Pedigree Insights: Golden Start to Perfect Day

Saturday's racing surely came extremely close to perfection for any lover of the Thoroughbred. The highlight, inevitably, had to be American Pharoah's majestic display at Belmont, which finally quenched America's thirst for a Triple Crown winner. However, there were no grounds for complaint earlier in the day at Epsom, when the exciting Golden Horn maintained his unbeaten record in excellent style in the Derby. Appropriately, each of the colts is a representative of the male line which has made the greatest impact on his respective country's Triple Crown events in recent decades. In winning the Belmont, American Pharoah supplied the Fappiano branch of the Mr. Prospector line with its 13th win in a Triple Crown event, the sequence starting with Unbridled in the Kentucky Derby of 1990. I haven't seen American Pharoah in the flesh, but he appears to possess the size and power that has made this branch so effective on America's dirt tracks. Golden Horn, a graduate of Hascombe and Valiant Studs, has been described by his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer as “the right height, right length, right type” for the Derby. It turns out that the colt has the perfect unflappable temperament, too. That he is the right physical type may be a reflection of his bloodlines, as he has four lines to Northern Dancer, the stallion who has made by far the greatest impact on the Epsom Classic since Nijinsky became the first of his three Derby winners in 1970. During those 46 years we have seen six winners sired by Northern Dancer's sons–three by Nijinsky, two by Sadler's Wells and one by Sadler's Wells's brother Fairy King–and another 12 by his grandsons, comprising four by Montjeu, three by Galileo and one each by Caerleon, Chief's Crown, Dancing Brave, Danehill and Ile de Bourbon. We have also seen two great-grandsons get into the act, with Grand Lodge and Cape Cross both being grandsons of Danzig. The Northern Dancer clan's contribution adds up to 24 winners–and that's just the male line. Golden Horn is inbred 4×4 to Northern Dancer, via his 15.3-hands sons Danzig and Nureyev, and his dam, the unraced Fleche d'Or, is inbred 4×2 to Nureyev. There is a further, more remote line, via Lyphard's daughter Phydilla. You may have noticed that Danzig and Nureyev aren't among the sons of Northern Dancer which sired a Derby winner, but Nureyev was a three-parts-brother to Sadler's Wells and Fairy King, and Danzig's name appears somewhere in the pedigrees of four of the last seven winners. I need at this point to make it clear that I am an admirer of Golden Horn's sire Cape Cross. In my work for Juddmonte we have used him only sparingly but have been rewarded with the group winners Treat Gently and Jet Away. That said, Cape Cross has never quite made it into the highest echelons, with his fee never rising higher than €50,000 after he started out at only IR£8,000. This year breeders could use the 21-year-old for no more than €20,000. Part of the explanation is that his tally of Group 1 winners in the Northern Hemisphere stands at just five from a total of over 1,400 Northern Hemisphere foals aged three or over. Needless to say, this falls well short of the figures achieved by stallions which, at one time or another, have ranked among the highest-priced in Britain or Ireland, such as Galileo, Dubawi, Dansili, Pivotal, Oasis Dream and Shamardal. It has been a different story at Group 2 level, with no fewer than 16 of Cape Cross's progeny achieving that status. Perhaps one of those Group 2 winners, the German 3-year-old Karpino, will become Group 1 winner number six, as he has been a comfortable winner of each of his three races, including Germany's equivalent of the 2,000 Guineas. If Cape Cross can't boast about the quantity of his Northern Hemisphere Group 1 winners, he has certainly earned bragging rights when it comes to their quality. His five Group 1 winners feature three outstanding Classic winners. His first-crop daughter Ouija Board triumphed in the 2004 Oaks and Irish Oaks before developing into an international star. Next came the magnificent Sea the Stars, who dominated the 2009 season from the moment he added the Derby to his 2,000 Guineas victory. And now Golden Horn has become his sire's second impressive winner of the Derby, his success coming just 12 months after Ouija Board's son Australia had won the Derby and Irish Derby. That's quite an achievement on Cape Cross's behalf and it is easy to envisage Sea the Stars carrying