Caulfield on Lope de Vega

If Showtime's hammy television series “The Borgias” is to be believed (and I am not sure that it is), Cesare Borgia had more than a brotherly interest in his sister Lucrezia. Apparently it was Cesare who became the model for Machiavelli's famous treatise The Prince, which is said to be largely responsible for the word Machiavellian coming into usage as a synonym for cunning and amorality. 
It is therefore appropriate that a horse named Machiavellian should feature in the following tale of close inbreeding. Machiavellian appears twice in the third generation of Lope de Vega, a young stallion who has become the sensation of this year's first-crop European stallions. Thanks to a spectacular group-race double on Future Champions Day at Newmarket, this grandson of Giant's Causeway boosted his total of group winners to four, guaranteeing that the phone will be ringing incessantly at Ballylinch Stud. 
This total of four group-winning juveniles means that Lope de Vega has now overtaken his own sire, 2004's champion European 2-year-old Shamardal, who had two. However, Shamardal's first crop went on to improve its total to a highly impressive nine, with Lope de Vega leading the way. By a remarkable coincidence, Lope de Vega won the same two French Classics, the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and the Prix du Jockey-Club, as Shamardal. Although Lope de Vega didn't lead throughout, his Jockey-Club performance was reminiscent of Shamardal's, in that both overcame a wide draw and both sealed victory with a decisive move before the final turn. 
The 3×3 inbreeding to Machiavellian is the most interesting aspect of Lope de Vega's pedigree. This Mr. Prospector colt was rated Europe's best 2-year-old by a margin of five pounds in 1989, following an unbeaten campaign which featured Group 1 victories in the Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre. Although Machiavellian's second season wasn't as successful, he did take second place in the 2,000 Guineas and his bloodlines held out every hope that he would be an asset to Sheikh Mohammed's breeding operation. 
Part of his appeal was that he was out of Coup de Folie, a Group 1 performer inbred 3×3 to that extraordinary producer Almahmoud via her daughters Cosmah and Natalma. As Machiavellian's pedigree also included 3×4 inbreeding to Native Dancer, he had two lines to each of the parents of Northern Dancer's dam Natalma. It therefore came as no surprise that much of his success as a stallion was based on mares with Northern Dancer blood. As many as 13 of his group winners were out of granddaughters of Northern Dancer, including his Group 1 winners Medicean, Storming Home, West Wind and Rebecca Sharp. 
The 3×3 inbreeding to Machiavellian in Lope de Vega's pedigree therefore created seven distant lines to Almahmoud, four of them through Natalma and three of them to Cosmah, via her son Halo. 
It's hard to say whether this accumulation of Almahmoud blood contributed to Lope de Vega's talent. After all, his sire Shamardal has numerous other Group 1 winners which are not inbred to Machiavellian. And it could be argued that Lope de Vega is simply a very talented son of two very talented parents (his dam Lady Vettori was a 2-year-old Group 3 winner who also finished third in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac). 
However, his bloodlines make him particularly interesting in a European industry steeped in Danehill blood. Danehill, of course, was inbred 3×3 to Natalma, via her son Northern Dancer and daughter Spring Adieu. 
The potential offered by blending Machiavellian with Danehill was first highlighted by Danehill's 10 foals out of Machiavellian mares. Stakes success awaited four of these 10 foals, with their three lines to Natalma, one to Cosmah and four to Native Dancer. Among the stakes winners were Scintillation, a multiple Group 1 winner in Hong Kong, and his sister Shania Dane, a dual Group 2 winner in Australia. 
The next set of clues was provided by Machiavellian's top-class son Medicean, whose pedigree features 4×4 inbreeding to Natalma and 5x5x5 to Almahmoud. Breeders took the attitude that you can't have too much of a good thing, adding more Almahmoud blood to the mix by sending daughters of Danehill to Medicean. This cross has so far produced four group winners, which represents 8% of the 53 foals bred this way. This cross gained a lot of momentum when Nannina won the 2005 Fillies' Mile and 2006 Coronation S. More recently it has been very ably represented by Siyouma (Sun Chariot S. and E.P. Taylor S.) and Sapphire (British Champions Fillies' and Mares' S.). 
