Andrew Caulfield on Somali Lemonade

After a busy week of stakes action, it hasn’t been easy to decide where to shine the spotlight for today’s article, so here is a rundown of some of the contenders. 
Tale of the Cat notched up the seventh Northern Hemisphere Grade I winner of his career when Stopchargingmaria took the Coaching Club American Oaks, while another of his daughters is the dam of that good turf filly Istanford, successful in the previous day’s GII San Clemente H. 
  Then there was a juvenile graded stakes double, of sorts, for Tiznow at Saratoga. Firstly we saw the GIII Schuylerville S. fall to the unbeaten Fashion Alert, whose dam is Tiznow’s daughter Titan Queen. A day later it was the turn of Tiznow’s son Tiz Wonderful to supply the winner of the GIII Sanford S., in the form of the unbeaten Big Trouble. 
    This mention of Tiznow isn’t meant to detract from the achievement of Fashion Alert’s young sire Old Fashioned. He has made a very fine start for a stallion whose 2014 fee of $8,000 was set before the emergence of his first-crop daughters Fashion Plate and Sweet Whiskey. Now Fashion Alert is supporting the theory that Old Fashioned could become a worthy heir to his sire at Taylor Made. 
    Over in Europe, it was one of those rare weeks when the mighty Galileo failed to add to his total of stakes winners, though his daughter Tapestry failed by only a neck to take the Irish Oaks. Instead it was Galileo’s stallion sons who kept up the good work. Rip Van Winkle was represented by his second first-crop group winner in the shape of Anglesey S. winner Dick Whittington, whose broodmare sire Danehill has done such exceptional work with Galileo. Not to be outdone, one of Galileo’s finest runners out of a Danehill mare–the champion 2-year-old Teofilo–enjoyed stakes success in Ireland, England and Germany. 
    Another who couldn’t be kept out of the news was Montjeu, whose magnificently-bred daughter Bracelet became his second successive winner of the Irish Oaks, just six days after his son Gallante had become his third winner of the Grand Prix de Paris. In between these two Group 1 successes Montjeu’s name was linked with another Group 1 winner when Charm Spirit took the Prix Jean Prat. The colt’s dam L’Enjoleuse was sired by Montjeu from a Machiavellian mare, so represents the same cross as Gallante. 
Charm Spirit, with his three group victories this year, is playing a leading role alongside Kingman in the memorable success being enjoyed by Invincible Spirit’s 2011 crop. The total so far is eight stakes winners, plus another seven placed at group level. 
    But my award for stallion of the week goes to Lane’s End’s Lemon Drop Kid, thanks to the graded stakes double achieved by his daughters Somali Lemonade (GI Diana S.) and Aurelia’s Belle (GIII Arlington Oaks). Another of Lemon Drop Kid’s daughters is the dam of CCA Oaks runner-up Unbridled Forever. 
    At a time when many Europeans are suspicious of American stallions, Lemon Drop Kid has earned himself a dispensation. His string of solid results in Europe include Royal Ascot group successes by Bronze Cannon, Pisco Sour and Cannock Chase and he also sired the dam of the very good European miler Elusive Kate. 
    Consequently, it surely will have come as no surprise to anyone that Lemon Drop Kid’s recent American Graded double came on turf–especially when both victorious fillies are out of grand-daughters of Northern Dancer. The latest Blood-Horse Stallion Register credits him with a total of more than $21 million on turf, from a grand total of nearly $49 million. Somali Lemonade follows Citronnade as the second of his six Grade I winners to have scored at the top level on turf. The son of Kingmambo has also enjoyed considerable success with his all-weather runners, which include another three of his Grade I winners, namely Richard’s Kid, Christmas Kid and Santa Teresita. That leaves only the Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever as a Grade I winner on dirt. 
This is quite a surprising record for a horse who raced exclusively on dirt throughout a 24-race career which yielded Grade I victories at two, three and four, plus an Eclipse Award. It appears that the salient facts about his pedigree are that his sire Kingmambo was a top turf miler, as was Kingmambo’s extraordinary dam Miesque. Also, his dam Charming Lassie was a half-sister to a couple of notable European runners in Wolfhound and Foxhound. Coincidentally, these two were sired by Nureyev and Danzig, the sons of Northern Dancer who respectively appear as the broodmare sires of Somali Lemonade and Aurelia’s Belle. 
    Both Somali Lemonade and Aurelia’s Belle possess the type of female line which–coupled with their impressive racing records–is guaranteed to make them the apple of any breeder’s eye. 
For example, Somali Lemonade’s fifth dam is the celebrated French filly Monade, winner of the Epsom Oaks and Prix Vermeille in 1962 before finishing an excellent second in the Arc. 
    Although Monade failed to produce anything nearly as talented as herself for King Ranch, she made full amends via her broodmare daughters. Four of them– Que Mona, Remedia, Miss Mazepah and Elect– produced graded or group winners and there are also important winners descending from two of her other daughters, Pressing Date and Mariella. 
Somali Lemonade comes from the branch descending from Monade’s Dr Fager filly Remedia, as does last year’s Wood Memorial and Haskell Invitational winner Verrazano. Remedia is best known as the dam of Too Chic, whose Grade I performances included a win in the Maskette S. and a second in the Alabama. 
    Too Chic in turn produced a pair of Grade I winners to Mr. Prospector, starting with Somali Lemonade’s second dam Chic Shirine, winner of the Ashland S. in 1987. Next came Queena, a champion older mare, but it is Chic Shirine who has made the greater long-term impact. In addition to producing a pair of Grade II winners, four of Chic Shirine’s daughters have so far produced a total of seven graded winners, headed by Verrazano, Serra Lake and Somali Lemonade. 
Aurelia’s Belle, for her part, could hardly have a “deeper” female line, her third dam being none other than Courtly Dee. This daughter of Never Bend became one of the most prolific producers of graded winners, with a total of seven led by the Grade I scorers Ali Oop, Althea and Ketoh. Aurelia’s Belle’s second dam is Aishah, a Grade II-winning sister to Althea, and she too has a Grade I winner to her credit in Aldiza. How did Nicoma manage to buy Aurelia’s Belle for Jim Miller for no more than $170,000?