Remembering 'Reef'

Bearing in mind that last week's weather truncated the action in the U.S., I hope you will forgive me for taking an unscheduled wander down memory lane, prompted by a news item in yesterday's TDN. In a brief couple of paragraphs, it was reported that Mill Reef's son Creator (GB), winner of the G1 Prix Ganay and G1 Prix d'Ispahan back in 1990, had died at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. 

As Creator was a member of Mill Reef's final crop and had reached the grand age of 29, the chances are that he was the last living son of his brilliant sire (no doubt you'll let me know if there are any other survivors). Mill Reef himself had epitomised all that was good about the magnificent racing and breeding operations developed by the late Paul Mellon, whose Rokeby Stable campaigned the likes of Arts And Letters, Fort Marcy, Key To The Mint and Run The Gantlet. 
The New York Times's obituary of Mellon reminded us that this classy gentleman had “tenaciously turned philanthropy into his personal art form” and this generosity was also to play its part in Mill Reef's story. 

I won't go into huge detail about Mill Reef's achievements on the racecourse, but the neat and compact son of Never Bend left us in absolutely no doubt about his brilliance. Despite having to share the limelight with Brigadier Gerard, a phenomenally gifted contemporary, Mill Reef achieved career figures of 14-12-2-0. His career was generously littered with impressive victories over an unusually wide range of distances, and he took the Coventry S. by eight lengths, the Gimcrack by 10, the Dewhurst by four, the Derby by two, the Eclipse by four, the King George by six, the Arc by three and the Prix Ganay by a long-looking 10 lengths. His brilliance was reflected in his Timeform ratings of 133 at two, 141 at three and 141 again at four. 

It was appropriate that one of his finest performances came in the Gimcrack S., a race named in honor of the 18th-century star who stood little more than 14 hands. Winning the Gimcrack S. brings with it the right to make a speech at the Gimcrack dinner and Mellon chose to write a sonnet about Gimcrack–a horse whose achievements included being matched against the clock in a time trial in France, where he covered 22 1/2 miles in an hour. 

The final verse of the sonnet could equally have been written for Mill Reef:

Swift as a bird I flew down many a course 
Princes, Lords, Commoners all sang my praise. 
In victory or defeat I played my part. 
Remember me, all men who love the Horse. 
If hearts and spirits flag in after days; 
Though small, I gave my all. I gave my heart. 

Mill Reef needed all that heart and courage when he fractured his near-fore at the end of August, 1972. A triangle of bone, some 2 1/2 inches long, had broken from the lower end of the cannon bone. The inner sesamoid bone was completely shattered and there was damage too to the top of the main pastern bone. 

Fortunately the skill of an international veterinary team succeeded in saving Mill Reef for a stallion career, beginning in 1973. However, his injury meant that a limit of 21 mares was imposed in his first season at England's National Stud, which was to be Mill Reef's home until a heart condition led to his death just a few weeks short of his actual 18th birthday, in February 1986. 

During his 13-year innings he was credited with 394 foals, of which some 63–16%–became black-type winners, with 38 of them–a wonderful 9.6%–enjoying success at Group level. No fewer than 18 of them became Group 1 winners, which equates to a stunning 4.6%. The Epsom Derby arguably best sums up his excellence as a stallion, as he sired two winners (Shirley Heights in 1978 and Reference Point in 1987) and Shirley Heights helped extend his influence, siring the 1985 winner Slip Anchor as well as High Estate, sire of the 1998 winner High-Rise. Then the 2006 Derby fell to Sir Percy, a colt by Shirley Heights' Classic-winning grandson Mark of Esteem. Mark of Esteem's sire Darshaan also crops up as the broodmare sire of two other Derby winners, High Chaparral and Pour Moi. 

In my then role of editor of The Thoroughbred Breeder magazine, I asked Mill Reef's trainer, Ian Balding, to write an appreciation of his superstar which appeared in April 1986. I hope he doesn't mind me reprinting some of it here, with a few added comments and explanations from myself: 

“Paul Mellon's policy has always been to stand his best colts who have raced in England at stud in Britain,” Balding explained. “Midsummer Night II, Silly Season, Glint of Gold and more recently Elegant Air and King of Clubs are all examples and, what is more, he has supported these stallions with mares of his own…. 

“The decision with Mill Reef was made more difficult for Mr. Mellon because he had received a substantially higher offer for the horse from America than the National Stud were able to put together. In addition it would have been tempting to stand him in the U.S.A. for the convenience of his own mares who were based at his Rokeby Farm in Virginia. 

“Mr. Mellon's loyalty and commitment to English racing, from which admittedly he has derived much pleasure over the years, was his most powerful sentiment however; and although the actual syndication was left to the B.B.A., he himself indicated that he would like French, Irish and ltalian breeders to have the opportunity of obtaining a share. This was entirely in line with his long-term support of international racing and breeding and he was also well aware that Mill Reef's dramatic wins abroad in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Prix Ganay had contributed enormously to the horse's reputation and value. 

“The original shareholders consisted of such internationally famous names as Baron Guy de Rothschild, Comte Roland de Chambure, with his partner Alec Head, Comtesse Batthyany, Madame Dupre, Bert Firestone, the Razza Dormello Olgiata–and, perhaps most significant of all, that shrewdest of owner/breeders, H. H. The Aga Khan, whose support of Mill Reef and belief in his male line is well known. 

“A value of £2m for a thoroughbred was almost unheard of on this side of the Atlantic in 1972 and even some of those very wealthy owner/breeders who secured the 20 private shares at £50,000 were wondering if their money was wisely invested at that time. 

