The use of the term blue hen to describe an influential mare on the pedigree page can be somewhat cavalier in modern bloodstock reporting and analysis. But the stats don’t lie when it comes to two key maternal ancestors in the damlines of Saturday’s two Group 1 winners at Caulfield.
The damline of Saturday’s Group 1 Sepals takes in some quite unusual detours, but at the source of it all is a remarkable mare who features on the pedigree page of seven Australasian Group 1 winners.
Sepals’ own dam What’s New was bred in New Zealand and raced, with considerable success, in Singapore - for Sepals’ trainer Cliff Brown - before returning to Vinery Stud to breed.
What’s New’s dam, Pussycat Dream, was bred in the United Kingdom, began her career with a win at Nottingham and was then purchased by Kiwi agent Paul Moroney. She also spent some time in Singapore before Greg Perry retired her to Australia, where she was mated with Casino Prince before heading to New Zealand.
That was a return of sorts as New Zealand is where Sepal's third dam The Cat’s Whiskers was bred and began her career before she was imported to the UK after two wins on home soil. She had five starts, mostly in stakes company, in the northern hemisphere under Peter Chapple-Hyam before being sent to stud duties.
The Cat’s Whiskers’ dam Good Faith was a New Zealand Group 1 winner, who was fortunate to survive laminitis as a filly and spent much of her time moving between Coolmore Stud at Jerry Plains and Curraghmore in New Zealand as part of managing the ongoing impacts of her leg issues.
The Straight Strike mare overcame that obstacle and produced eight winners from 10 runners, including the stakes winners Tully Dane and Mygoodgrace. It was a generation further back in the blue hen upon which so much success was built.
Shirley Heights mare Head Of The River was imported into New Zealand from Great Britain by Chris Turner and the Chittick family, back before the Waikato Stud days at Thornton Park. She was to prove one of Garry Chittick’s most astute acquisitions.
The next five maternal generations from Head Of the River have emerged seven Group 1 winners, Good Faith, Daffodil, Aegon, Atishu, Orchestral, Savaglee and now Sepals. Four of that list were bred by the Chitticks, and three are by Waikato Stud’s champion stallion Savabeel.
In total, there are 14 stakes winners with Head Of The River in their damline as well as another 10 stakes placegetters from 187 raced descendants. That’s a 7.5 per cent stakes winners-to-runners ratio across those generations.
Direct Damline descendants of Head Of the River
Source: arion.co.nz
On the sire side, Sepals is the first Group 1 winner for his one-time Coolmore-based sire Calyx, a son of Kingman and grandson of Invincible Spirit. That’s relevant as it taps into the other blue hen whose family were successful at Group 1 level on Saturday.
Invincible Spirit’s grandam was Eljazzi, who also features as the fourth dam of impressive and dogged Underwood Stakes winner Sir Delius.
The son of Frankel became the ninth Group 1 winner in four generations descended from Eljazzi, joining an impressive list.
Eljazzi’s daughter Rafha was an elite winner in France and, in turn, produced Invincible Spirit (as well as Kodiac, who never won a stakes race but became a successful sire). She was also the dam of Acts Of Grace, the granddam of multiple global Group 1 winner Mishriff, and Massarra, and dam of another elite winner Nayarra.
Sir Delius’ granddam is Eljazzi’s daughter Wosaita. She is also the second maternal dam of champion American miler Uni.
Chinese White, an Irish Group 1 winner, is out of Eljazzi’s daughter Chiang Mai, while Pinatubo, the triple Group 1 winner and now Darley stallion descends from another of Eljazzi’s fillies, El Jazirah.
Eljaazi would finish her breeding career in Australia, brought here by John Singleton at age 21, and her penultimate foal was Al Anood, the Danehill mare who would go on to produce multiple Group 1 winner and Group 1-producing sire Pride Of Dubai.
All in all, there are 52 stakes winners descended from Eljazzi out of a total of 647 runners. That is a stakes-winners-to-runners ratio of 8 per cent, slightly superior to that of Head Of The River.
Those descendants who have become sires have produced a combined 286 stakes winners. That’s without taking into account those stallion’s subsequent sire sons and grandsons such as I Am Invincible and Kingman, of which there are at least 535 stakes winners.
Direct Damline descendants of Eljazzi
Source: arion.co.nz
