Danehill Part 3: The remarkable dual-hemisphere stallion

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

Danehill (USA) commenced stud duty in 1990 at Coolmore in Ireland for Ir25,000gns before taking up his place on the Arrowfield Stud roster at $30,000 for the Southern Hemisphere season.

There were about 65 foals in that first Northern Hemisphere crop while his first Australian crop was similarly sized, with an opening book of 72 mares underpinned by ‘heavy’ support from Arrowfield.

“It’s hard to imagine now,” says John Messara, who had driven the deal to bring the son of Danzig to his Arrowfield Stud, then based at Jerry Plains. “But Danehill was something very new for Australian breeders in 1990 so it was not easy to market him. But we backed him heavily ourselves.

“He served 72 mares in his first season, and 64 in his second season, and the resulting foals included Group 1 winners Danzero, Danewin, Joie Denise, Flying Spur, Nothin’ Leica Dane and Daney Boy - all bred by Arrowfield.”

In Europe, several high-class performers emerged out of that first Irish-conceived crop including Kissing Cousin (Ire), a homebred for Sheikh Mohammed who won the 1994 G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot, and the McCalmont family’s homebred Danish (Ire), who travelled to the US to capture the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in the autumn of that same year. Among the colts, Alriffa (GB) was third in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club.

It was a promising start but eclipsed by that in Australia, where fast and quick-maturing youngsters quickly became the order of the day.

“I remember looking at yearlings at Ferrans (a division of Juddmonte Farms in Ireland) with all the Juddmonte trainers and the conversation came round to Danehill,” says Roger Charlton, who was assistant to trainer Jeremy Tree at Beckhampton during Danehill’s racing career.

“It was as his first crop were running over here and I think Henry (Cecil) had a few of them. I remember he said, ‘Well I haven’t seen much from them yet and I think they’re probably always going to need soft ground’.

“And then within months, his first Aussie crop was running on rattling firm ground over 5f and winning everything!

“It became apparent very early on that it didn’t matter if it was a filly or a colt, a 2-year-old or a 4-year-old, he was just a very, very good stallion. And he could get horses who stayed really well like Westerner (Ascot Gold Cup winner) too. He was remarkable like that.”

Remarkable was indeed the word from the moment his first crop of Australian 2-year-olds hit the track. His yearlings had received a mixed reception at the sales, with several onlookers evidently wary of their size and substance. Yet as it turned out, it was that strength aligned with a generally solid temperament that would come to stand them in good stead.

Few people knew Danehill as well as Peter O’Brien. Now general manager of Segenhoe Stud, O’Brien was at the helm of Coolmore Australia at the time when Danehill was king.

“I initially worked with him in Ireland. I used to shuttle with the stallions and I took him down in the year he had first yearlings,” he says. “I think Michael Phelan took him the first two times. Then I took him down for two years. Adrian O’Brien also took him and Bill Dwan. It’s amazing - he obviously rubbed off on people because a lot of those who looked after him went on to be successful.

Gallery: Some of the well-known thoroughbred industry identities who worked directly with Danehill in their early years

“He was the most gentle of creatures. I remember one time when he had colic and I slept in his stable for two nights. I had a sleeping bag in the corner - the only reason I got in there was it was warmer! And he’d just step over me. No other stallion would you consider doing that with!

And to me, that just exemplified his nature.”

He adds: “I remember that first crop of yearlings by him in Australia. People just didn’t know what to think. Danzero (the G1 Golden Slipper S. winner) was in that crop - I think he was about 510kg as a yearling and Flying Spur was up there too.

“That crop didn’t sell well and everyone thought that they were just a bit coarse and heavy. But the one attribute that they nearly all had was that lovely, big loose-swinging action. That was a real trait of his animals. And they also all had good temperaments. They were all like their dad in that respect. That’s important for Australia, and particularly in that era when it was a hard-working environment for racehorses - they needed to be tough.”

Danzero, bought for just $55,000 as a yearling by Lee Freedman at the 1993 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, became Danehill’s first Australian-bred stakes winner in the Listed VRC Maribyrnong Trial S. on 3 October 1993. He later took the G3 VATC Blue Diamond Prelude before handing his sire the ultimate first-crop landmark with a hard-fought win in the G1 Golden Slipper. In the process, he became the first of Danehill’s 89 Group/Grade 1 winners.

