Families Run Deep In Tinnakill Draft

Dermot Cantillon and Meta Osborne know how to breed a good horse. The couple have raised and grazed three Group 1 winners at their Tinnakill House Stud in Co. Laois, Ireland: five-time international Group 1 winner Alexander Goldrun (Ire) (Gold Away {Ire}); G1 Matron S. and G1 Lockinge S. victress Red Evie (Ire) (Intikhab), now the dam of Group 1-winning juvenile and last weekend’s G1 Irish Champion S.-runner up Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}); and, most recently, Casamento (Ire) (Shamardal), winner of the G1 Racing Post Trophy for Sheikh Mohammed and now a promising young stallion alongside his accomplished sire at Darley’s Kildangan Stud.

Tinnakill will present a typically strong draft of nine at next week’s Goffs Orby sale, and will be hoping their good fortune with Shamardal continues when they offer lot 314, the only colt by the sire in the catalogue. The April-foaled bay is out of Nenuphar (Ire) (Night Shift), the dam of German champion 2-year-old filly Night Lagoon (Ger) (Lagunas {GB}) and herself the dam of G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. winner Novellist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}). Nenuphar has produced another German stakes winner in the form of Night Tango (Ger) (Acatenango {Ger}).

“He’s a lovely colt; he’s a very typical Shamardal in terms of physique,” said Cantillon. “We’re really excited about him, having bred another good son of Shamardal in Casamento.”

Of the dam, Cantillon added, “She’s a very good mare. She’s the granddam of Novellist, and she’s had a champion 2-year-old in Germany–that’s the dam of Novellist–and one of her sons [Night Tango] was second in the [G1] German Derby, and she’s a stakes winner herself, so it’s a ready-made stallion’s pedigree.”

Nenuphar has an as-yet unraced 2-year-old filly by another German champion in Manduro (Ger), was barren to Teofilo this year and is now in foal to last year’s G1 Deutsches Derby winner Sea The Moon (Ger).

There is also an American flair to the Tinnakill draft, as it will offer two youngsters purchased by Cantillon out of the Keeneland January sale. Cantillon explained that he was specifically searching for a short yearling from the first crop of Frankel (GB)’s half-brother Bullet Train (GB) (Sadler’s Wells) at Keeneland, and he landed on a colt that will go through the Goffs ring as lot 345.

“I was there in January wanting to buy a Bullet Train, not being able to afford a Frankel,” Cantillon quipped. “I’m delighted with how this horse has progressed; he’s a very strong, good-looking colt that looks like a 2-year-old. He looks precocious.”

Cantillon also picked up a Pure Prize colt that will be offered as lot 337 next week. The colt received a boost on the top line of his pedigree last weekend when the Pure Prize filly Dothraki Queen won Churchill Downs’s GII Pocahontas S.

“Pure Prize gets a lot of good grass horses, so I thought he was a cheap way to get a good grass horse and might be a stallion that works well in Europe,” Cantillon explained. “Interestingly enough, one of his sons won the Singapore Derby this year, so he’s getting an international profile now.”

Of his reasons for seeking out American-breds to sell in Ireland, Cantillon said, “I like to swim against the tide a bit. Ten years ago, every second person at the sales [in Kentucky] was from Ireland. If you buy a nice horse and raise it well in Ireland I think the American horse can work well in Europe.”

Cantillon pointed out lot 183, a filly by Dalakhani (Ire), as another standout in his draft. The bay is just the eighth foal out of the 21-year-old mare Gold Dodger (Slew O’Gold), who has proven a worthwhile project for Cantillon and Osborne.

“This particular filly is all down to my wife, because a number of years ago I bought her a present for Christmas–a barren mare that hadn’t got in foal for three years,” Cantillon said. “Then we tried for two years to get this mare in foal and eventually succeeded.”

In the meantime, Gold Dodger–who had previously produced the Group 3 winner Chintz (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), in turn the dam of Group 3-placed Queen Nefertiti (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})–enjoyed the ultimate family update when her half-sister, Solemia (Ire) (Poliglote {GB}), won the 2012 G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Solemia and Gold Dodger are two of the six stakes winners produced by their dam, the G3 Prix Cleopatre winner Brooklyn’s Dance (Fr) (Shirley Heights {GB}), and it is also the immediate family of G1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Silasol (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}).

“She’s been a very difficult mare to get in foal and this is the only foal we’ve had in five years,” Cantillon said. “We’ve had to be very patient and at least she’s a very nice filly, and Dalakhani is a very good filly sire. It’s one of the Wertheimers’ best families, and it just keeps producing Group 1 winners. It’s the family of Authorized and Alhaarth–there are some very good horses in that line. I think she’s a standout in terms of pedigrees in the catalogue.”

If the pedigrees of its Orby standouts are anything to go by, Tinnakill could be adding to its Group 1 family in the near future.