Mill Reef's blood has worthy conduit
Chapter
One in the current edition of the 'Bluffer's Guide' to planning matings
relates that breeding a champion is a piece of cake: send a Darshaan
mare to Sadler's Wells or one of his sons (or grandsons) and - Bob's
your uncle - you've probably got yourself the Derby winner, writes John Berry.
Of course, things are never quite that simple. For sure, Sadler's Wells is a great stallion, and daughters of Darshaan
have been proved to make, in general, good broodmares, but it isn't
quite as easy as the supposedly magic formula would have us believe.
Good Darshaan mares are, of course, effective with a wide variety of
sire-lines. To the Sadler's Wells sire-line they have produced such
Group One winners as High Chaparral, Septimus, Ebadiyla, Milan, Damson, Islington, Greek Dance, Yesterday
and Quarter Moon; but their results with other lines are equally
impressive (particularly bearing in mind that numerically the Sadler's
Wells-line is nowadays far and away the most popular choice for such
mares) with the likes of Marienbard, Alexander Goldrun, Alborada, Shawanda, Best Of The Bests, Sendawar, Enzeli, Indian Ink, Albanova, Eagle Mountain, Darsi, Edabiya, Sulk, Zainta and Mountain High proving the point.
However, the basic truth pertains: Sadler's Wells is a very good
stallion, and so was Darshaan - and, as such, they are both going to
feature in various places in the pedigrees of top-class horses for a
long time yet. For an illustration of this fact, one needs look no
farther than the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Conduit,
whose pedigree features the mirror image of the conventional cross: he
is by a son of Darshaan from a daughter of Sadler's Wells. Furthermore,
the Darshaan stallion of whom he is a son is the young sire who
currently looks as if he is going to do the most to perpetuate the line
of Darshaan's paternal grandsire Mill Reef: Dalakhani, winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 2003.
In 2003, European racegoers were treated to some special moments, and
one of the most special came courtesy of the sportsmanship of the Aga
Khan. His lovely Irish-trained bay Alamshar was only just coming to himself when he ran third to Kris Kin
in the Derby, while his French-trained grey Dalakhani was outstanding
when adding the Prix du Jockey-Club to his Prix Lupin victory. Alamshar
was clearly going to be the horse to beat from within the British Isles
in the Irish Derby, while Dalakhani would have a clear favourite's
chance were he to come from the continent to contest it. Happily for
all at the Curragh on the last Sunday in June, the Aga Khan ran both
colts, and thus what would have been a procession was turned into a
splendid duel. This splendid duel was won by half a length by Alamshar
- aided perhaps by the superior tactical acumen by Johnny Murtagh -
with Dalakhani three and a half lengths clear of the third-placed
runner.
Four weeks after the Irish Derby, Alamshar gave further proof of his
class by slamming an outstanding field in the King George VI And Queen
Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, a race in which the first eight horses home
were all Group One winners (his closest pursuers being Sulamani, Kris Kin, Bollin Eric, Falbrav, Warrsan, Nayef and Millenary).
However, by the end of the season many observers had come to regard
Dalakhani as the superior colt, courtesy of his impressive autumnal
victories in the Prix Niel and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
While Alamshar was dispatched to Japan for the start of his stud
career, Dalakhani took up duties at the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud in
Ireland. The second top-class son of a Miswaki mare to retire to stud in Ireland during the new century (the first being Galileo, who is bred on the same Sadler's Wells/Miswaki cross which had previously produced Hernando's Group One-winning half-brother Johann Quatz), Dalakhani owns a pedigree completely free of Northern Dancer
blood, and as such was a natural choice to cover a solid supply of the
types of mares by Sadler's Wells and other Northern Dancer-line sires
who might be expected to produce a high-class middle-distance horse.
Happily, many of the breeders who patronized him in his first season
(2004) in that hope have not been disappointed.
When the progeny resultant from that first season began racing as
two-year-olds in 2007, it didn't take long for it to become apparent
that the crop contained a good number of above-average horses.
Dalakhani didn't sire a Stakes winner in 2007, but Centennial and Yahrab
both recorded Group placings at a mile, thus boding well for the
future. Centennial then became Dalakhani's first Group winner when
winning the Sandown Classic Trial in the spring last year, while
another high-class three-year-old emerged the following week in Ireland
when Chinese White
(like Conduit and Yahrab, the offspring of a Sadler's Wells mare) won a
Listed race over nine-and-a-half furlongs in Gowran Park. Dalakhani
then posted his second Group winner the following day when Democrate won the Prix Hocquart over 2200m, while Moonstone became his first Group One performer when finishing second in the following month's Oaks.
Moonstone duly became her father's first Group One winner when landing
the Irish Oaks last July, but an even better horse announced his
presence the day after her Oaks placing: Conduit
routed the opposition in a 12-furlong handicap at Epsom on Derby Day.
Unsurprisingly, Conduit went straight to Group company after that and,
although only second in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, he
won the Gordon Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in the style of a proper St.
Leger contender. Dalakhani's grip on the St. Leger was tightened
further at York's Ebor Meeting in August when Centennial won the Great
Voltigeur Stakes, while the Aga Khan owned his first Dalakhani Group
winner two weeks later when his filly Shemima won the Prix Du Lutece over 3000m at Longchamp.
Conduit did indeed fulfill his promise by landing a three-length
victory in last September's St. Leger, thus becoming the second Classic
winner from Dalakhani's first crop, while later in the month Shreyas (another from a Sadler's Wells mare, in this case Sadima who had already bred the top-class pair of Creachadoir and Youmzain,
sons of King's Best and Sinndar respectively) won the Denny Cordell
Memorial Stakes at Gowran Park. The year ended with Yahrab becoming the
eighth individual Stakes winner from Dalakhani's first crop by winning
the Churchill Stakes at Lingfield. This total has now risen to ten,
courtesy of Listed wins at the age of four in 2009 for Deem and Duncan.
Dalakhani's second crop has only thrown up one Stakes winner - Baliyana,
winner for the Aga Khan this season of Leopardstown's Group Three 1,000
Guineas Trial - to date, but others (most obviously Aidan O'Brien's
promising stayer Yankee Doodle)
will surely follow. Happily though, the stallion is nevertheless riding
the crest of a wave courtesy of the exploits of Conduit, who has proved
himself more than 'just a St. Leger winner' with his subsequent wins in
last year's Breeders' Cup Turf and, most recently, in the King George
VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Even though Dalakhani's half-brother Daylami
(they are actually more closely related than just being half-brothers,
because both are from Mill Reef-line stallions, Daylami being a son of
Mill Reef's 2,000 Guineas-winning son Doyoun)
failed to make the grade as stallion despite retiring to stud with an
even more distinguished racing record than that compiled by Dalakhani
and despite throwing the Irish Derby winner Grey Swallow
in his first crop, it is now fair to assume that Dalakhani is going to
continue to produce high-class middle-distance and staying horses for
years to come. And no doubt some more of them will be from Sadler's
Wells mares - including, perhaps, Sagacious, a two-year-old full-sister
to Shreyas who made a very promising debut when winning a mile maiden at the Curragh the day after Conduit's famous victory at Ascot.
