apr_68_Caulfield Files:Layout 1 21/03/2010 21:44 Page 5
CAULFIELD FILES
Australian runners pay Ransom biggest tribute Red Ransom’s death in Australia last November signalled that we are nearing the end of a remarkable story, which saw the lightly-raced son of Roberto sire major winners on three continents. The story certainly isn’t over yet, though. After five seasons at Dalham Hall Stud, Red Ransom has more than 100 three-year-olds, as well as 70-plus two-year-olds to represent him in 2010, and there are at least 26 yearlings from his final British season. It has been in Australia, though, where the most vivid epitaphs to Red Ransom are being written, by his daughter Typhoon Tracy and his son Charge Forward. After recording a couple of Group 1 victories against her own sex, Typhoon Tracy proved much too strong for the males in a pair of Group 1 contests at Caulfield in February, taking the CF Orr Stakes over seven furlongs and the Futurity Stakes over a mile. Charge Forward, for his part, defeated Fastnet Rock to take the title of champion first-crop sire in the 2008/09 Australian season, thanks largely to his daughter Headway, who is a Group 1 winner during the current season. Typhoon Tracy and Charge Forward are among a total of 14 toplevel winners sired by Red Ransom, who also supplied 12 winners at Group/Grade 2 level and another 28 at Group/Grade 3 level, making a total of 54 worldwide. Although his British crops have so far produced nothing better than the Group 3 winners Muthabara, Moiqen and Ouqba, several of his American foals, led by such as Electrocutionist,
The legacy of Red Ransom is assured
Casual Look, Red Clubs and Intikhab, showed that Red Ransom’s stock could be very much at home on European turf tracks, as might be expected of a son of a Derby winner. Although these figures have to be tempered by the fact that Red Ransom has around 1,250 northern hemisphere foals aged three or over, plus more than 500 Australian foals of racing age, they still represent quite an achievement for a horse who was forced into early retirement. Red Ransom had shown such speed as a two-year-old, despite his middledistance pedigree, that the revered Joe Hirsch once suggested that the colt had shown more potential than any two-year-old since Seattle Slew. Red Ransom’s famous trainer Mack Miller also paid him the considerable tribute of saying that he was “the most talented individual I have ever trained.” As with Red Desire, Typhoon Tracy’s bloodlines have little to do with the fact that she carries the AUS suffix after her name. Admittedly her dam Tracy’s Element was conceived and foaled in Australia but both her parents – the champion sprinter Last Tycoon and the Group-winning sprinter Princess Tracy – were bred in Ireland and raced in Europe. Tracy’s Element was sent to race in South Africa, where her Irish-born half-sister Topasannah had been a Group 2 winner. Tracy’s Element excelled in her adopted country, winning four Group 1s, and she was eventually returned to Australia, via the USA. One of Tracy’s Element’s unraced daughters produced a Group 2 winner to a son of Danehill – a stallion who enjoyed considerable success with Princess Tracy and one of her daughters. Princess Tracy’s Danehill colt Danasinga won the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap and has since sired numerous Group winners from his New Zealand base. Incidentally, Typhoon Tracy is the last of four consecutive foals sired by Red Ransom from Tracy’s Element and this policy of repeat matings has paid off, with the smart filly Kylikwong and the Listed winner Red Element among her predecessors.
Soldatino: Triumph Hurdle winner by Graveron
Ever heard of Graveron? No, neither had I I like to think that there aren’t many notable winners whose pedigrees mean little to me, but I was somewhat confounded when Nicky Henderson unveiled his French import Soldatino in the Grade 2 Adonis Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton in February. The non-thoroughbred, who duly scored by seven lengths and went on to win the Triumph Hurdle, is by Graveron, who turned out to be a grandson of the great Mill Reef – the stallion who appears twice in the pedigree of another notable French import, Kauto Star. Graveron is by Mille Balles, a very smart performer at up to a mile and a quarter, but Graveron proved much less talented than either his sire or grandsire. Despite racing 72 times (including once in Turkey) up to the age of eight, Graveron never attained the status of stakes winner, but he did score eight times, mainly over a mile. Unsurprisingly, Graveron hasn’t been extensively used as a stallion and Soldatino is one of only 30 foals by him, but he was also responsible for Sarako, a Listed crosscountry winner. Perhaps it is significant that Soldatino’s second dam is by Le Pontet. This winner of the French Champion Hurdle numbered the 1994 King George VI winner Algan among his best scorers, along with Le Pontif, the top French jumper of 1984, and As Des Carres, the top-earning four-yearold of 1991. Le Pontet’s broodmare daughters also made their mark, King George hero Edredon Bleu being just one of their good winners.
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER 87