Marchingtogether’s scintillating victory in the Gr3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville last weekend added further lustre to a banner season for his sire Pathfork.
Ireland’s champion juvenile of 2010 and a half-brother to 2019 Preakness winner War Of Will, the underrated son of Distorted Humor is having a fine time of it, the Lonsdale winner being his fifth individual stakes winner of the season.
Pathfork (Distorted Humor – Visions of Clarity)
Marchingontogether, who first caught the eye when third in last season’s Gr1 SA Derby, is somewhat of an anomaly amongst Pathfork’s offspring, the majority of which take after their speedy and precocious sire, prime amongst which this season’s Graded stakes duo of Mr Flood and Mighty High.
The saga of Mr Flood is well known.
The gelding had reeled off three smart wins prior to undergoing knee surgery. Off the track for 417 days, he made his return to racing in the Gr3 Lebelo Sprint and after being headed close home, rallied strongly to open his stakes account by the best part of a length. Blessed with a high cruising speed and an indomitable will to win, the Houdalakis-trained blitz made it five wins on the bounce when landing the Gr3 Tommy Hotspur.
The speed merchant Mr Flood (Pic – JC Photos)
His bid for six wins in a row ended on March 14 when he had to bow to paternal half-sister Mighty High in the Gr2 Senor Santa Handicap.
Pathfork’s sole Gr1 winner to date, Mighty High had claimed the scalp of subsequent champion Celtic Sea in the Allan Robertson Championship as a juvenile. A chipped fetlock almost ended her racing career, but her Senor Santa victory proved she is as good as ever.
To call Pathfork a one-dimensional speed sire would be an injustice.
His daughter Jet Start has won up to 2000m and on the same day Mr Flood won the Lebelo, she opened her stakes account in the Gr3 London News Stakes over 1800m.
Three-year-old son Fools Gold, who was bred to sprint, being out of a Goldmark mare, had earlier joined the stakes ranks with a dominant, front-running display in the Listed Model Man Mile (formerly the KZN Guineas Trial), thrashing his field by four lengths.
Marchingontogether’s dam Souen has to take credit for her son’s stamina.
By Montjeu out of a Darshaan mare, that cross screams stamina, a trait she had already passed on to her Judpot son Three Balloons, a fine stayer who won up to 2500m and placed in such marathon events as the Gr3 Summer Stayers Handicap, the Gr3 Chairman’s Cup and Kenilworth Cup.
Montjeu, seen above, a son of Sadler’s Wells, won the Irish and French Derby, the Arc and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
A first-class classic stallion, he has also excelled as the broodmare sire of English classic winners Anapurna (Oaks) and Legatissimo (1000 Guineas) and closer to home, of this season’s Gr1 Majorca Stakes Clouds Unfold, a daughter of champion sprinter What A Winter.
Darshaan, the sire of grandam Apsara, needs no introduction.
A champion stayer on the track, the Aga Khan-bred became a powerhouse stallion, whose affinity with Sadler’s Wells is well known.
Apsara, who has a juvenile colt by Frankel, counts three stakes winners amongst her five winners, the Gr2 Beresford Stakes winner Curtain Call (Sadler’s Wells), Gr2-placed Launched (Galileo) and the French stakes winner Nature Spirits (Beat Hollow). Apsara’s dam, the very smart French Gr3 winner and Gr1 Prix La Foret third Whakilyric (Miswaki), produced French Derby hero and successful sire Hernando and Gr1 Prix Lupin winner Johann Quatz and is also ancestress of 2018 German Oaks victress Well Timed and Gr1 Hong Kong Cup winner Akeed Mofeed.
- This story was first published in the Sporting Post Sprint on 24 June 2020
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