Danehill Part 5: Multiple sons to carry the legacy

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

His ascent in Europe coincided with the development of Ballydoyle as a worldwide force and so many of his Northern Hemisphere stars are readily associated with Aidan O’Brien.

O’Brien of course had saddled Desert King (Ire) to win the 1997 G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and Derby, in which another Ballydoyle-trained Danehill (USA), Johann Cryuff (Ire), had run fourth off the back of a win in the G2 Gallinule S. In later years, there was a stream of top-class Danehills coming out of Ballydoyle; champions such as Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire), the ill-fated George Washington (Ire), Horse of the Year Dylan Thomas (Ire), the brilliantly fast Mozart (Ire), and multiple G1 winner Duke Of Marmalade (Ire) spring to mind.

By the time Rock Of Gibraltar’s 3-year-old campaign had placed an exclamation point on an outstanding year for Danehill in 2002, the stallion was on his way to recording a seventh Australian sires’ championship.

His first had been secured in 1994/95 when he had just two crops of racing age working for him. Danzero and Flying Spur were crucial elements to that early success as a pair of G1 Golden Slipper S. winners and remarkably there was a third consecutive winner of that race in 1996 when the filly Merlene scored for Lloyd Williams and Kerry Packer. The result was a controversial one that resulted in jockey Greg Hall receiving a $50,000 fine and two month suspension for causing serious interference in the home straight. But it shouldn’t detract from the memory of Merlene’s brilliance as a 2-year-old, when she also won the G1 Sires’ Produce S., G2 Reisling Slipper Trial S. and G3 Blue Diamond Prelude.

Those early hopes that Danehill would act as a successful conduit of Danzig speed were being fulfilled - and more. However, he was also proving that he was far from being one dimensional.

Danehill’s third Australian-crop numbered barely 60 foals but in that same group as Merlene was the G1 Flight S. and One Thousand Guineas heroine Dashing Eagle, G1 Australian Oaks winner Danendri and Dane Ripper, a champion older sprinter for Bart Cummings who in a remarkable show of versatility also won the 1997 G1 Cox Plate and 1998 G1 Australian Cup.

Each of the above, and others, helped Danehill secure a series of consecutive sires’ championships, the most lucrative of which arrived in 1997/98 when 81 winners - 13 at stakes level including Lee Freedman’s G1 Blue Diamond S. heroine Danelagh - won the grand total of $7,429,693 between them.

Danehill trumped that total further the following season by breaking past the $10 million barrier, yet ironically it wasn’t enough to topple rival Zabeel (NZ) at the top of the tree. Normal service was resumed, however, in 1999/00 when the winners of just over $8 million was enough to see him regain his title.

As the volume and quality of Danehill’s books in both hemispheres increased, the output remained the same, namely fast, forward, tough 2-year-olds enhanced by a smattering of middle-distance stars. For instance, his fifth Australian-crop ranged from the aforementioned Danelagh to G1 Queensland Derby heroine Camarena and G1 Victoria Derby winner Arena. There was also a Hong Kong champion in Fairy King Prawn, whose 12 wins for Ivan Allan included the G1 (HK local) Bauhinia Sprint Trophy over 5f (1000 metres) to the G1 (HK local) Stewards Cup over 1m1f (1800 metres). He also won the G1 Yasuda Kinen in Japan at a time when Hong Kong-based horses rarely ventured overseas.

It was appropriate that Danehill’s final Arrowfield-crop would yield Redoute’s Choice, himself a such an important subsequent lynchpin of John Messara’s operation like his sire before him. One of nearly 100 foals in a sixth crop also responsible for South African champion sprinter Laisserfaire, he struck in the G1 Blue Diamond S. in 1999 for Rick Hore-Lacy just seven days after making a winning debut in the Listed Veuve Cliquot S. There again is that magic combination of toughness and precocity but Muzaffar Ali Yaseen’s colt also trained on into an exceptional 3-year-old when his victories included the G1 Caulfield Guineas, G1 CF Orr S. and G1 Manikato S.

Not long after, there was yet another champion G1-winning 2-year-old in Ha Ha, Danehill’s fourth winner of the G1 Golden Slipper S. when saddled by Gai Waterhouse to win in 2000.

By 1996, Danehill was standing for $100,000 at Coolmore. Such success, of course, had resulted in an increased workload and as European breeders began to appreciate his merits, three-figure crops across both hemispheres became the norm.

“He was probably the first stallion to cover big books in both hemispheres, and that was a big thing,” says Peter O’Brien, now general manager of Segenhoe Stud who was at the helm of Coolmore Australia while Danehill was king.

“When he first started, nobody could get their head around how he could cover so many. But if you covered 80 in September, then he’d get 75 in foal.

“He’d walk in casually to the breeding barn, invariably cover on one jump and invariably would get them in foal. And that was the same when it came to travelling. In the old days when you flew them, you’d have a door in front of the crate and he’d just put his head down on it and fall asleep. So we always had to take that off and just tie a lead rope at the front. Everything was done by him in a laid back, casual manner.

“It was that temperament and his fertility that allowed him like no other horse to cope with it all.”

