Could Sunday Silence’s Grandson Close the Circle?

One way or another, plenty of people in our industry seem to think that it has reached a crossroads. But if a shutdown at the home of the Kentucky Derby makes us feel as though we can't get a break in the traffic, maybe we're just looking the wrong way. Because there's a chance that the real game-changing moment was happening 4,000 miles away, where the 244th running of the original Derby was last Saturday won by a horse excitingly equipped to open a new chapter in the story of Coolmore-and, potentially, new horizons for international bloodstock.

In Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), we have a Derby winner with the wares to help reconcile a debilitating modern division between the gene pools that produced his grandsire Sunday Silence, and his damsire Galileo (Ire).

If Americans have not yet granted this horse adequate attention, then his owner-breeders have an obvious solution later in the year. For if all remains well with Auguste Rodin, then the GI Breeders' Cup Classic would surely be a bet to nothing. Should he handle dirt as befits a grandson of Sunday Silence, then his exceptionally cosmopolitan pedigree really could be said to have brought together the best of all possible worlds. Should he fail to adjust, however, his stud value would barely lose a cent. (In fact, given the current morbidity about the future of dirt racing, the disclosure of an incompetence on dirt might even be said to enhance that value!)

The fact is that a stallion's career never depends purely on the inherent potency of his genes. If it did, true, Auguste Rodin would be in a very strong place, with the diversity of his pedigree standardized only by its seamless quality. But other things need to fall right-in terms of credibility and sheer narrative momentum-to maximize his opportunity. And that is what sets Auguste Rodin apart even from Saxon Warrior (Jpn), a promising stallion already at Coolmore, who shares as many as 13 of the 16 names behind Auguste Rodin in their respective fourth generations.

Because Auguste Rodin, besides being favored by some startling endorsements by his record-breaking trainer, raises an extra frisson of destiny as one of just a dozen sophomores in the final crop of Deep Impact. With even the most parochial and short-sighted breeders elsewhere now obliged to acknowledge Japan's increasing hegemony in the 21st Century Thoroughbred, the transatlantic market should be primed to embrace Auguste Rodin with a grateful fervor.

Deep Impact | J Fukuda

No doubt John Magnier and his partners at Coolmore first and foremost viewed recourse to Deep Impact in practical terms, having required a top-class outcross for all their Galileo mares. But just as when Scat Daddy proved a sire of sires, it also brought a latent opportunity to turn the dial.

While Coolmore has several effective heirs to Galileo, none can quite match the one that got away, Frankel (GB). But that will matter less with each pass of the baton. Say that down the line you sent Auguste Rodin a mare by Frankel's son Cracksman (GB), who had his breakout winner in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club on Sunday: the resulting foal would be inbred 3 x 4 to Galileo. That's going to be a familiar scenario in Europe. But what compels interest in Auguste Rodin far beyond that theatre is the way such an international pedigree has coalesced to produce such a consummate athlete.

Very often, a horse's ancestors can only be credited with elite stature because of the sons or daughters that tie them into the pedigree in front of us. But just work your way down the fourth-generation mares behind Auguste Rodin, and you'll see that the potency of their genes has been corroborated by collateral distinctions.

Besides producing Halo, for instance, Cosmah was of course half-sister to the most important broodmare of her time, Natalma. Lady Rebecca, dam of Deep Impact's damsire Alzao, was a half-sister to Chieftain and Tom Rolfe. Fairy Bridge, here as dam of Sadler's Wells, was also half-sister to Nureyev. Allegretta (Ger), here as dam of the legendary Urban Sea, was also dam of one Classic winner King's Best and second dam of another in Anabaa Blue (GB). Highclere, herself a Classic winner, features because her daughter became granddam of Deep Impact, but another daughter is one of Europe's great modern broodmares, Height Of Fashion (Fr). And Rahaam also produced the Royal Ascot winner and stallion Verglas (Ire), as well as Auguste Rodin's third dam.

Okay, so a lot of people won't trouble themselves with that kind of underlying structure. They'll reduce a pedigree to blocks behind sire brands, and duly decide that they know what to expect when both Deep Impact and Galileo both displayed abundant stamina. The further seeding of Auguste Rodin's maternal line, meanwhile, may discourage international confidence, with second and third dams by European turf sires Pivotal (GB) and Indian Ridge (Ire).

