Lionel Cohen raced Crimson Palace early on
One of the best racemares bred in South Africa this century, Crimson Palace is one of 2082 broodmares and broodmare prospects catalogued for Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale.
The catalogue includes mares in foal to world leading sires Awesome Again, Bernardini, Candy Ride, Distorted Humor, Dubawi, Elusive Quality, Galileo, Giant’s Causeway, Kitten’s Joy, Lemon Drop Kid, Malibu Moon, Medaglia D’Oro, More Than Ready, Sea The Stars, Smart Strike, Speightstown, Stormy Atlantic, Street Cry, Tapit, Tiznow and War Front.
Crimson Palace, bred by Altus Joubert, is a daughter of Elliodor and the Grade 1 placed Northern Guest mare Perfect Guest.
She was born at Lionel Cohen’s Odessa Stud in the Cape, and the breeder, who now trains in Australia, tells a story.
Foaling down on average of 120 mares per season, Cohen mentioned to his wife one day after foaling down the third foal of the Northern Guest mare Perfect Guest, that he may have just been involved in the foaling down of a Champion – the only problem at that stage was that the filly was owned by a client.
Crimson Palace – Gr1 winner in USA and S. Africa
When the filly went to the yearling sale, Cohen made sure he was not going to let the filly get away, instructing his agent who was bidding on his behalf to “just don’t stop”, going on to secure the filly for R300,000, the top-priced lot of the sale, and the second top-priced filly sold at a public yearling auction in South Africa that year.
Named Crimson Palace, the Elliodor filly went on to win four of her first six starts, graduating to win the G1 Paddock Stakes at Kenilworth.
Onsold to Team Valor, the filly was a highly impressive winner of a conditions race on the opening night of the Dubai International Racing Carnival, before then being sold once again to the Maktoum family to race in the silks of Godolphin where she headed to the USA to record victory in the G1 Beverly D Stakes.
She raced at the top level in four different countries during her illustrious career, winning Grade 1 races in both South Africa (Paddock Stakes) and North America (Beverly D Stakes). Crimson Palace also won the Group 3 Middleton Stakes in Britain and the Alhaarth Stakes in Dubai.
Now a 15 year old, Crimson Palace, who sells in foal to former champion sire Elusive Quality, is the dam of the three time winning Bernardini gelding Iscar, and five other registered foals.
She has been catalogued as lot 558 in the mammoth sale, which takes place from November 4th to 14th.