“As always happens when a great racehorse goes to stud at a very high price, there were plenty of people ready to 'knock' him and indeed his first crop did look somewhat disappointing. In fairness to the horse, though, the traumatic operation to mend his broken leg had been only 6/7months before he started to cover his first mares and in that first season at stud he was a long way, physically, from the healthy, strong and very fertile stallion he later became. [The Derby and Irish Derby winner] Shirley Heights and [Prix du Jockey-Club winner] Acamas in his second crop soon showed, however, what he was capable of producing and a steady stream of high-class horses since then have helped Mill Reef to become established as perhaps the most important influence in European breeding since his famous ancestor Hyperion. 

“The incredibly high average over the years of his yearlings sold at public auction has demonstrated his almost magical appeal to the major buyers. This, together with his nomination fee which rose gradually from £10,000 in his first year to a figure of £100,000 in his last two seasons, has shown him to be one of the equine bargains of all time for those shareholders and for the National Stud itself.” 

Ian Balding's hands-on experience of Mill Reef and his progeny made him uniquely placed to comment on the fine detail of Mill Reef's influence. 

“The one major flaw so far in Mill Reef's record as a stallion is that, with the exception of Fairy Footsteps, he has not really produced an outstandingly fast filly.” 

This changed the year after the article was written, when Milligram defeated the great Miesque in the Queen Elizabeth II S. Another top-class daughter , Behera, emerged from the same final crop as Creator, but she hardly qualified for the description “outstandingly fast,” as she won the G1 Prix Saint-Alary before taking second place in the Arc. 

“In addition, many of his fillies have very dubious temperaments and certainly plenty of ability at home but often refused to produce it on the racecourse. This prompts one to wonder whether or not these same fillies will become good broodmares and whether therefore Mill Reef will ever be regarded as a good broodmare sire as well as a sire of sires…” 

For the record, Mill Reef is credited with having had 173 broodmare daughters, which produced a total of 1,532 foals. Again the statistics are impressive, with 123 of these foals–8 %–becoming black-type winners (Sadler's Wells, the multiple champion broodmare sire, has a figure of 5% black-type winners). Arguably the best winner out of a Mill Reef mare was Last Tycoon, the champion European sprinter and Breeders' Cup Mile winner who displayed the speed and precocity which had marked the first part of Mill Reef's career. Despite this line's tendency to quirkiness, mares by Mill Reef's son Shirley Heights and grandson Darshaan also proved to be excellent producers, both achieving an admirable 7% black-type winners. Another of Shirley Heights' sons, Deploy, has the distinction of being the broodmare sire of that outstanding stallion Dubawi. 

“Mill Reef's well known qualities of soundness, consistency, courage, a superb action and the ability to act on all types of ground, have been passed on in abundance to the best of his sons, but surprisingly, perhaps, none of them has shown the brilliant speed at two years that he himself possessed…” 

Perhaps Creator would have gone some way towards filling that particular void had he not been handicapped by a June 1 birthday, as he still managed to win at two. 

“None of our subsequent Derby winners, even brilliant ones such as Grundy, Troy and Shergar, showed anywhere near his precocious two year old speed. It has always surprised me, therefore, that Mill Reef has been such a strong influence for stamina rather than speed and that brings up the question as to what types of mares were best suited to him. It is significant that some of his best offspring were out of mares by such relatively unfashionable sires as Abdos, Hardicanute, Relko, Right Royal, Queen's Hussar, etc. Mill Reef was essentially a well-bred, all quality, small horse and I have felt that he mated best with the opposite type of mare, i.e. big, unfashionably bred and a shade coarse in looks…. 

“Alex Scrope's statistics, compiled by computer, and dealing only with Group-class horses, showed that he did not favour Phalaris line mares. The Ribot line mares, however, produced a high success rate as also did Hyperion, Djebel and Blandford line mares. 

“My personal feeling, however, is that the mare's conformation was more significant than pedigree and Crown Treasure, the dam of Glint of Gold and Diamond Shoal, is also a big mare, ratber lacking in quality, but extremely well bred. Yet her two sons were full of their sire's best qualities…” 

At the time he wrote his appreciation, Balding had high hopes that several of Mill Reef's young sons would follow Shirley Heights' example, by becoming an important stallion. Unfortunately, Mill Reef proved to be pretty much a one-hit wonder as a sire of sires, but what a hit Shirley Heights proved to be, single-handedly extending Mill Reef's influence on the Derby. Mill Reef's 2,000 Guineas winner Doyoun deserves an honourable mention, as he sired a pair of international stars in Daylami and Kalanisi, but he ended his career in Turkey. Creator was also unsuccessful in the role of stallion in Japan, before being transferred to the U.S. in 2004 to become a cherished member of the Old Friends squad. 

Ian Balding had some interesting things to say about Mill Reef's personality: 

“Mill Reef whilst in training was as kind and co-operative as one could ever wish a colt to be. His temperament, especially on the big day, was faultless, which makes the doubtful nature of his fillies hard to understand. He was, nevertheless, a sensitive horse and just occasionally the strangest things could upset him. It was typical of him, for example, that he was never very happy when either of his two grooms, John Hallum at Kingsclere and George Roth at the National Stud, were away on holiday. 

“Needless to say, I would never expect to train a horse as good as Mill Reef again, but it has been fascinating and a source of great pleasure for me to train so many of his offspring. I believe they all need tender and patient handling and I am always careful to try and choose the right person to groom and ride them. It is interesting, furthermore, to see those same characteristics appearing in sons and daughters of Shirley Heights…” 

Mill Reef was therefore dominant for both ability and temperament. Even if Creator was indeed his last surviving offspring, Paul Mellon's brilliant colt left such a substantial legacy that his name looks certain to be found among the ancestors of many more stars in the future.