Andrew Caulfield: Karaktar

PRIX NOAILLES-G3, €80,000, LCP, 4-20, 3yo, 
10 1/2fT, 2:08.61, gd. 
1–@KARAKTAR (IRE), 128, c, 3, by High Chaparral (Ire) 
     1st Dam: Karawana (Ire), by King’s Best 
     2nd Dam: Karaliyfa (Ire), by Kahyasi (Ire) 
3rd Karliyka (Ire), by Last Tycoon (Ire) 
O-H H The Aga Khan; B-H H The Aga Khan’s Studs 
SC (Ire); T-Alain de Royer-Dupre; J-Christophe 
Soumillon. €40,000. Lifetime Record: 5 starts, 
3 wins, 2 places, €95,600. Werk Nick Rating: A++. 
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 
Click for the Racing Post result. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton. 

There’s never a good time to lose a high-class stallion, but the demise of High Chaparral late last year, following colic surgery, is now beginning to look even more unfortunate. 

He enjoyed a group-race double via his sons Karaktar and Western Hymn in Europe last week and his progeny have also been in fine form in Australia and New Zealand since the turn of the year. His ex-English son Contributer has been leading the way, thanks to his Group 1 successes in the Ranvet S. and Chipping Norton S., but there have also been group wins for the 4-year-old Pondarosa Miss (G1 Easter H. over a mile) and for the 3e-year-olds Fenway (G1 Vinery Stud S.), Alpine Eagle (G2 Caulfield Autumn Classic) and Hi World. There has also been a good win by the 2-year-old Last Bullet, a Group 3 winner over six furlongs. 

Of course it was bad enough that this hero of the Derby, Irish Derby and two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf was still only 15 at the time of his death. Bearing in mind that his sire, Sadler’s Wells, was 27 when he covered his last mares and his grandsire, Northern Dancer, was 26, it was only reasonable to expect that High Chaparral had several more years to enjoy the respect he had gradually won back from breeders. 

That said, it is worth pointing out that High Chaparral’s shuttle career, firstly to New Zealand and then to Australia, means that his legacy will be considerable, at least numerically. Whereas Equineline credits Northern Dancer with a career total of only 646 foals (of which 23% became black-type winners), Sadler’s Wells–with his much larger books–gave us 2,259 foals (for 13% black-type winners). 

High Chaparral’s current figure of 1,856 foals of racing age stands to rise substantially, as he has more than 80 Northern Hemisphere yearlings and covered around 130 mares in Ireland last year. He also has 115 Australian yearlings, 119 Australian foals and covered 146 mares at Coolmore Australia in 2014, which means that his final total won’t be very different from his sire’s. 

These Australian crops are potentially important as High Chaparral arguably enjoyed a higher profile “down under,” where his fee once rose as high as A$99,000. His highest fee in Ireland was the €35,000 which he commanded in his first season, in 2004. 

I have explained before how High Chaparral struggled to maintain a high profile in his early years at Coolmore, where he was not only in direct competition with Sadler’s Wells, but also with Sadler’s Wells’s brilliant sons Montjeu and Galileo (High Chaparral’s initial fee was €5,000 higher than Montjeu’s and €5,000 lower than Galileo’s). He also joined the team at a time when there was still some prejudice against Sadler’s Wells as a sire of sires. 

Thankfully Montjeu and Galileo wasted little time in erasing such doubts, but that didn’t help High Chaparral, as breeders increasingly turned to these two Classic sires rather than the unproven High Chaparral. As a result, High Chaparral’s fee fell by €5,000 every season until it reached only €10,000 in 2009 in his sixth season. 

I have also pointed out that, by this stage, High Chaparral had been attracting attention from National Hunt breeders for a while. His 2009 book included numerous mares with National Hunt backgrounds and the black-type-winning hurdlers Caracci Apache and Different Gravey are fine examples, with both going straight to jumping careers without being tried on the flat. 

As luck would have it, High Chaparral’s career turned a significant corner soon afterwards. His first three crops all did well during 2009, so much so that he ended the year in 13th place among Britain and Ireland’s leading stallions. His group winners in Europe included a couple of Classic-placed 3-year-olds and his potential as a Classic sire was further highlighted by his first New Zealand crop, which included the G1 Victoria Derby winner Monaco Consul and the highly impressive So You Think, who recorded the first of his two victories in the G1 W.S. Cox Plate. 

High Chaparral’s transformation continued apace, with his fee climbing to €15,000 in 2010, €25,000 in 2011 and then to €30,000 last year. He was again scheduled to stand at €30,000 this year, which would have made him the fourth-highest-priced stallion on Coolmore’s extensive roster. 

His rehabilitation was clearly nearly complete, and he has a potentially top-class 4-year-old this year in the lightly raced Free Eagle. His current 3-year-olds come from his first of his recent €25,000 crops, so it is fair to have substantial hopes of them. The signs are good and one of them, Moheet, is still among the 2,000 Guineas entries. There was a lot to like, too, about Karaktar’s victory in the G3 Prix Noailles, in which this good-moving colt forged away to record his third win from five starts. Karaktar looks sure to make a strong bid to provide the Aga Khan with yet another victory in the Prix du Jockey-Club. 

With a dam by the Prix du Jockey-Club winner Darshaan, High Chaparral will have had obvious appeal to the Aga Khan. The Aga has had numerous good performers with pedigrees containing both Darshaan and the Aga’s Derby and Irish Derby winner Kahyasi, prime examples being the Group 1 winners Zainta and Enzeli. This time they both appear in the third generation of Karaktar’s pedigree. 

Karaktar’s dam Karawana did her winning over a mile and a mile and a quarter, before showing that she stayed a mile and a half. It would be an exaggeration to say that this was one of the best families in the Aga’s stud book, but Karaktar is one of six group winners descending from his fifth dam, the Boussac-bred Karosa. Three of those group winners were out of Karaktar’s third dam, the listed-placed Karliyka, who achieved this notable feat with three different stallions. 
Perhaps Karaktar owes some of his talent to having Sadler’s Wells and King’s Best as his two grandsires. King’s Best owed his Derby and Arc-winning son Workforce to an unraced daughter of Sadler’s Wells and his sire Kingmambo also did sterling work with Sadler’s Wells’ broodmare daughters. Incidentally, there are now six group winners out of King’s Best mares and the Aga Khan bred no fewer than four of them–Karaktar and his fellow French group winners Kiram, Ziyarid and Ervedya, the last-named winner of this year’s Prix Imprudence. 

To get back to High Chaparral, the question now is whether he has done enough to found his own branch of the Sadler’s Wells male line. He may well have done, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Although some of his most accomplished sons, such as Shoot Out and Descarado, were geldings, High Chaparral is still very strongly represented by two multiple Group 1-winning sons in So You Think and (It’s A) Dundeel. 

So You Think drew plenty of attention to himself when his first yearlings reached the sales, with four colts selling for between A$500,000 and A$420,000. And Dundeel, who numbered the Australian Derby among his 10 wins, is well placed to succeed, as part of the Arrowfield stallion team. The GI Northern Dancer S. winner Redwood could prove an able substitute for his sire in New Zealand. 

In Europe, the High Chaparral flag is being flown by the imposing So You Think and by the handsome miler Toronado, who will be shuttling to Australia following a busy first season at the National Stud at Newmarket. 

Nor must we forget that High Chaparral, with Sadler’s Wells as his sire and Darshaan as his broodmare sire, is very well-qualified to succeed as a sire of broodmares. Indeed one of his daughters is scheduled to be represented in the 2,000 Guineas by The Wow Signal, who impressed last year in winning the G2 Coventry S. and G1 Prix Morny.