When the Ridgemont-bred unbeaten filly Direct Hit (Canford Cliffs) ran out a hugely impressive winner of the SplashOut Gr3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery on Saturday, she paid tribute to her illustrious family.
Ridgemont’s Craig Carey and Craig Kieswetter welcome Direct Hit (Richard Fourie) back to the winner’s enclosure as a partly obscured Alan Greeff looks on (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Remarkably, Direct Hit’s first four dams are all black type performers. Her dam Wrecking Ball (Great Britain) was a speedy sort whose six career wins included a triumph in the Gr3 Tommy Hotspur Handicap.
Wrecking Ball was also out of a quick racemare, with her dam Picadilly Miss (London News) winning the Listed Gardenia Handicap and five other contests.
In turn, Picadilly Miss was produced by Gr3 Diana Stakes winner Marlagain (Man Of Property), a full-sister to Gr3 Varsfontein Sceptre Stakes winner Marla.
Direct Hit’s fourth dam was the useful performer Spookie (Phantom Earl) a four time winner who ran third in the Gr3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery.
While Direct Hit’s immediate family stands up to scrutiny, it is members further back in her family who made a huge contribution to the turf.
Wrecking Ball was directly descended in female line from King’s Cross (King Salmon), who produced Middle Park Stakes/St James’s Palace Stakes winner Kings Bench (Court Martial).
King’s Cross ranks as the fourth dam of English/Irish Derby winner Shirley Heights (Mill Reef), a top-class sire and broodmare sire, whose offspring included such Derby winners as Darshaan and Slip Anchor.
Shirley Heights remains a force in pedigrees, with recent Gr1 winners Ancient Wisdom, Bay Bridge, Desert Flower and Duke De Sessa all among a lengthy list of top-class performers inbred to him.
Canford Cliffs surveys the Ridgemont landscape from his box (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Other notable descendants of King’s Cross included dual Gr1 winner Pentire – whose progeny include Gr1 Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance – and once beaten French champion Divine Proportions, dam of French Gr3 winner and former KZN sire, Eightfold Path.
The influential King’s Cross was descended in female line from the mighty Paraffin.
Paraffin ranks among the most influential thoroughbreds of all time, with her numerous high-class descendants including such outstanding broodmares as Chelandry, Lady Lightfoot, Lesbia, Gas, and Kyloe.
The list of outstanding horses descended in female line from Paraffin is too lengthy to complete, but a few examples include Night Raid, the sire of legendary champion Phar Lap and fellow Melbourne Cup winner Nightmarch, dual Gold Cup winner Prince Palatine (whose son Rose Prince is the paternal grandsire of Princequillo), Australian stars Flight and Heroic, Kentucky Derby winner Swale, top-class sire Forty Niner and dual Derby winner and top-class sire High Chaparral.
Another descendant, Ribbon, is the ancestress of brilliant King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes/Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winning sire Hurricane Run (Montjeu).
Direct Hit is the 28th stakes winner for her sire Canford Cliffs, with the latter also responsible for the group/graded stakes winning fillies Fish River, Most Beautiful, La Falaise, Al Jazi, Simply Majestic, Princess Asta and Jin Jin.
Canford Cliffs’ speedy daughter Almond Sea has a pair of stakes wins to her name, including this season’s Betway Listed Swallow Stakes.
Canford Cliffs has a single lot on the CRS Premier Yearling Sale on 13 & 14 March. Narrow Creek offers In The Air Tonight (# 226), a colt out of Vars Honour (Var).
