The rise and rise of the Northern Dancer sireline over the past forty years has, inevitably, led to the decline of previously dominant lines, of which that of the 1933 Derby winner Hyperion winner has been perhaps the most startling, writes John Berry.
The late, great Vincent O'Brien introduced Europe to the influence of Northern Dancer by way of the 1970 Triple Crown winner Nijinsky , but even so through the 1970s his Ballydoyle Stable seemed at times still to be as well stocked with Hyperion-line horses (mainly courtesy of Forli) as it was with Northern Dancer colts. Coolmore, nowadays synonymous with Northern Dancer-line sires, did its best to keep Hyperion's line going by promoting O'Brien's 1978 July Cup winner Thatching (who was inbred 4x4 to Hyperion) and then three of his sons (Tirol, Archway and Shalford) through the '80s and early '90s, but not even its publicity machine could prevent the almost total eclipse of Hyperion's sun. Currently Hyperion's line survives in Europe primarily through the veteran Whitsbury Manor stallion Cadeaux Genereux.
Happily for the many who revered the influence of Hyperion, his line maintained its dominance in the antipodes for a bit longer, primarily (but not exclusively) courtesy of his grandson Star Kingdom, who arrived at Baramul Stud in the Hunter Valley (NSW) in 1951. Before dying at the age of 21 on 21 April 1967, Star Kingdom (who had raced in England as Star King, under which name he was awarded a Timeform rating of 131 as a two-year-old in 1948) had changed everything utterly. A decade after his death he had well over 100 male-line grandsons at stud in Australia, the majority of them being sons of Todman, Shifnal, Noholme , Faringdon, Biscay, Kaoru Star, Sky High, Star Of Heaven, Sunset Hue or Royal Artist. The first four of those were full-brothers (as were Biscay and Star Of Heaven). Of the remarkable set of four brothers, Todman, who stood alongside his father at Baramul, was the most prolific (siring in excess of 50 stallions) and Noholme the most cosmopolitan: he spent his stud career in America, so his sons who stood in Australia carried next to their names the asterisk which then used to denote an imported, rather than colonial, horse.
Star Kingdom's arrival at Baramul coincided with the innovation of the Golden Slipper, which remains the world's most valuable and competitive two-year-old race. This was originally based on the now-defunct British breeders' produce races, for which contenders had to be nominated before they were born. Star Kingdom's first crop included the inaugural Slipper winner Todman - and he then sired the next four winners (Skyline who was inbred 3x3 to Hyperion, Fine And Dandy, Skyline's full-brother Sky High, and Magic Night, the first filly to win the race). The sixth Slipper broke the sequence as it wasn't won by a son or daughter of Star Kingdom - instead it was won by Birthday Card, who came from the second crop of another grandson of Hyperion, the Widden Stud incumbent Edmundo! Star Kingdom's statistics are astonishing, particularly by the standards of the current era in which large books have made it almost impossible for stallions to post impressive figures: his first crop contained 20 named foals, of which 18 raced and 16 won; his second contained 22, of which 21 raced and 18 won; the third contained 20, of whom 19 raced and 18 won.
Star Kingdom's influence on the Golden Slipper makes it easy to regard him as an influence primarily for speed and precocity, but in truth he was basically just an influence for class at all distances up to 12 furlongs. In this he followed in the footsteps of Hyperion, who was one of the great all-rounders with victory in the five-furlong New (now Norfolk Stakes) at Royal Ascot at two preceding wins in the Derby and St Leger at three, and a place in the Ascot Gold Cup at four. Granted that Todman and Biscay were both freakishly precocious as well as extremely fast (breaking Australian records, for five and four furlongs respectively, as spring two-year-olds); but Star Kingdom's influence on the great middle-distance races was also massive, with Skyline and Sky High both following up their Slipper successes with Derby victories, and his many other male-line descendants to win top-class races at 2400m and beyond including the likes of the mighty Kingston Town, Gunsynd, Rough Habit, Bonecrusher, Ming Dynasty, Mighty Kingdom, King's High, Lowan Star, Triscay, Rogan Josh, Great Command, Circles Of Gold, Arctic Scent, Snap, Spirit Of Kingston, Count Chivas, Natasha, Ivory's Irish, Solveig, Imposera, Ngawyni, Cole Diesel, Flying Luskin and Old Money, as well as the inaugural Japan Cup winner Mairzy Doates.