But everyone should know Pivotal as an outstanding broodmare sire. And Indian Ridge's maternal family channels such old-fashioned, indigenous British sprint speed that you could hardly find a more vivid foil to other European elements in this page: the sturdy German family behind Galileo, for instance; or the profound stamina source Busted (GB), who sired Deep Impact's second dam. Unnerving stuff for American breeders, no doubt, but remember that Busted is by no means the only bottomless turf influence lurking behind sophomore champion Epicenter (Not This Time).

Auguste Rodin's third dam Cassandra Go certainly inherited the dash of Indian Ridge, winning over five furlongs at Royal Ascot, and she has also produced a dual Group-winning sprinter in Tickled Pink (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire})-who came to American attention last autumn through the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf success of her daughter Victoria Road (Ire), significantly from the first crop of Saxon Warrior.

Another of Cassandra Go's daughters, Theann (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), was also a Group winner at six furlongs before producing not just Photo Call (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to be a dual Grade I scorer on grass in the U.S. (later purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $2.7 million); but also Land Force (Ire) (No Nay Never) to fly down the Goodwood hill in the G2 Richmond S. as a juvenile.

Cassandra Go's daughter by Pivotal, Halfway To Heaven (Ire), has proved well named as it turns out that her racetrack career only represented a beginning, despite winning three Group 1s. She had stretched her maternal speed to win one of those at 10 furlongs, albeit only just holding out, before then dropping back to a mile.

Certainly she had shown enough speed to remain monogamous with Galileo in her next career. Among their foals was the splendid campaigner Magical (Ire), who won 12 of 28 (seven Group 1s) between 7 and 12 furlongs, often proving too tough for colts; and also Rhododendron (Ire), who proved similarly classy, versatile and hardy, beating males in one of her three Group 1s and dropping back in distance after running second in the G1 Oaks. For her first cover, Rhododendron fortunately ducked under the wire to become one of the final mates of Deep Impact-and Auguste Rodin is the result.

Sunday Silence | Patricia McQueen

Perhaps some American breeders might hesitate about delving through this avowedly turf seam to retrieve the lost genetic gold of Sunday Silence. But it starts with a mare, Cassandra Go's dam Rahaam, who shows us precisely the kind of crossover that has been culpably abandoned since.

She was by an Epsom Derby winner in Secreto, albeit don't forget that he was by Northern Dancer out of a Secretariat mare from the family of Majestic Prince and Real Quiet. Rahaam's dam, meanwhile, was by Mr. Prospector out of a Dr. Fager mare-whose own mother was Kentucky Oaks winner Native Street. The latter, when herself covered by Mr. Prospector, produced the dam of both Dowsing (Riverman), winner of the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup; and Fire The Groom (Blushing Groom {Fr}), a GI Beverly D. winner who herself produced another top-class European sprinter in Stravinsky (Nureyev).

Rahaam had been co-bred by Calumet Farm and Stephen Peskoff before her purchase by Sheikh Mohammed, for whom she won a Newmarket maiden in a light career with Henry Cecil. Both Rahaam and her second foal Verglas (whose subsequent success we noted above) were soon culled from the Sheikh's operation, which did however retain her first foal Persian Secret (Fr) (Persian Heights {GB}) to become the stakes-placed dam of 11 winners. She has also consoled her mother's vendors as third dam of their G1 Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}).

Nor, equally, will even Japan's stunning recent success on the international stage convince every Bluegrass breeder, based as it is in the patient development of bloodlines discarded by America and Europe alike. We can confidently state that Deep Impact himself would never have received commercial support in those environments, having never raced below 10 furlongs and won over as far as two miles.

By this stage, however, you would like to think that people might not be so obtuse as to deny a stallion's capacity to impart speed simply because of his own ability, in his first career, to keep going. Deep Impact has sired plenty of brilliant milers and we really do need to overcome this childish literalism about “stamina” being the opposite of speed. Very often, it is sooner about having the class to carry it.

Magnier clearly understands that, having shown no compunction about choosing Deep Impact for mares by the undeniably doughty genes of Galileo. Saxon Warrior duly had the pace to win a Classic over a mile, and indeed arguably didn't quite get home at Epsom.
Bearing in mind that Deep Impact only covered a handful of Coolmore mares, for a handful of seasons, the results have been staggering. Just a few days ago Saxon Warrior's brother, again from Deep Impact's final crop, won a Group race on only his third start. Between Saxon Warrior, Snowfall (Jpn) (G1 Oaks winner in 2021, by 16 lengths!) and now Auguste Rodin, from very limited chances the Deep Impact-Galileo cross has given Ballydoyle winners of three of the five British Classics.