It seems hard to believe now but come the dawn of the new century, there was still a slight suspicion attached to Danehill in Europe. When Indian Danehill, a member of his sixth European crop, won the 2000 G1 Prix Ganay for his breeder Baron Edouard de Rothschild, Tony Morris alerted readers in his Racing Post column to the gulf between the horse’s runners in the northern and southern hemispheres. Morris had a point; at the time Danehill had sired 22 G1 winners out of his Australian crops compared to six in Europe.

“Australian breeders need no persuading of Danehill's pre-eminence as a stallion,” he wrote.

“They were stampeding to spend $120,000 on a nomination to him in his latest season at Coolmore's New South Wales base, and understandably so in view of the numerous champions and championships in his record Down Under…..That is all well and fine, but the trouble is that Danehill has not achieved anything like the same level of success in Europe - and at a fee of Ir75,000gns (AU$149,500) he is the most expensive horse in these parts aside from his stud companion Sadler's Wells…..

“Understandably, some judges wonder whether Danehill is trading here on a reputation that is hard to justify in terms of European results…..All the evidence indicates that Danehill, in his European incarnation, is not as good as he is cracked up to be. But the propaganda machine which says differently and has been working effectively on his behalf may yet alter the picture.”

He added: “There may well be better to come from Danehill. Promotion has been accomplishing its task, he will have profited from the deaths of such as Caerleon (USA) and Fairy King (USA), and he will have been getting a higher proportion of better mares in the huge books he has been covering.”

The picture was indeed duly altered and swiftly as Ballydoyle began to churn out a series of top-class Danehills, many of them household names.

At the time of those observations, the Ballydoyle juvenile division housed Mozart. Bred when Danehill still stood for Ir25,000gns (AU$49,800), Mozart sold for 350,000gns (AU$697,700) as a yearling and proceeded to win his first start as a 2-year-old by 8l before following up in the lucrative Tattersalls Houghton S.

Like his sire 11 years before him, attempts were made to turn Mozart into a miler the following season and although a creditable third in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, speed also turned out to be forte, as he demonstrated when the dominant winner of the G1 July Cup in the race’s second-fastest time and G1 Nunthorpe S.

The best of all, however, arrived not long after in Rock Of Gibraltar. Across the 2001 and 2002 seasons, ‘the Rock’ racked up seven consecutive G1 victories - the G1 Grand Critérium, G1 Dewhurst S., G1 2,000 Guineas, G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, G1 St James's Palace S., G1 Sussex S. and G1 Prix du Moulin. He clung on to victory in the 2000 Guineas from his fast-finishing stable companion Hawk Wing (USA) but other than that, the typical winning performance was of an invariably no nonsense manner underpinned by a high cruising speed and turn of foot. That Group 1-winning sequence broke Mill Reef’s record some 20 years before and was brought to a halt in unlucky circumstances in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile when the breakdown of his stable companion Landseer (Ire), another Classic-winning son of Danehill, halted his momentum at a crucial moment. As it was, Rock Of Gibraltar only fell 0.75l short of running down the more handily ridden winner Domedriver (Ire).

2002 was something of an annus mirabilis in Europe for Danehill. Although runner-up to Sadler’s Wells (USA) on the championship sires’ table, he outpointed that rival in terms of European Pattern race winners with 24. In addition to Rock Of Gibraltar and Landseer, who ensured O’Brien’s place in history as the first trainer to sweep the British, Irish and French 2000 Guineas, they included other G1 winners such as top 2-year-old Spartacus (GB), sprinter Danehurst (GB), miler Banks Hill (Ire) and middle-distance talent Aquarelliste (Fr).

Other Ballydoyle stars followed. Oratorio (Ire) won the 2005 G1 Eclipse and G1 Irish Champion S. while George Washington (Ire) and Dylan Thomas (Ire) lit up the 2006 season by taking the G1 2000 Guineas, G1 Irish Derby and G1 Irish Champion S. Dylan Thomas became an admirable older horse, later adding the G1 King George, G1 Arc and another G1 Irish Champion S. to his resume in 2007. ‘The best attitude, the best temperament of any horse I’ve ridden’ was how regular rider Kieron Fallon summed up Dylan Thomas at the end of that year.

That same season Danehill’s Peeping Fawn (Ire) made rapid progression to capture four G1 races including the G1 Irish Oaks. In a similar vein to Dylan Thomas, Duke Of Marmalade (Ire) also developed into a top older campaigner, with wins in the G1 King George and G1 Juddmonte International among a sequence of five G1 successes achieved in 2008 after recovery from injury. Classic-winning miler Aussie Rules (Ire) and G1-winning two-year-olds Holy Roman Emperor (Ire), Horatio Nelson (Ire) and Rumplestiltskin (Ire) also added further to the momentum.

Coolmore weren’t the only operation to prosper in Europe through Danehill, however.

Walter Haefner’s Moyglare Stud Farm used Danehill for the first time in 1998 when sending its G1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Trusted Partner (USA) (Affirmed) and In Anticipation (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells). The resulting fillies, Dress To Thrill (IRE) and Irresistible Jewel (Ire), were both G1 winners.

