Danehill Part 4: The Sydney Showdown

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

There had been the two G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winners in Danzero and Flying Spur. Danewin had just won the G1 Spring Champion Stakes at Randwick, the first of his five Group 1 victories, while in Europe, the first-crop fillies Kissing Cousin (Ire) and Danish (Ire) had both struck at the top level.

The groundwork had been laid for the dual-hemisphere phenomenon that was to develop although at that stage, he was still very much an Australian success story; to sire a pair of G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winners in as many crops was obviously of great significance but an achievement made all the remarkable by the fact that those two crops would come to contain 18 stakes winners from 95 foals. To highlight the point further, he ended the 1994/95 racing season as Australia’s champion sire thanks to just over A$4.34 million in progeny earnings - with just two crops to race for him.

Yet dark clouds were gathering.

“It’s a long and sad story!” remarks Messara. “Danehill was my first shuttle experience and I looked to Dr. Percy Sykes who suggested that we should review how the stallion was handling the shuttle after three years.

Testing the shuttle workload

“When we got to that stage, the advice I received from the Stud Manager at Arrowfield was that the horse was handling the travel and the workload well. So we elected to continue, and as time went on he was generating amazing results, especially in Australia, at all distances and all ages, with both male and female progeny.

“After five shuttle years, at the end of 1994, I made it known to Coolmore that I was concerned that we should review the shuttle at the end of year six, given Danehill’s remarkable rise in the stallion ranks in Australia and his long-term value to the Syndicate and to the Australian industry.”

The review escalated into a dispute that placed Danehill at the centre of an auction which would make him the most valuable stallion at that time in Australasia.

Messara continues: “They refused to accept a break from shuttling after 12 consecutive breeding seasons and I made the decision that I would not agree to send him back to Ireland, given that the income he was generating for Coolmore and Arrowfield in Australia was, at that time, more than he was earning in Ireland.

“They just would not agree, and so we had a stand off.

“The stallion agreement said that John Magnier and I were the managers without specifying a means to resolve such an impasse.”

He adds: “What’s not widely known is that I received a call around Christmas 1994 from major industry player and good friend the late Jack Ingham, who with his late brother Bob owned Woodlands, the farm adjoining Arrowfield. Jack implored me to resolve the impasse for the sake of Australia’s international reputation – and I certainly appreciated that it was important for the whole Australian industry to come up with a solution.”

The end result was an in-house auction conducted by Sir Laurence Street in January 1995. As the respective parties battled against each other, the value soared to record-breaking levels, ultimately placing a figure on Danehill of $24.27 million. It was reported at the time that the value was almost twice that put on the horse by Michael Kirwan, Coolmore's Australian representative, and approximately four times the estimated value of any other Australian stallion of the time.

“The solution we arrived at was to have an in-house auction under the supervision of an independent person, who turned out to be Sir Laurence Street, the retired Chief Justice of New South Wales,” recalls Messara.

“Sadly, we were beaten at the auction. The lesson being that you should not enter into a “Dutch auction” with someone of greater means than yourself!”

The event was recounted in lively detail at the time by Valentine Lamb in The Irish Field under the headline ‘Sydney Showdown’. “The match was arranged,” Lamb writes. “Sir Laurence Street agreed to referee from his Sydney chambers. He was armed with documents from both parties stating the highest price that their respective financial backers would be prepared to guarantee.

“Next to him, his right-hand office was occupied by John Messara and his supporters, while Michael Kirwan was in the left-handed office. He was in direct contact with the Co. Tipperary head office manned by the financial duo Clem Murphy and Eddie Irwin, who, in turn, were on the hotline to John Magnier in Barbados. Meanwhile, Robert Sangster, the other major Danehill player with Magnier, was keeping a watching brief in his London club.”

Lamb continued: “Bidding in US dollars started at $10 million from Arrowfield shortly after breakfast time in Sydney. It continued for a remarkable four and a half hours until Sir Laurence walked into Messara’s office and informed him that Magnier at $18,228,000 had topped his highest possible bid.”

A good deal

As 23 shares and six breeding rights in Danehill were turned over to Coolmore, Arrowfield walked away with a serious cash injection. Danehill had been secured originally for A$8 million, so financially it had been a good deal. As Messara had originally said: “Danehill was not a cheap horse to buy, but he turned out to be spectacularly good value!” But was this a case of losing the golden goose?