Sadly the mysterious misfiring of Auguste Rodin as hot favorite for the G1 2,000 Guineas derailed Coolmore's hopes of winning the first British Triple Crown since 1970. Nowadays there seems to be a depressing reluctance for Guineas winners to try even the Derby and, at 14 furlongs, the St Leger is a commercial bridge too far for nearly everyone. It's a real shame, then, that his connections should have been lucklessly denied the incentive to buck that trend by Auguste Rodin's Guineas flop. Nobody, clearly, would now expect the horse to proceed to the St Leger regardless.

So let's hope that another great sporting adventure might be embraced instead, at Santa Anita this fall. Because it's going to take something that bold, and that special, to persuade modern breeders to renew the kind of transatlantic transfusions that once underpinned Classic pedigrees.

Remember that Deep Impact himself was one such cocktail: by a dirt champion out of an Epsom Oaks runner-up. Remember, also, how Japan has tested the mettle of his stock, with its program predicated on soundness and longevity. For that makes the legacy of Deep Impact still more precious, as we strive ever more conscientiously for a Thoroughbred physically equal to its tasks.

To be fair, he made such remarkable use of limited opportunity with mares from outside Japan that there are already one or two attractive conduits to Deep Impact elsewhere. At Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, Study Of Man (Ire) certainly represents quite a package at just £12,500, as a Classic winner out of a daughter of Storm Cat and Miesque. Only his second starter (out of a Galileo mare, of course!) impressed on debut at Leopardstown a few days ago.

And it's a curious coincidence, given how much genetic material they already share, that the third dams of both Saxon Warrior and Auguste Rodin should have resulted from visits to Indian Ridge in consecutive seasons back in the 1990s. Who knows how their respective futures will play out? But there would be no better way for Auguste Rodin to match his billing, as the anointed final bequest of Deep Impact, than to redeem his stable's agonizing near-misses with Giant's Causeway and Declaration Of War in a race won by his grandsire.

The Thinker, the most celebrated work of the sculptor for whom the Derby winner is named, actually started out as a small figure in another of his masterpieces, The Gates Of Hell. At the moment, everyone seems to think that we are parked right outside the latter. But if we can all be thinkers for a minute, then here's a horse with the potential to help put out the flames.

For it is precisely those virtues now so prized in Japan-an ability to carry speed, and the robustness to keep doing so-that formerly united Classic bloodlines either side of the Atlantic. Auguste Rodin could now just jump through the familiar hoops, banking low-risk dividends through the rest of his track career and equally at stud. Or he could become the horse to close the circle.

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Stewart Hoping His Luck Continues With Breeders’ Cup Hope Victoria Road

What you want to hear from a major owner-breeder like Trevor Stewart, the man who has set up a mini-empire off the back of buying wondermare Cassandra Go back in 1997, is that there is a nuanced approach to breeding and, with the right blend of skill and hard work, you too can make this game pay.

The trouble is, Stewart does not believe that is the case. Not only does he put buying top-class racemare-turned-blue hen Cassandra Go down to good luck, but he also points to fortune favouring him once again in producing her grandson Victoria Road (Ire), a leading fancy for Friday's Grade I Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

To paraphrase Stewart, he threw the kitchen sink at Tickled Pink (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), a daughter of Cassandra Go (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), with matings to Dark Angel (Ire), Frankel (GB) and Shamardal failing to produce a single black-type runner. 

Just when Stewart had started to view Tickled Pink as a disappointing broodmare, along came Victoria Road, by first-season sire Saxon Warrior (Jpn), who bids to put the pedigree in lights at Keeneland on Friday. 

Stewart said, “Tickled Pink has been a bit disappointing up until now. I have thrown everything at her–Dark Angel, Frankel and Shamardal. A few of them were a little bit on the small side and, while they had good ratings, were limited by size. To think now that a first-season sire seems to have hit it. It's amazing really.”

He added, “It was all about Deep Impact (Jpn) when it came to choosing Saxon Warrior for the mare. I loved Saxon Warrior as an individual as well. He was a very good racehorse and had size and scope. I felt that I had sent Tickled Pink to a few very good sires and decided to risk something different to see if it worked.”