Sadly, just as Northern Dancer's emergence signaled the end of Hyperion's dominance in Europe, so did the arrival in Australia of Danehill in 1990 bring the curtain down on Star Kingdom's pre-eminence down under. That year's Golden Slipper was won by Star Kingdom's great-grandson Canny Lad. The Sir Ivor sire-line was to prove responsible for the next two Slipper winners (Tierce and Burst) while the Star Kingdom line won it again in 1993 with the filly Bint Marscay. However, the next year it was won by Danzero, a member of Danehill's first crop - and nothing was ever the same again. Danzero was the first of three consecutive Slipper winners for Danehill, and the first of five for him overall. Furthermore, Danehill's sons have to date sired four Slipper winners, while no Star Kingdom-line sire has produced one since 1993. Canny Lad, now aged 23, remains a very good sire, but sadly he has not sired a great stallion (his seemingly best prospect, the beautifully-bred but unattractively-named He's No Pie Eater, was fatally injured in trackwork shortly after winning two Group One races in Sydney in the autumn of 2007) and his most lasting legacy is likely to be as the damsire of Danehill's champion sire-son Redoute's Choice, sire already of two Slipper winners (Stratum and Miss Finland).
Happily, though, Underwood Stakes Day at Caulfield rolled back the years for the Star Kingdom sire-line, with the feature race, a Group One 1800m weight-for-age event, being taken out by the four-year-old Heart Of Dreams. He is a son of the Star Kingdom-line stallion Show A Heart from the Royal Academy mare Academy Of Dreams, was bred and is raced by the Bartle family, is trained on the track by Mick Price and was ridden by Craig Newitt - which comments all apply to his full-brother Rightfully Yours, winner on the same card of the South Yarra Stakes (Listed). Heart Of Dreams' big win was no fluke: it follows his wins last season in the Group One Australian Guineas at Flemington and the Group Two Phar Lap Stakes at Rosehill. In fact, the solidity of his form is emphasized by the fact that the Phar Lap Stakes and the Underwood Stakes both featured the same trifecta, Heart Of Dreams winning from Street Cry's sons Whobegotyou and Predatory Pricer.
Sadly Heart Of Dreams, who will now head to the Cox Plate with a major chance, is a gelding so will not be able to extend the Star Kingdom dynasty, but his emergence as a true weight-for-age star emphasizes that Australia once again has a top-class young stallion from the Star Kingdom line: the Glenlogan Park incumbent Show A Heart.
With Star Kingdom and the majority of his descendants having stood in New South Wales, his influence was mostly centred around the southern states, but Queensland was not bereft of Hyperion's influence. Star Kingdom's paternal half-brother Smokey Eyes, winner in England of the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood in 1952, was imported into Victoria in 1953 to stand at Highfield Stud, but moved after only five years to Lyndhurst Stud in Queensland, where he became one of the most prolifically successful stallions the world has ever seen. He sired the winners of well over 3,000 races and was Australia's leading sire (in terms of races won) for 12 consecutive seasons, and Queensland's champion sire (in financial terms) for eleven consecutive seasons (1963/'64 - 1973/'74). He was also the nation's champion broodmare sire in 1970/'71. His best son, New Statesman, displayed the typical versatility of the breed by winning the Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield over five-and-a-half furlongs less than four months after winning the Victoria Derby at Flemington, both being races which were granted Group One status when Australia subsequently adopted the Pattern. However, Smokey Eyes has not established a dynasty, so Show A Heart receives no help from his descendants in carrying the baton for Hyperion in Queensland.