“On the way back to the office after the auction a couple of the Arrowfield directors said to me how great it was to have so much capital now available,” says Messara. “My response was, “We are breeders, not bankers, and we have lost the holy grail”.

“I knew we had lost an irreplaceable stallion, who went on to become the most dominant influence on Australian breeding in the modern era. For a fleeting moment I considered winding up Arrowfield, but I decided to go the other way and take control of Danehill’s best sons.”

History relates that Arrowfield did that to great effect, securing his first two best sons Danzero and Flying Spur before developing the stud career of champion Redoute’s Choice and the ultimately influential Not A Single Doubt from more humble beginnings.

Meanwhile, waiting in the wings of his Irish-bred crops was Danehill Dancer (Ire), winner of the 1995 G1 National and Phoenix Stakes for Michael Tabor and Neville Callaghan. His excellent juvenile campaign arrived in the aftermath of Danehill’s outright sale to Coolmore but it wasn’t enough to prompt a transfer to Japan for the 1996 northern hemisphere season. Installed at East Stud on the island of Hokkaido, he left behind 85 foals including a trio of stakes winners in Breaktime (Jpn), Fusaichi Sonic (Jpn) and Spring Sion (Jpn).

Segenhoe Stud General Manager Peter O’Brien, who knew Danehill well from his time with Coolmore, made the point of how many subsequently successful people worked with the horse and indeed he was accompanied on his Japanese adventure by Bill Dwan, now at the helm of Europe’s leading consigning agency The Castlebridge Consignment.

A wonderful stallion

“I had the pleasure of flying Danehill to Australia for the stud season, then on to Japan and then back to Australia for another season,” says Dwan. “He was a wonderful stallion with a superb temperament and attitude. He took travel and change of hemisphere all in his stride.

“I remember he pulled a muscle behind and so he had to be hand walked every day. He never gave me an ounce of trouble. He never got fresh or boisterous. He was highly intelligent and enjoyed going for his daily walk - as did I.

“Of all the horses I’ve had through my hands, he was the pick. I’ve nothing but fond memories of him.”

A break from covering in Ireland illustrates how much slower Danehill had been to gaining superstar status in Europe. Yet as he continued to dominate the southern hemisphere, it didn’t take long to become clear that Coolmore’s multi-million dollar gamble was good business.

Out of his third Australian crop came 14 stakes winners including yet another G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner in Merlene, There was also the champion female sprinter Dane Ripper (won G1 Cox Plate, G1 Australian Cup, G1 Manikato Stakes and G1 Stradbroke Handicap) alongside other G1 winners Dashing Eagle (won G1 Flight Stakes and G1 One Thousand Guineas) and Danendri (won G1 Australian Oaks and G1 Australia Stakes).

The G1 CF Orr Stakes winner Special Dane was a highlight of another seven stakes winners out of his fourth crop while his fifth, as the more expensive books started to kick in, yielded an extraordinary 18 stakes winners (from 95 foals) including the likes of Hong Kong champion Fairy King Prawn, G1 Victoria Derby winner Arena and another G1-winning 2yo in Danelagh, successful in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes.

By that stage, Europe was cottoning on. Desert King (Ire) had retired to take up residence alongside his sire at Coolmore following a career highlighted by wins in the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas and G1 Irish Derby. Coolmore’s Castlehyde base, meanwhile, offered a cheaper option in Danehill Dancer (Ire). Another 1994-foaled colt, Danetime (Ire), landed an almighty gamble for Michael Tabor and Neville Callaghan in the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood and later ran second in the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup before retiring to Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland.

Waiting in the wings were German champion Tiger Hill (Ger), foaled in 1995, alongside the G1 Prix Ganay winner Indian Danehill (Ire), G1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Wannabe Grand (Ire) and the very talented miler Dansili (GB), all of whom were foaled in 1996. It is worth remembering that Danehill’s Irish fee was still hovering at 15,000gns at this point; by the time Dansili and company turned three in 1999, it had vaulted to 50,000gns.

That was nothing, though, compared to what he would ultimately command as the G1 winners kept flowing in, many of them contributors to the return of Ballydoyle to its place as a worldwide force.

To be continued...