Victoria Road has taken his form to a new level in the autumn for Aidan O'Brien and boasts rock-solid credentials for Friday's contest at odds of 5-1. 

Convinced that the colt would emerge to be one of the better 2-year-olds at Ballydoyle this season, O'Brien advised Stewart to return to Saxon Warrior this breeding season with Tickled Pink, who is happily in foal to the Coolmore-based stallion. 

Stewart explained, “Interestingly, I was going to cover Tickled Pink with No Nay Never this year and sent a message to Christy Grassick asking him to ask Aidan [O'Brien] about what his view would be. Aidan came back and told me that it was an absolute no-brainer and that I had to go to Saxon Warrior

“That was a very easy decision in that there was a big difference in price between Saxon Warrior and No Nay Never's stud fee. Aidan was also talking up Victoria Road at the time, for all that it was only March.

“I was down with Aidan in May and, of course, the No Nay Nevers had come out and were winning everything. I said to Aidan, 'I think you might not have given me the best advice.' Aidan just said, 'wait and see, you'll be fine.'”

And what an understatement that has turned out to be. Victoria Road followed up his listed success at Deauville with a hard-fought Group 3 victory at Chantilly last month and suddenly Stewart is viewing Tickled Pink in a different light.

“She has an outstanding colt foal by Ghaiyyath (GB) on the ground. I went to Ghaiyyath because he's the most beautiful horse. He's big and strong and has good limbs. I felt that he would put some size into her because the Invincible Spirit seems to be coming out in her. They are just a little on the neat side. Hopefully I have found the secret to this mare because you need size and scope to make up into a good 3-year-old.”

He added, “I don't know if she's carrying a colt or a filly but obviously I am praying it's a filly. I would love to keep a filly out of her. I try to keep all the fillies and it's an exception if I bring a filly to the sales. 

“I have four daughters and three granddaughters out of Casandra Go and we have a few fillies on the ground. I will keep those and race them.”

And while Stewart, along with James Hanly of Ballyhimikin Stud, who boards all of his mares, clearly adopt a professional approach and are following a proven strategy to success in the ring and on the racetrack, nothing will dissuade the renowned owner-breeder from believing that anything other than luck can be attributed to the success.  

He said, “It's really all down to luck. Even the way I have covered Tickled Pink has been lucky. You would think that going to Frankel, Dark Angel and Shamardal would do the trick for her. Now, Saxon Warrior is looking like he will be an above-average stallion, but it's funny that a first-season sire is the one to get the mare off the ground.”

For all of his good fortune, Stewart admits that he was a little miffed at the price tag that Victoria Road made at Book 1 at Tattersalls last year. He says the fact that the mare could have been viewed as disappointing may have contributed to the colt making just 115,000gns to MV Magnier, not that he's complaining.

“He was a lovely yearling, very correct and moved like a dream. It was a disappointing price but I had a few other yearlings that I was keeping last year and decided to sell him. As my wife has told me since, Aidan has well made up for that disappointing price by what he has done with the horse on the track, so that's much more important. 

“Maybe people felt that Tickled Pink was beginning to look a bit marginal and that didn't help her. But everyone at Coolmore were all over Victoria Road at the sales and they all loved him. I'm very lucky he went where he did.”

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Goodwood’s Major Sprint Shows Diverse Influence of Speed in the Breed

   A look back at the winners of Goodwood's King George S. illustrates how sprint lines permeate all areas of the breed, from fellow sprinters to Derby winners.

The win of Khaadem (Ire) in the G2 King George S. at the Qatar 'Glorious' Goodwood Festival has further enhanced the great record in the race of his trainer Charlie Hills, who has now saddled the winner in five of the past six years. Hills has, of course, been helped by having had the mighty Battaash (Ire) under his care, that great horse being responsible for four of those five victories. Even though Battaash at his best was in a class of his own, there are plenty of similarities between these two very fast horses, over and above being sons of Dark Angel (Ire) ideally suited by Goodwood's speed-favouring sprint course, over which Khaadem won the Stewards' Cup three years ago.  Another obvious similarity is that they are both geldings. In an age when so many fast colts are retired to stud early in life, it's no surprise to find geldings winning the King George S. However, that situation is an aberration from the race's overall profile, its roll of honour containing many horses, both male and female, who have made a sizeable contribution to the development of the breed.