By the end of that season, there were four 2-year-old stakes winners. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings was Danewin, a terrific runner for Bob Thomsen whose wins included the G1 AJC Spring Champion S., G1 VRC LKS Mackinnon S., G1 STC Rosehill Guineas, G1 BATC Doomben Cup, and G1 VATC Caulfield S., and Danasinga, the G1 QTC Stradbroke H. winner. Joie Denise also took the G1 Queensland Oaks while Danarani won the G1 Toorak H.

So even at that early stage, there was a template for the future; they could sprint, stretch out, come to hand early and yet also progress.

“Yes, the feedback from trainers on his first 2-year-olds was strong,” says Messara. “I remember one said they had laidback temperaments but would go through brick walls, which explained them quite well.

“Anyway, I worked it out early that he was going to be a good stallion and moved quickly to buy his first Golden Slipper winner Danzero (which we had bred and sold cheaply as a yearling) and then took control of his second Golden Slipper winner Flying Spur, which I had syndicated as a yearling at the sales. Then the stakes winners and Group 1 winners just kept rolling out!”

That first Australian crop of 49 foals ultimately contained 41 winners, of which 10 were stakes scorers.

“People learned quickly what to expect - they were big, strong horses,” says O’Brien. “They might be a bit offset or a bit back at the knee - a lot of that has gone now it’s three or four generations down - but they had a lot of bone and lovely big feet on them. And the biggest thing was the action. No matter how big or small they were, they glided.

“The other thing was their appetite. All of them had a big appetite just like him. I remember you’d feed him first in the barn and by the time you’d finished the others, his dinner would be gone.

“I said to someone on our farm only recently, the one thing with the Danehills was that you could walk through a paddock and literally pick every one of them out - the strength, the colour, the head and they all had that lovely star. Home Affairs is the first stallion since that I’ve seen stamp his progeny in that way.”

Danehill was the dominant champion first-crop sire of his generation and when he threw another two real superstars in Flying Spur and Nothin’ Leica Dane - both also bred by Arrowfield - out of a similarly sized second-crop, there was the confirmation that he was no flash in the pan.

Trained like Danzero by Lee Freedman, Flying Spur struck early in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude and after running placed in both the G1 Blue Diamond and G1 Sires’ Produce S. was sent to the G1 Golden Slipper S., where as a 25/1 shot he made up an enormous amount of ground to snatch victory from subsequent Horse of the Year Octagonal (NZ). A tough horse, he also later won the G1 Australian Guineas and G1 All Aged S. before retiring to stand at Chatswood Stud. Not long after, he relocated to stand alongside Danzero at Arrowfield.

“I remember Lee Freedman, the first trainer to really identify the Danehills, saying that they were an incredible animal,” says O’Brien. “He said that the first time you’d run them up a bit as 2-year-olds, they might not show you much. But that was just because they’re so laid back. And the next time in, when the penny has dropped, they were different animals. And durable too.”

Nothin’ Leica Dane, meanwhile, won the 1995 G1 Victoria Derby for Gai Waterhouse three days prior to running second to Doriemus (Norman Pentaquad) in the G1 Melbourne Cup - staged only days after his actual third birthday. His enterprising connections later sent him to France, where under the care of John Hammond he contested Peintre Celebre’s Arc.

That was 1997, the year that Desert King (Ire) had reminded those in Europe of Danehill’s capabilities by sweeping the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and G1 Irish Derby for Aidan O’Brien. At the time, he was Danehill’s fourth Group 1 winner in Europe, following off the back of Danish and Kissing Cousin foaled three crops earlier and then the precocious Group 1-winning 2-year-old Danehill Dancer (Ire).

That’s not to say Danehill was underwhelming in those early days in Europe. Having supplied eight stakes winners in first-crop, he went on to produce another six in his second and nine in his third, of which Michael Tabor’s Danehill Dancer was the highlight. Desert King was the best of the stakes-winning octet foaled in his fourth in 1994.

“It took Europe longer to cop on to him and when they did, he took off,” says O’Brien. “I think he got much better support early on in Australia. In fairness, John Messara threw everything at him in the beginning.”

Indeed it hadn’t taken long for Danehill to become hot property in Australia - too hot to handle as it turned out since by the time the true merits of his second crop could be appreciated, he was under the sole ownership of Coolmore in a multi-million dollar deal. On paper, it was a cash injection for Arrowfield but at the cost of losing the golden goose.

Coolmore, by contrast, now had a dual-hemisphere phenomenon.

In Danehill Part 4, to appear in TTR AusNZ soon, we will focus on the battle between Coolmore and Arrowfield to acquire the stallion outright. It's not to be missed!