on his sire's Classic work. Having sired the Oaks winner Taghrooda and the German Derby winner Sea the Moon in his first crop, Sea the Stars appears to have an excellent prospect for this year's German Derby, judging by the ease of Quasillo's win in last month's G3 Bavarian Classic. Quasillo comes from a comparatively small second crop, but it also contains the Derby third Storm the Stars. One name which mustn't be overlooked in Cape Cross's pedigree is that of his broodmare sire Ahonoora. This handsome horse was the product of two very different performers. His sire Lorenzaccio was a middle-distance performer who became the villain of the piece by defeating the great Nijinsky on his final appearance in the Champion S. Ahonoora's dam Helen Nichols, on the other hand, had been a very speedy member of a fast female line. Speed also proved to be Ahonoora's principal asset but, as sometimes happens with horses of this type of background, his progeny enjoyed success over a wide range of distances. Ahonoora even sired the 1992 Derby winner Dr Devious and Ahonoora's high-class daughter Park Express became the dam of the 2008 Derby winner New Approach. Now, as the broodmare sire of Cape Cross, he also appears in the pedigrees of Sea the Stars, Australia and Golden Horn. This remarkable stallion also sired the dams of Azeri, Leroidesanimaux and the popular Irish stallion Acclamation, and it was one of his little-known grandsons who gave us the extraordinary Cirrus des Aigles. Lorenzaccio sired very little of note apart from Ahonoora, just the Italian Group 1 winner Rolle and the good Australian colt Brewery Boy, but he also sired Golden Horn's fourth dam Lora. This mare produced On the House, winner of the 1,000 Guineas and Sussex S. for Sir Philip Oppenheimer, father of Golden Horn's owner-breeder Anthony. In sending Fleche d'Or to Cape Cross, Anthony Oppenheimer created 4×5 to Lorenzaccio. Perhaps he was influenced by the contribution that Lorenzaccio's sire Klairon had made to the fortunes of Golden Horn's female line, which traces all the way back to the legendary Mumtaz Mahal. This is the branch descending from Sun Princess, who found fame as the dam of the stallion Royal Charger. Klairon sired notable progeny from two of Sun Princess' granddaughters. Mated to Courtessa, Klairon sired the G1 King's Stand S. winner D'Urberville and his sister Klairessa. Klairessa in turn became the dam of Habibti, one of the finest sprinting fillies ever seen in Europe. Mated to Margaret Ann, Klairon sired No Relation, a quick-maturing stakes winner. Australian racing and breeding owe quite a debt to Klairessa and No Relation. Thanks to her daughters Eight Carat and Great Klaire, Klairessa has a long line of Group 1-winning Australian descendants, the most prolific being Horse of the Year Octagonal. No Relation, for her part, numbered the Golden Slipper winner Guineas and the successful sire Mossman among her descendants, Mossman being the sire of the 2014 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun. Golden Horn's dam Fleche d'Or is an unraced daughter of Dubai Destination, a top miler who proved so disappointing as a stallion that he was transferred to the National Hunt sector. That hasn't stopped her making a magnificent start to her broodmare career. Golden Horn is her second foal, her first being the Champs Elysees filly Eastern Belle, who was second in the GII New York S. on the day before the Derby. Unfortunately for Hascombe Stud, Fleche d'Or was sold for 62,000gns in 2012. Fleche d'Or had plenty to offer as a broodmare, as a daughter of Nuryana. This listed winner over a mile produced consecutive group-winning foals in Mystic Knight (G3 Derby Trial) and Rebecca Sharp (G1 Coronation S.), plus the very useful filly Hidden Hope. Another of Nuryana's daughters, Nyarhini, visited Cape Cross to produce Token of Love, a talented miler. Bearing in mind that Cape Cross, Dubai Destination and Nuryana were all milers, it is understandable that there were questions about Golden Horn's ability to stay a mile and a half. Of course his Derby display erased all such doubts, but–as so often happens nowadays–his owner appears intent on campaigning him over the more fashionable distance of a mile and a quarter, rather than a mile and a half. Sea the Stars' owners reaped great rewards from a similar policy until he successfully reverted to the longer distance in the Arc. It will be fascinating to see whether Golden Horn can continue to follow in his predecessor's illustrious footsteps.