First run in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of King George V, the King George S. didn't take long to produce an outstanding winner because Tetratema (Ire) (The Tetrarch {Ire}) won it as a 3-year-old in 1920 before taking the prize again the following year. He had been Britain's dominant 2-year-old of 1919, when he had been the highest prize-money earner of the season thanks to an unbeaten six-race campaign which had begun in the National Breeders' Produce S. at Sandown and ended in the Middle Park S. at Newmarket. Although his stamina limitations were exposed in 1920 in the Derby and the Eclipse S., he was outstanding at distances up to a mile, his two King George S. victories being augmented by triumphs in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and Fern Hill S. at Ascot at three, and the King's Stand S. at Ascot and July Cup at Newmarket at four.

Retiring to stand alongside his father at Ballylinch Stud, Tetratema became champion sire of Great Britain and Ireland in 1929. He sired numerous fast horses including the 1931 1000 Guineas heroine Four Course (GB); 1927 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Fourth Hand (Ire); the brilliant fillies Tiffin (GB) and Myrobella (Ire), both of whom completed the July Cup/King George S. double; St. James's Palace S. winners Royal Minstrel (GB) and Mr Jinks (Ire); and 1938 King's Stand S. winner Foray (GB). Longer-term, his son Theft (GB), runner-up in the 1935 2000 Guineas, was champion sire of Japan for the five seasons from 1947 to 1951 inclusive; his daughter Una (Ire) produced the great sprinter/miler and sire Palestine (Ire); and another daughter Queen Of The Nore (Ire) was the granddam of Horama (Ire) from whom the Moller brothers developed the family which is responsible for the Derby winners Teenoso and Sir Percy (GB). The aforementioned Myrobella did even better at stud than she had done on the racecourse, producing King George VI's 1942 2000 Guineas winner Big Game (GB). She subsequently became ancestress of the Classic winners Snow Knight (GB), Chamossaire (GB), Linamix (Fr), the last two of this trio became champion sires.

Outstanding though Tetratema was, his claim to being the best grey sired by The Tetrarch to win the King George S. did not last long because in 1924 the race was won by HH Aga Khan III's 'Flying Filly' Mumtaz Mahal (GB). A great racehorse, she ultimately became an even greater broodmare. Her sons included the brilliantly fast Mirza II (Fr) and the 1934 Sussex S. winner Badruddin (Fr) but ultimately it was her daughters, headed by Nasrullah's dam Mumtaz Begum (Fr), who made the most lasting impact. Her other daughters included Abernant's dam Rustom Mahal (Fr) and Mahmoud's dam Mah Mahal (Fr). In subsequent generations the celebrities descending from her have included Royal Charger (GB), Migoli (GB), Petite Etoile (GB), Nishapour (Fr), Shergar (Ire), Habibti (Ire), Octagonal (NZ), Alamshar (Ire), Zarkava (Ire), Igugu (SAf)  and Golden Horn (GB), as well as the great matriarchs Eight Carat (GB) and Alruccaba (Ire).

Further Mumtaz Mahal memories flooded back to Goodwood after the Second World War when her grandson Abernant (GB) (Owen Tudor {GB)) took the King George S. in both 1949 and 1950. In both years he preceded the victory by taking the July Cup and followed it up by winning the Nunthorpe S. at  York. Along with his older close relative Tudor Minstrel (both horses were by the Hyperion stallion Owen Tudor and both had Mumtaz Mahal's dam Lady Josephine as their third dam), Abernant was one of two brilliant horses trained in Beckhampton shortly after the Second World War. Tudor Minstrel became the more influential sire of the pair, largely through his son Sing Sing (GB) and that horse's sons Song (GB) and Jukebox (GB), who were lynchpins of British sprint breeding for years. Abernant, though, also made his mark, most notably via the Classic-winning fillies Abermaid (GB) and Even Star (GB).

Mumtaz Mahal was again invoked by the 1956 King George S. result when the prize went to HH Aga Khan III's brilliant filly Palariva (GB) (Palestine {GB}). A daughter of Nasrullah's brilliantly fast full-sister Rivaz (GB), Palariva was trained in France by Alec Head but did most of her racing in England, including winning at Goodwood as a 2-year-old (when she was awarded the Molecomb S. by the stewards after passing the post in second place) before returning to Sussex 12 months later to land the King George S. She subsequently made a massive contribution to the Aga Khan Studs as granddam of the 1973 Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Prix Jacques le Marois winner Kalamoun (GB) who was the mainstay of the organisation's sires' roster through the 1970s despite dying after only five years at stud. Kalamoun's influence has lasted well into the 21st century through his Prix Jacques le Marois-winning son Kenmare (Fr), most obviously courtesy of Kenmare's grandson Kendargent (Fr).

