Dansili (GB) (Danehill-Hasili {Ire}, by Kahyasi {Ire}), a high-class racehorse and excellent sire and broodmare sire, has died at his birthplace, Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud, just short of his 26th birthday following a short illness. Dansili, the sire of 23 Group 1 winners and the broodmare sire of 13 Group 1 winners, had been pensioned since 2018.
Dansili was the first foal out of Khalid Abdullah's Broodmare of the Year and blue hen producer Hasili. Entrusted to trainer Andre Fabre, Dansili won his lone start at two under Olivier Peslier and picked up where he left off with a Chantilly conditions score the following spring. Assigned joint favouritism for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains in his first stakes start next out, Dansili found only the Aga Khan's Sendawar (Ire) too tough, setting the stage for a career that would see him always mixing it at the very top level but suffering a string of near misses in Group 1s.
Fabre stepped Dansili up to 1800 metres for the G1 Prix Jean Prat next out, but after a fourth-place finish the dark bay would never again go that far. He scooped the G3 Prix Messidor by four lengths when dropped back to a mile, and wrapped up his 3-year-old campaign with third-place finishes behind Dubai Millennium in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and Sendawar in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp.
Kept in training at four, Dansili was the comfortable winner of the G3 Prix Edmond Blanc and the G2 Prix du Muguet before venturing abroad to Royal Ascot, where he took the lead late on in the G2 Queen Anne S. only to be headed in the dying strides by the Aga Khan's Kalanisi (Ire), who would go on to win that season's G1 Champion S. and GI Breeders' Cup Turf.
Sent to Goodwood thereafter to face the G1 St James's Palace S. and G1 Coral-Eclipse S. winner Giant's Causeway in the G1 Sussex S., Dansili closed to within a head of the Iron Horse a quarter mile out but ultimately had to settle for second once again.
Returning home to France, Dansili put in a rare below-par effort when sixth in the Prix du Moulin, but bounced back to be second in the G1 Prix de la Foret, earning a ticket to the 2000 GI Breeders' Cup Mile. Turning for home that day at Churchill Downs, Dansili found himself buried in traffic on the rail and well out of reach of the leaders. When at last able to extract himself, he made such a powerful move under John Velazquez that, despite finishing three-quarters of a length third, he was three lengths ahead of the winning War Chant within a few strides of the gallop out.
By the time Dansili was covering his first mares at Banstead Manor Stud in the spring of 2001, his dam Hasili had four more foals on the ground. All four-Banks Hill (GB), Heat Haze (GB), Intercontinental (GB) and Cacique (Ire)-would go on to be Group 1 winners, and Hasili would later add a fifth, the multiple American and Canadian Grade I winner Champs Elysees (GB). And while all of Hasili's Grade/Group 1 winners have made their marks at stud, none of them have achieved the level of success that Dansili has.
As he had done himself, Dansili hit the ground running with his first 2-year-olds, registering 18 winners and one stakes winner-the G3 Prix la Rochette victor Early March-in his first season with runners. It was in Dansili's third year with runners in 2006, however, that he really jumped to the top level, notching his first three Group 1 winners and two additional pattern-race winners. Remarkably, Dansili's first-ever Group 1 win as a sire came in Europe's greatest race, the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, courtesy the Juddmonte homebred Rail Link (GB). The following month, Price Tag (GB) won the GI Matriarch S. and Passage Of Time (GB) the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud. Both were Juddmonte homebred fillies, and Passage Of Time's was to the fore again this year through her multiple group-winning son Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who was among Europe's leading first-crop sires.
Dansili's fee jumped the following season to £30,000 from £12,500. While the black-type winners continued to accumulate, it would be 2010 by the time Dansili enjoyed another year like 2006, and this time it was courtesy the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II S. winner Harbinger (GB)-the world's highest-rated horse that year-G1 Phoenix S. winner Zoffany (Ire), who would go on to a very successful career at stud, and the four-time American Grade I-winning filly Proviso (GB).
The year 2012 proved a memorable one for Dansili fillies, with Giofra (GB), The Fugue (GB) and Fallen For You (GB) all winning Group 1s. That season also featured Bated Breath (GB), who won the G2 Temple S. and was placed, like his sire, in the King's Stand S. and also in the G1 Sprint Cup (twice) and the July Cup before joining Dansili at Banstead Manor, where he still stands today in the midst of a productive stud career.
By the time the calendar flipped to 2013, Dansili was up to £80,000, and six Group 1 winners that year-Dank (GB), Laughing (GB), Foreteller (GB), The Fugue, Flintshire (GB) and Winsili (GB)-saw him climb to £95,000 for 2014. Dansili's G1 1000 Guineas winner Miss France (GB) led a parade of five top-level winners in 2014, with We Are (GB) joining the ranks and Flintshire, The Fugue and Foreteller adding to their tallies. In 2015, Dansili stood for a career-high £100,000.
Over the ensuing seasons, Dansili has proven a continuous source of class. Queen's Trust (GB) won the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and Dansili was still going strong in 2021, scoring a Grade I double at Keeneland with Juliet Foxtrot (GB) in the Jenny Wiley S. at the spring meet and Blowout (GB) in the First Lady S. at the autumn meet. As a broodmare sire, Dansili has had two winners of the Breeders' Cup Mile, Uni (More Than Ready) and Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}), whose first foals are two next year. Classic-winning fillies Chicquita (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) and Channel (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}) are likewise out of Dansili daughters, as is last year's G1 St Leger scorer Galileo Chrome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) and the G1 Mackinnon S. victress Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Dansili, to date, has 151 stakes winners as a sire and 97 as a broodmare sire.
Juddmonte General Manager Simon Mockridge said, “As a racehorse he was durable, genuine, consistent and expertly handled by Andre Fabre throughout his career. Although he deserved a Group 1 victory on the racecourse, having been placed in six, that somehow always managed to evade him. During his 17 years at stud he played an intrinsic role alongside Oasis Dream in establishing the reputation of the Juddmonte roster. A truly wonderful, reliable, and uncomplicated character as a stallion he was a firm favourite of the stallion team and Juddmonte as a whole. He will be greatly missed.”
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