older stallion review
Dansili moved into the top bracket of stallions by producing Harbinger, an outstanding horse
in so deep so early in his career. He is out of a Danehill mare, as is his Dewhurst Stakes conqueror Frankel, and if all fares well for the classy pair through their winter hibernation, it seems that Galileo will have every chance of monopolising the leading three-year-old races in 2011 and claiming another title. Another who will be reappearing for the sire next season will be Sans Frontieres, who became a leading stayer for Galileo and won £123,000 when successful in the Irish St Leger after Group 3 and Group 2 middledistance victories in Britain. Plans for end-of -season international challenges were put on hold and, in the end, perhaps the horse’s most important contribution to the season was to continue to stir the growing embers of attachment to Flat racing harboured by owner Sir Robert Ogden. It meant that the owner ended up buying 24 yearlings for an aggregate spend of over £4 million at the autumn’s yearling sales. He bought two by Galileo: the filly out of Dedicated Lady sold by Camas Park for 350,000gns and a colt out of Super Gift, who cost Ogden €215,000. Rip Van Winkle has been retired to stand alongside his sire after a season which produced a Group 1 success and three runnerup spots at the highest level, vindicating the decision to keep him in training at four, while Lily Of The Valley, winner of the Prix de l’Opera (G1), might well be heading to the paddocks after that last-time-out Group 1 success. The dominance of Galileo has been so
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complete this year that he is also the widestmargin winner of the British and Irish sire’s title – the second-placed Dansili has not even got within a sniff of his victor, finishing £2.5 million behind, despite his progeny having won more races. The Juddmonte sire, having held the early lead, was probably denied a closer finish after his four-year-old son Harbinger was retired ahead of schedule in August having suffering injury in a piece of work at home. What was proved though is that Dansili can
Stallion thoughts: Oliver St Lawrence, agent “I think that the whole idea of fashion amongst stallions is something that we have seen for some time and is not something that has particularly changed over the last five years or so. “It’s possibly something that maybe 10 or 15 years ago was less common, but for now, I can’t see the situation changing. “People in this industry are today very impatient and the end users, i.e. the owners, want results quickly. This is why we have seen the emergence of the two-year-old type of stallions in recent years with the likes of Invincible Spirit being one of the most fashionable stallions around. “Of the first-crop yearling sires to look out for I liked Sir Percy a lot. His stock surprised me a bit as they looked sharper than I was expecting and I think that he needs to be advertised for his two-year-old achievements, not just as a Derby winner. “I also like the Dutch Arts, but as I owned the mare at one point, I might be a bit biased!”
Midday: the brilliant daughter of Oasis Dream
offer his mares the sire power to get a colt of the highest order – from four other Britishbased runners, Harbinger is the only stakes horse for his dam. The improvement in her form has to be attributed to more than just Sir Michael Stoute’s training genius at getting the best out of his horses. Harbinger added over £700,000 to his sire’s earnings, but his achievements were equalled in the US by Proviso, who won four consecutive Grade 1s, while in Ireland, Zoffany won the Phoenix Stakes (G1) and finished third in the National Stakes (G1). He looked as though he was the top colt in Ireland until Pathfork, Frankel, Recital and Roderic O’Connor appeared. Interestingly, just like Harbinger, Zoffany is another sole stakes performer for his dam. After his early season flourish, Dansili could not offer enough of a threat to Galileo, but his own prize-money earnings have continued in an upward trajectory since 2007 when he earned just £732,061. This is the first season that he has bested the £2 million mark and is his top finish to date. And still you would hope that the best is yet to come as those foals conceived in the spring of 2007 – breeders tempted to use the stallion after the stakes race achievements of Rail Link, Price Tag, Strategic Prince and Home Affairs in 2006 – were just two-year-olds of 2010. You would have to think there will be more to come, particularly when looking at his covering stats this spring on page 98. Oasis Dream, with just his fourth crop of runners, is another who continued to be