Several of the colts who won the King George S. from the late 1950s into the 1970s became decent stallions, most notably the Michael Jarvis-trained So Blessed (GB), successful in the race as a 3-year-old in 1968. A son of the Nasrullah stallion Princely Gift (GB), So Blessed became an excellent sire of sprinters from his base at Lord Howard de Walden's Thornton Stud in Yorkshire. One of the many fast horses whom he sired was the 1977 King George S. winner Scarcely Blessed. Trained for her breeder Tim Holland-Martin of Overbury Stud by Fulke Johnston Houghton, Scarcely Blessed was a terrific filly and then became an excellent broodmare once she returned to Overbury, most obviously producing College Chapel (GB) (Sharpo [GB}) who brought down the curtain on the long-running Vincent O'Brien/Lester Piggott Royal Ascot show with his victory in the G3 Cork & Orrery S. (now G1 Platinum Jubilee S.) in 1993.

Five years before Scarcely Blessed's victory, the King George S. had been won by a filly who became an even more notable broodmare. The redoubtable Stilvi (GB) (Derring Do {GB}) was trained in Palace House in Newmarket by Bruce Hobbs and then became a stalwart at stud for her owner George Cambanis, producing a galaxy of Hobbs-trained stars for him including the 1976 G1 Middle Park S. winner Tachypous (GB) (Hotfoot {GB}), 1978 G1 Dewhurst S. winner Tromos (Busted {GB}) and 1980 Irish Derby winner Tyrnavos (GB) (Blakeney {GB}).

The race's next winner after Stilvi was the charismatic Sandford Lad, an 1,800-guinea yearling who became a champion sprinter from Ryan Price's Findon stable. He became only modestly successful at Airlie Stud, perhaps his most notable son being Spindrifter (Ire), a 13-time winner as a 2-year-old in 1980 when trained by Sir Mark Prescott. More successful were some of the colts who won later in the '70s including Auction Ring (Bold Bidder), the Cheveley Park Stud stalwart Music Boy (GB) (Jukebox {GB}) and the remarkable Ahonoora (GB) (Lorenzaccio {GB}). The latter won the Stewards' Cup at three from Brian Swift's Epsom stable and the King George S. at four when trained in Newmarket by Frankie Durr before becoming a world-class stallion, most notably responsible for the equally influential sire Indian Ridge (Ire) and for the 1991 Derby winner Dr Devious (Ire).

The next horse to complete the Stewards' Cup (as a 3-year-old in 1982) and King George S. (at four) double was the enormously popular David Chapman-trained, David 'Dandy' Nicholls-ridden Soba (GB) (Most Secret {GB}). Bred and raced by Chapman's sister Muriel Hills, Soba showed very little as a 2-year-old, her only placing from nine starts in 1981 coming when she finished third, carrying bottom weight, in a nursery at Edinburgh (now Musselburgh) on her final run of the year. However, she improved out of all recognition over the winter, winning 11 of her 14 starts at three. She is generally held to have ended up as a disappointing broodmare but actually produced nine winners from 10 runners as well as the unraced Sadler's Wells filly Oh So Well (Ire), who became the dam of the 1999 G1 Prix Ganay and G1 Gran Premio di Milano winner Dark Moondancer (GB) (Anshan {Ire}).

Another Goodwood specialist was the 1985 King George S. winner Primo Dominie (GB) (Dominion {GB}), who had won the G2 Richmond S. at the meeting the previous year. He became a successful sprinting sire when standing alongside Music Boy at Cheveley Park Stud. The following year's winner Double Schwartz (Ire) (Double Form {Ire}) was also a terrific sprinter, going on to take the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye, while two years later the race was won by the outstanding filly Silver Fling (The Minstrel), another to follow up in France's top sprint. Her trainer, Ian Balding, subsequently won the King George S. with an even greater sprinting mare: the brilliant Lochsong, successful in both 1993 and '94 (in both of which years she too won the Prix de l'Abbaye) after taking the Stewards' Cup in 1992.