We have also seen Machiavellian's son Street Cry (a brother to Shamardal's dam) sire the Melbourne Cup winner Shocking from a Danehill mare. 
Natalma, Cosmah and Almahmoud have also made a sizeable contribution to the tremendous success enjoyed by Lope de Vega's first crop, which notched up its 19th winner two days ago, when the highly regarded Endless Drama made a winning debut at Naas. This huge colt easily accounted for 16 rivals, including last year's Keeneland September sales topper. 
But it is some of Lope de Vega's group winners which merit closer inspection. For example, his son Belardo, who sprang a 10-1 surprise in last Friday's G1 Dewhurst S., is out of a daughter of Danehill. Then there's Royal Razalma, a 16-1 winner of the G3 Cornwallis S. earlier in the afternoon. She is out of a mare by Danehill's son Flying Spur and she is also inbred 5x5x4 to Native Dancer's grandson Mr. Prospector. And don't forget Burnt Sugar, winner of the G3 Solario S. He is out of a mare by Machiavellian's son Titus Livius, so is inbred 4x4x3 to Machiavellian. 
I will concentrate here on Belardo. I barely have enough fingers to tot up his total of lines to Almahmoud, but his dam Danaskaya adds a further three lines of Natalma to Lope de Vega's four, plus his three lines of Cosmah. Danaskaya, like Belardo, was bred by Ballylinch Stud, who acquired the colt's second dam Majinskaya for 190,000gns from the Wertheimer brothers in 1997. Earlier in the year Majinskaya had overcome the handicap of a June birthday to become a group-placed listed winner over a mile and a quarter. 
Perhaps she was considered surplus to requirements because of her sire, Marignan. This son of Blushing Groom ended his stallion career covering jumping mares in Ireland, but he possessed a tremendous pedigree. His dam Madelia won both the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane, and Marignan inherited enough f his parents' talent to take second place in the 1992 Prix du Jockey-Club. Unfortunately he managed only five starts and won nothing of importance. However he has had his moments as a broodmare sire, one of his daughters being the dam of this year's very smart French 3-year-old Gailo Chop. 
Majinskaya did well, too, with three black-type performers to her credit. Modeeroch, her filly by Danehill's son Mozart, earned a Timeform rating of 112 and Danaskaya was also well above average. Second to the excellent Russian Rhythm in the G2 Lowther S., she went on to be third behind Airwave and Russian Rhythm in the G1 Cheveley Park S. 
Danaskaya is a gray, inheriting her color from a distinguished female line which traces to Midget, winner of the 1955 Cheveley Park S. for the Wertheimer family. Midget also won the Prix de la Foret and Queen Elizabeth II S. This family also gave us Ma Biche (another Cheveley Park winner who later took the 1,000 Guineas) and the fast Kistena (Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp). 
Clearly there is no shortage of speed in Belardo's family, but he looks sure to be suited by a mile at three. 

DUBAI DEWHURST S.-G1, £451,000, NKT, 10-17, 2yo, 7fT, 1:27.31, sf. 
1–@sBELARDO (IRE), 127, c, 2, by Lope de Vega (Ire) 
     1st Dam: Danaskaya (Ire) (Hwt. 2yo Filly-Ire, G1SP-Eng & MSP-Ire), by Danehill 
     2nd Dam: Majinskaya (Fr), by Marignan 
     3rd Dam: Makarova, by Nijinsky II 
(€100,000 yrl '13 ARQAUG). O-Prince A A Faisal; 
B-Ballylinch Stud (IRE); T-Roger Varian; J-Andrea 
Atzeni; £255,762. Lifetime Record: 5-3-0-0, 
£281,766. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the 
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 
Click for the Racing Post result, the brisnet.com PPs or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, courtesy Racing UK.