Pedigree Insights: Beholder

It was another of those weeks where the action on both sides of the Atlantic threw up some highly noteworthy action.

For example, there was another hard-fought round in the battle currently being staged by Galileo and Dubawi, the two heavyweights of European breeding. Dubawi appeared to have landed a near knock-out blow in the battle for the Anglo-Irish sires' championship when his daughter Arabian Queen took the Juddmonte International, to end Golden Horn's unbeaten sequence. Galileo lost his International representative with the withdrawal of Gleneagles, but he staged a fierce comeback. By the end of the week he had been represented by the terrific total of five group winners, including the 2-year-olds Recorder (G3 Acomb S. in the Queen's colors) and Ballydoyle (G2 Debutante S).

The week also provided plenty of encouragement for the many admirers of Frankel, Galileo's exceptional son who represents the Galileo-Danehill cross. Another representative of this cross, the champion 2-year-old Teofilo, was responsible for Pleascach, who added the G1 Yorkshire Oaks to her earlier success in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. Then the comparatively inexpensive Roderic O'Connor was represented by his first group winner when his first-crop daughter Great Page landed the G3 Prix du Calvados. Interestingly, Greast Page is inbred 3×3 to Sadler's Wells, via two of his classic-winning sons out of Mr Prospector line mares.

There was also a notable 2-year-old winner for New Approach, another of Galileo's sons (but this one not from the Danehill cross). This came when Dawn Approach's brother Herald The Dawn took the G2 Futurity S.

The 2-year-old action also moved up a notch, with the running of several group races in Britain, Ireland and France. Not for the first time, the results focused attention on two stallion sons of the 1990 Prix de Diane winner Rafha. This daughter of Kris visited Danzig's son Green Desert in 1996 to produce Invincible Spirit and another of Danzig's sons, Danehill, in 2000, to produce Kodiac.

Although he was a Group 1 winner, Invincible Spirit began his stallion career at a fee no higher than €10,000, but his fee has risen tenfold since then. Kodiac, without a stakes victory to his name, started out in the bargain basement, at €5,000 in 2007, but he too has generated a substantial rise in his price, to €25,000 this year.

I suspect that Kodiac's fee will be on the rise again in 2016, as two of his juvenile daughters, Besharah and Bear Cheek, were group winners last week. Invincible Spirit recorded an even better double, with his 2-year-old sons Ajaya and Shalaa respectively winning the G2 Gimcrack S. and G1 Prix Morny.

Kodiac currently holds a narrow lead over Dark Angel on the Anglo-Irish table of 2-year-old sires, with Invincible Spirit in third place. Extend the statistics to include the rest of Europe and the places change to Dark Angel first, Invincible Spirit second and Kodiac third. Fortunately none of these stallions is simply a sire of 2-year-olds, as Dark Angel demonstrated when his 4-year-old daughter Mecca's Angel wore down the American raider Acapulco in the G1 Nunthorpe S.

Over in the U.S., the 2010 GI Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver notched up Grade I winner #2 when Embellish The Lace landed the Alabama S. Hard Spun also continued his good year with graded/group successes in the U.S. and Europe, but the performance which requires more detailed analysis is that of Henny Hughes' champion daughter Beholder in thrashing the males in the GI Pacific Classic.

Although this was no less than the eighth Grade I success by Beholder, she had previously slipped through my net, simply because so many of her wins had come at action-packed times of the year. It will be fascinating to see whether she is given the chance to become the second mare, following Zenyatta, to win the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Of course Beholder is likely to come up against the heroic American Pharoah in the Classic, but her owner shouldn't forget that Golden Horn, a colt once rated superior to American Pharoah, was defeated by a filly last week.

The Pacific Classic not only confirmed Beholder's

rare talent, but also her liking for a mile and a quarter–something that couldn't be taken for granted, judging solely on pedigree. Although Henny Hughes rounded off his juvenile career with seconds in a pair of Grade Is over a mile or 1 1/16 miles, including the Juvenile, he reverted to sprinting at three after a lengthy lay-off. He made up for lost time by taking the GIII Jersey Shore S. by 10 lengths, the GI King's Bishop S. by more than five lengths and the GI Vosburgh by nearly three lengths.

Henny Hughes' sire Hennessy never raced after the age of two, when his record was similar to his son's, so his optimum distance was never established. The chances are that he, too, would have shone at around seven furlongs, as his best American foals–Johannesburg and the Grade I-winning fillies Harmony Lodge, Madcap Escapade and Special Duty–all possessed plenty of speed. Coincidentally, Hennessy's name cropped up in connection with two of last week's speed tests at the York festival. His grandson Scat Daddy is the sire of the blazingly fast Acapulco, who led her elders for a long way in the G1 Nunthorpe. And it was Nessina, an unraced daughter of Hennessy, who is the dam of the G2 Gimcrack S. winner Ajaya.

Unfortunately, Hennessy died of heart failure at the age of 14 in 2007. Henny Hughes has done little to extend this branch of the Storm Cat male line, with Beholder being his only Grade I winner in North America.

Despite starting out at $40,000 in 2007, Henny Hughes' fee was soon in freefall and by 2012 he was available for $12,500. He attracted only 22 mares that season, so it came as little surprise when Darley sold him to Western Australia in July 2012. But then Beholder burst onto the scene, helping Henny Hughes take second place among North America's leading sires of 2-year-olds. Consequently, Henny Hughes was soon heading back to Kentucky, where he covered 67 mares at a fee of $7,500 for 43 live foals in 2014.

The next development in Henny Hughes' career was his sale in October 2013 to the Yushun Company in Japan. This was prompted by the Japanese successes of a couple of Henny Hughes' sons. The first, Henny Hound, became a Group 3 winner and then Keiai Leone won one of Japan's top dirt tests for 2-year-olds in 2012, before developing into a Group 3 dirt winner at three. The stallion's purchasers had every reason to be delighted with their purchase, as it wasn't long before another of Henny Hughes' sons, Asia Express, won Japan's top 2-year-old prize, the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity. Several of his first Japanese foals were sold in July, for a top price of around ¥45 million (roughly $380,000).

To get back to Beholder's pedigree, she is a more-than-half-sister to Into Mischief, who also became a Group I winner over 1 1/16 miles as a 2-year-old by taking the CashCall Futurity. I use the description “more-than-half-sister” because both were sired by grandsons of Storm Cat, Into Mischief being by Harlan's Holiday. Speed was considered Into Mischief's main asset as a 3-year-old, as he raced only over seven furlongs. Their dam Leslie's Lady was a precocious sprinter–four wins as a juvenile–by Tricky Creek, who did much of his winning over a mile and an eighth despite being a son of Clever Trick.

So what is the source of Beholder's ability to shine over a mile and a quarter? Well, Tricky Creek's first three dams were by His Majesty, Nijinsky and Swaps. Then there's Beholder's second dam Crystal Lady, who had Hail To Reason and the two-mile winner One For All as her grandsires, plus a Sea-Bird mare as her second dam.