decide whether I would open up on Danehill or not.

“In the interests of a cordial future relationship, I disclosed that we were targeting Danehill purely for Australian purposes. Surprisingly, they hardly knew the horse and then one of their group piped up and said, ‘Isn’t that the Danzig horse that won the sprint at Haydock?’ There just wasn’t much attention being paid to Danzig’s progeny in Europe. When I explained his suitability for Australia they asked to join us, so that Danehill would be the first stallion in our shuttle venture.”

And so the deal was struck.

“It was about A$8 million, and the equivalent of about A$20 million today,” says Messara. “Danehill was not a cheap horse to buy, but he turned out to be spectacularly good value!”

In Danehill Part 3, to appear in these pages over the coming days, we will focus on his early success as a stallion and how he eventually ended up in Coolmore's sole ownership. Segenhoe's Peter O'Brien, who had a close affinity with the stallion, will also contribute with some of his memories.