In any normal week, the feat of Waikato Stud in breeding two Group One winners on the same card - as happened at Randwick on the penultimate Saturday of Sydney's autumn carnival, Vision And Power taking the Doncaster and Daffodil landing the AJC Oaks - would have acted as the catalyst for the current 'Stallion of the Week' feature, writes John Berry.
However, that day at Randwick was no ordinary Group One raceday (if that isn't too great an oxymoron) so neither that brace of victories nor the Sires' Produce Stakes victory of Redoute's Choice's Encosta De Lago half-brother Manhattan Rain were able to take the headlines. The spotlight was, instead, rightly reserved for the remarkable nine-year-old Takeover Target, who landed his seventh Group One victory with an outstanding win over a stellar field in the T. J. Smith Stakes. Takeover Target returned to a rapturous reception, and it speaks volumes for his achievements that he has become more of a celebrity than his own father, because his sire Celtic Swing was himself a racehorse of rare charisma.
Other than in their markings - each has a blaze and a white sock on his near hind leg - there are few similarities between Celtic Swing and his best son. The former, a large and rangey colt, was a Group One winner over a mile as a two-year-old and over 2400m at three; while Takeover Target is a smaller and far sturdier gelding who has eventually developed into a world-class sprinter after remaining unraced until the age of four. However, the one common denominator between the two is a huge amount of ability.
As a grandson of Mr Prospector, Celtic Swing - who could be described as the archetypal European Classic stayer - might be said to be untypical of his sire-line, and instead a product of his dam's family, which had previously produced such high-class stayers as Ascot Gold Cup winner Ragstone, St Leger winner Moon Madness, Coronation Cup winner Castle Keep and Goodwood Cup winner Lucky Moon. However, Celtic Swing was in fact very typical of his sire Damister, who in 1985 had confounded the Mr Prospector stereotype (and the expectations which one might have had for a horse whose dam was a champion in Mexico) by proving ideally suited to European middle-distance conditions, winning the Dante and Great Voltigeur and being placed behind Slip Anchor in the Derby and behind Law Society in the Irish Derby. Based for eight seasons (which included a stint of shuttling to Milluna Stud in South Australia) at Woodditton Stud near Newmarket (where Celtic Swing's maternal grandsire Welsh Pageant had also stood) before his export to Japan on the back of Celtic Swing's success, Damister sired some decent horses, including the good sprinter Welsh Mist, but Celtic Swing was easily his best product.
Celtic Swing was bred by Lavinia, Duchess Of Norfolk and put into training with her daughter Lady Herries at Angmering in Sussex. However, before he made his debut in a two-year-old maiden auction race at Ayr in July 1994 he had been sold to subsequent BHB chairman Peter Savill, having caught the eye of Savill's jockey Kevin Darley in a gallop at Angmering Park. Celtic Swing won this Ayr race easily (with Chilly Billy, winner of the Gimcrack Stakes at York on his next start, only fourth) and he was even more impressive when winning his two other juvenile starts, beating Singspiel by eight lengths in the Hyperion Stakes at Ascot and Annus Mirabilis by twelve in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster. He ended the year with the freakishly high Timeform rating of 138, and as the red-hot ante-post favourite for both the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby.