“We had five Affirmed mares back then and they were all different shapes and sizes,” recalls the stud’s Fiona Craig. “Trusted Partner was one of those smallish, watery Affirmeds and she needed a big, strong, block of a horse.

“That produced Dress To Thrill, who was a beauty, a bright bay with a big diamond star. She deserved her name! She was very Danehill - a bit upright, back at the knee and she really couldn’t go on soft ground - but she had a big body and beautiful head. She was gorgeous and had a real personality too.

“Irresistible Jewel was totally different, 16.3 and lanky. Her dam In Anticipation was medium-sized but she threw back to the Fappiano in her dam Aptostar. Irresistible Jewel stayed well whereas Dress To Thrill was a professional miler. Two total contrasts but two top-class fillies.”

Both were trained by Dermot Weld. Dress To Thrill came to hand early, running second to Quarter Moon (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. as a 2-year-old. She won the G2 Sun Chariot and G3 Matron S. - both of which are now G1 races - the following year before a successful raid on the G1 Matriarch S. at Hollywood Park.

Irresistible Jewel ran just the once at two, when placed at Naas, but progressed quickly at three to win the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot the following June. 10 years later, her daughter Princess Highway (USA) (Street Cry) won the same race.

“I’d say with Dress To Thrill, Danehill threw to himself,” says Craig. “But with Irresistible Jewel, he threw to the pedigree.”

Irresistible Jewel is living in retirement at Moyglare as a nanny and her line remains well represented within the stud’s broodmare band. Dress To Thrill sadly died young yet the family has taken off in recent years through another branch thanks to her sister Polished Gem (Ire), a lesser performer on the track whose remarkable stud record comprises of eight stakes performers led by the G1 winners Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo), Free Eagle (Ire) and Search For A Song (Ire) (Galileo).

Meanwhile, for Ballymacoll Stud, then home to so many Classic middle-distance families, Danehill produced a G1 Epsom Derby winner in North Light (Ire). Juddmonte’s blue hen Hasili (Ire) also clicked with him to produce the G1 performers Dansili (Ire), Banks Hill (Ie), Intercontinental (Ire), Cacique (Ire) and Champs Elysees (Ire). The Wildenstein family campaigned Westerner (GB), a brilliant stayer, and 2001 G1 Prix de Diane heroine Aquarelliste (Fr) while Bjorn Nielsen bred Punctilious (GB), successful in the 2005 G1 Yorkshire Oaks for Godolphin. Cheveley Park Stud produced a pair of Group 1-winning fillies in Echelon (GB) and Regal Rose (GB). Jean-Luc Lagardere’s homebred Clodovil (Ire) also won the 2003 G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains; that victory in May 2003 came just two days before Danehill died in a paddock accident aged 17.

Danehill was at the peak of his powers at the time of his death at Coolmore. Breeders were clamouring for his services at a private fee rumoured to be in the region of $700,000 and although he had sat out the 2002 southern hemisphere season, he remained Australia’s reigning champion sire.

The notion that Danehill died in his prime can be summed up by the fact that Dylan Thomas, Duke Of Marmalade, George Washington and Peeping Fawn were just some of those posthumous stars. In turn, he was posthumously the champion sire of Britain and Ireland from 2005 to 2008.

It was a similar situation in Australia where those last expensively-produced crops came to include the likes of Elvstroem, Exceed And Excel, Fastnet Rock and Darci Brahma (NZ).

Exceed And Excel, Fastnet Rock and Darci Brahma each adhered to the quicker type of Danehill. Exceed And Excel was champion sprinter off the back of wins in the G1 Newmarket H. and G1 Invitation S. while Fastnet Rock took the G1 Lightning S. and G1 Oakleigh Plate during his champion 3-year-old campaign in 2005. As for Darci Brahma, he repaid the NZ$1.1 million investment made in him by David Ellis as a yearling many times over by winning the G1 TJ Smith Classic as a 2-year-old, G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas and G1 Otaki Maori S. at three and G1 Telegraph H. and G1 Waikato Sprint at four. A New Zealand champion 2 and 3-year-old for Mark Walker, Darci Brahma was his sire’s final major flag-bearer in the Southern Hemisphere.

However, Elvstroem - or ‘Elvis’ as he was known by his fans - could do it all. From the same 2000-foaled crop as Exceed And Excel, Elvstroem was trained by Tony Vasil to win 10 of 32 races including the G1 Victoria Derby at three and the G1 Caulfield Cup, G1 Underwood S., G1 CF Orr S. and G1 Dubai Duty Free at four. He regularly knocked heads with the best around, defeating Makybe Diva (GB) in the Caulfield Cup and Savabeel in the CF Orr S.

He also acquitted himself well during a foray in Europe, where he filled the placings in the G1 Lockinge S., G1 Prix d’Ispahan and G1 Prince Of Wales’ S.

His record was a lasting reminder of the durability of some of those better Danehills, an attribute that would surely serve the line well going forward. The one consolation of Danehill’s premature death was that there were a number of sons by then out there representing him at stud.

The question was, who was going to be the best?