Lochsong became a useful broodmare for her owner/breeder Jeff Smith, without (inevitably) producing anything of her own calibre. That was not the case, though, for a couple of other very fast fillies who won the race soon afterwards: Land Of Dreams (GB) (Cadeaux Genereux {GB}) and Cassandra Go (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), the King George S. winners of 1998 and 2000. The former is now best known as the dam of the superb Dream Ahead (Diktat {GB}) and the latter as the dam of 2008 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Halfway To Heaven (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) and thus as the granddam of seven-time Group 1 winner Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and her three-time Group 1-winning full-sister Rhododendron (Ire).

The King George S. is almost certainly in a lull as regards being a source of star producers, male and female, as eight of its last 10 runnings have been won by geldings. (The jury is still out, though, on George Strawbridge's filly Suesa (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) who won it last year and for whom an interesting breeding career presumably awaits). However, it's still a race which highlights speed at its purest, and we can now look forward to York's Ebor Meeting where Khaadem will aim for the mighty Goodwood/York double completed in the Nunthorpe S. by so many great sprinters including Mumtaz Mahal, Abernant, Mickey The Greek (GB), Right Boy (Ire), Floribunda (GB), Polyfoto (GB), So Blessed and, most recently, Khaadem's erstwhile stablemate Battaash.

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Influential Producer Cassandra Go Dies

Cassandra Go (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}-Rahaam, by Secreto), the winner of the G2 King's Stand S. and an influential producer, has died aged 25 at Ballyhimikin Stud.

Bred by John McKay, Cassandra Go was purchased by Trevor Stewart for 82,000gns as a foal through the BBA at the Tattersalls December Sale of 1996. Stewart sent her through the ring as a yearling at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, but opted to retain her at 200,000gns.

Sent into training with Geoff Wragg, Cassandra Go was soundly beaten in her lone start at two but righted that wrong with a first-out maiden victory the following April. She would win a Newmarket conditions race and picked up a listed third before the season's end, and she proved progressive at four, picking up stakes wins in the Listed Lansdown Fillies' S. and the G3 King George S. It was at five, however, that Cassandra Go truly thrived, winning the G2 Temple S. and G2 King's Stand S. before finishing second in the G1 July Cup.

Cassandra Go had been covered by Green Desert prior to her final season on the racecourse, and as a half-sister to G3 Coventry S. winner Verglas (Ire) (Highest Honor {Fr}), expectations must have been high heading into her second career. Cassandra Go more than delivered.

Her first foal, the Green Desert mare Neverletme Go (Ire), produced the German stakes-winning Best Regards (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), but that has been relegated to a footnote in what is a highly accomplished and sought-after line. Cassandro Go's third foal was the G3 Summer S. winner Theann (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), who would subsequently produce the dual American Grade I winner Photo Call (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and the G2 Richmond S. winner and young sire Land Force (Ire) (No Nay Never).

Theann was followed immediately by Halfway To Heaven (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}), who has overshadowed even her elder sister's lofty accomplishments. The winner of the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas, G1 Sun Chariot S. and G1 Nassau S., Halfway To Heaven has gone on to even greater acclaim as a producer; after first supplying the Group 3-winning Flying The Flag (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and the G1 Fillies' Mile, G1 Lockinge S. and G1 Prix de l'Opera victress Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), she outdid herself with the remarkable six-time Group 1 winner Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

Theann and Halfway To Heaven were both plucked out of Goffs yearling sales by the Coolmore partners, and that group likewise took home Cassandro Go's most recent filly to appear at public auction, the subsequently Group 3-placed Invincible Spirit (Ire) filly Fantasy (Ire) for 1.6-million gns from the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2017. In the interim, Cassandro Go had produced the filly Tickled Pink (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), who was retained by Stewart and won the G3 Abernant S. and G3 Coral Charge S. for trainer Sir Henry Cecil-one of the great trainer's last stakes winners prior to his death–and Stewart told The Owner Breeder he has four of Cassandra Go's daughters in his care. Those include the 3-year-old Holly Golightly (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}), the winner of a Gowran Park maiden last month for trainer Ger Lyons, and a filly foal by Night Of Thunder born this year. Stewart also retained the mare's 2-year-old colt Once Upon A River (Ire), who was third on debut at Gowran on June 13 for Lyons. Cassandra Go has a yearling colt by Saxon Warrior (Jpn).

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