Celtic Swing's three-year-old campaign proved to be as memorable for its controversy as for its success. It started well enough (if unspectacularly by his previous standards) when he beat Bahri by 1.25 lengths in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury (the pair nine lengths clear of the third) but then Celtic Swing failed to justify 4/5 favouritism in the 2,000 Guineas, going down by a head to the Andre Fabre-trained Pennekamp. That year's Guineas was run on very fast ground, with both Pennekamp and Celtic Swing joining the small and select group of horses to have run the Rowley Mile in under 1 minute and 36 seconds. However, the race and its aftermath were enough to make Celtic Swing's connections wary of running their charge on fast ground again. Savill was clearly very keen to win the Derby, and answered enquiries about plans for Celtic Swing with the assurance that "if it were absolutely certain that the ground would have cut in it he would be there on Derby Day". Ultimately - and in the face of a concerted campaign by certain sections of the press who appeared unable to accept the facts that Savill had the right to decide what to do with his own horse and that he clearly wanted to make the right decision - the owner, presumably aware that his champion possessed knees of questionable soundness, made the wise choice of running on good ground and a flat track at Chantilly in the Prix du Jockey-Club, rather than on good to firm going on Epsom's undulations. Celtic Swing duly won the Prix du Jockey-Club, posting the least impressive performance of his career (up to that point) in grinding out a battling victory over Poliglote, Winged Love, Classic Cliche and Flemensfirth. Four weeks later Savill succumbed to media pressure and, probably against his better judgement, allowed Celtic Swing to contest the Irish Derby on good to firm ground. Sadly, this proved to be the mighty horse's last race, as he shortened stride dramatically in the closing stages before passing the post in eighth position behind the winner Winged Love. He was subsequently found to be lame in his near fore knee and, although attempts were made to race him again later that year and in 1996, the task proved impractical.
Celtic Swing thus retired to the British National Stud as a five-year-old in 1997, with trips to shuttle to Australia (to Collingrove Stud near Nagambie in Victoria) booked onto his agenda. Collingrove had just been established by Robert Sangster and Colin Hayes and, as Jenny McAlpine, who was marketing manager there at the time, recently recalled,"C. S. scored quite a coup in securing Celtic Swing, because he was a champion European two-year-old and, at the time, was the highest Timeform-rated two-year-old to come to Australia".
During the subsequent twelve years, Celtic Swing has proved hard to categorize. He has never sired a horse whose racing record bears much similarity to his own, but he has sired two horses of similar merit. Of his Australian offspring, Takeover Target reigns supreme, while the best of his European stock is Six Perfections. Similar to her father in appearance, Six Perfections, who came from his third crop, emulated her dad by winning a Group One race (the Prix Marcel Boussac) at approximately a mile as a two-year-old and by running an excellent second (to Russian Rhythm) in a Guineas at Newmarket as a spring three-year-old. Thereafter, however, her career assumed a different shape, as she continued to perform with credit in the world's best mile races for two more seasons, her crowning glory coming when she won the 2003 Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.
Takeover Target, whose 20 wins (from 38 starts) include top-class victories in England, Japan and Singapore as well as in four states of Australia and who has frequently shrugged off the inconvenience of sore legs, is truly a horse in a million, but he isn't unique among Celtic Swing's offspring in excelling in sprints: Celtic Mill, a member of Celtic Swing's first European crop, won the Group Two Temple Stakes over five furlongs at Sandown as a seven-year-old in 2005. Takeover Target, though, is such a freak of a horse that it is pointless to spend too much time speculating whence his qualities (his durability and courage as well as his speed) spring. His dam Shady Stream has bred an Australian Derby place-getter to Street Cry (Predatory Pricer) and it remains an intriguing anomaly that Takeover Target's breeder Meringo Stud Farm (NSW) has bred two top-class sprinters from daughters of Archregent (the other being Natural Destiny) and that both have been by Derby (or Derby equivalent) winners. Even so, it is fair to give Celtic Swing a large amount of credit for producing such a wonderful horse, especially as the winners continue to flow for the stallion, whose days of shuttling are long gone and who now resides permanently at the Irish National Stud. He moved there in 2001, and his offspring conceived there includes Premio Parioli winner Rattle And Hum, Prix de Conde winner Midnight Beauty, Prix du Jockey-Club and Prix Jean Prat place-getter Rocamadour, and 2008 Premio Presidente Della Repubblica place-getter Freemusic. Still only aged 17 and attractively priced with a stud fee of only 4,000 Euros, it is fair to assume that Celtic Swing will be represented by more very good horses in the future - even if hoping to produce another Takeover Target might be asking for lightning to strike twice!