Show A Heart is a true Queenslander, both his sire Brave Warrior and his dam Miss Sandman having been good gallopers in Brisbane. Brave Warrior was conceived in New South Wales, where his sire Cossack Warrior stood at Emirates Park Stud, but he was trained at Eagle Farm by Eric Kirwan before retiring to Eureka Stud at Cambooya. Cossack Warrior (like Kingston Town and Canny Lad, a son of Bletchingly) stayed well (as did his Sandown Guineas-winning half-brother Cossack Prince, who was placed in both the Victoria Derby and the Caulfield Cup), as he showed by winning the 1987 Group Two Herbert Power Handicap at Caulfield over 2400m seven days before running third as the 4/1 favourite to Lord Reims in the Caulfield Cup over the same distance. He then ran sixth to Kensei in the Melbourne Cup 10 days after that. He hailed from a family of high-class middle-distance gallopers (including NZ Derby winner Uncle Remus and Australasian Oaks victrix Our Heavenly Body), but in Brave Warrior he sired a very fast colt.
Brave Warrior, an impressive chestnut colt with a white face who proved to be very well named, won eight of his 22 races (and recorded nine minor placings) at distances up to 1900m, his victories including the 1994 Magic Millions Classic over 1200m at the Gold Coast as a mid-summer juvenile. As a three-year-old he won three Group races in Sydney under Kirwan's former apprentice Chris Munce: the Peter Pan Stakes (which is now a Group One race under the title of the Golden Rose), the Gloaming Stakes and the Phar Lap Stakes. As a true descendant of Star Kingdom, he even demonstrated his versatility, class, stamina and courage by running second to Turridu in the 1995 Queensland Derby over 2400m. He subsequently retired to stand alongside the prolifically successful Star Kingdom-line sire Semipalatinsk at Eureka Stud, which in 1995 welcomed the first shuttle sire to stand in Queensland: the Hyperion-line stallion Puissance, who travelled from Bearstone Stud in England. Sadly Brave Warrior only stood there for two seasons before being killed in a freak paddock accident.
Like so many stallions who have died young, the loss to Queensland breeding occasioned by Brave Warrior's demise was only truly apparent after his death. He sired 84 individual runners, of whom 66 won. The best of these was Show A Heart, a terrific horse sharing the colour, markings, ability and genuineness of his sire. Show A Heart won only six of his 33 starts, but he was tried consistently in the highest company and four of his victories came in Group One company: the T J Smith Stakes over 1600m at Eagle Farm as a two-year-old, the Caulfield Guineas over 1600m at Caulfield as a three-year-old, and the Toorak Handicap over 1600m at Caulfield and the Stradbroke Handicap over 1400m at Eagle Farm as a four-year-old. He was also thrice Group One-placed in Melbourne (in the Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket Handicap and Australia Stakes) and ran second in the Doomben 10,000 the start before winning the Stradbroke. He was a true Queenslander, despite his evident affinity with Melbourne, being trained by Barry Miller at Eagle Farm and being a son the former Miller-trained Miss Sandman, the Listed-placed winner of 12 of her 54 races in and around Brisbane. His is not a notably successful family - although Miss Sandman's winning full-sister Advisable bred the Doomben Listed winner Any Suggestion, who was placed in the Group One William Reid Stakes in Melbourne - but Show A Heart was a thoroughly admirable racehorse who would have been an asset to any stud.
Since retiring to Glenlogan Park Stud in 2002, Show A Heart has more than proved his merit as a stallion. The most successful of several decent sons of Brave Warrior to have entered stud (which number also includes Brave Hawk, as well as the interestingly-bred multiple Group winner Another Warrior, whose dam and grand-dam were both by Star Kingdom-line sires), Show A Heart was Australia's champion first-season sire of 2005/'06 and champion second-season sire of 2006/'07, when his earnings were hugely boosted by the Magic Millions Classic victory of his Bart Cummings-trained daughter Mimi Lebrock, a daughter of a Star Kingdom-line mare who subsequently won two Group races in Melbourne last year as a four-year-old. The crop from which she came - his second - also included a high-earning juvenile in New Zealand (Crossyourheart, who is a full-brother to Gotta Have Heart, a dual Group Three winner from their father's first crop), while Heart Of Dreams, a member of his third crop, has now cemented Show A Heart's status as one of the country's leading young sires.
Show A Heart was the eighth busiest stallion in Australia in 2008 and this year, standing for $33,000 (inc. GST) he promises to be similarly well patronized. He deserves to be, because he is the latest genuinely high-class sire to emerge from the great Star Kingdom sire-line.
