Juvenile filly Majmu retained her unbeaten record with a spectacular 8-length victory in the Gr2 SA Nursery
Juvenile filly Majmu retained her unbeaten record with a spectacular 8-length victory in the Gr2 SA Nursery, over 1160m at Turffontein. The race had lost some of its sparkle with the defection of Carry On Alice to the Gr1 SA Nursery on the same day (she won, beating Majmu’s previously unbeaten stable companion Banadeer). Majmu’s racetime was marginally slower than the one of Carry On Alice an hour later, and both fillies currently stand at the head of our ratings of 2yo’s of both sexes country-wide. When hopefully they meet later this season sparks must fly.
Majmu and all of her bottom-line female ancestors are grey, as you might expect from a female line tracing to the mare Mysterious East, a full sister to Native Dancer. Anecdotally, Native Dancer was beaten just once in twenty-two career starts (when runner-up in the Kentucky Derby; he won the other two legs of the Triple Crown). He’s the sire of influential stallion Raise A Native, and of the mare Natalma (dam of Northern Dancer and 3rd dam of Danehill).
Unlike her famous full brother Mysterious East failed to win in 8 starts. Mated to Swaps she produced a daughter Mundus, who raced twice without winning. Mundes went to Sir Gaylord to get an unraced daughter, Patina, the dam in turn of Ardith Patina, who scored a single win from 8 starts.
Ardith Patina was by unremarkable stallion Restless Wind (who had a handful of decent sons at stud, though), and was packed off to Chile. She must have taken some bright genes with her, however, as she produced three black type full sisters, each in turn the dams and grandams of Gr1 performers in their new home country.
Chile is not unlike South Africa when it comes to importing stallions – there’s not a lot of money to spend, resulting in the arrival of sires with great bloodlines but without notable performance. Ardith Patina produced her three highclass daughters from one such sire – Worldwatch, a one-time winner in the USA from four starts.
Worldwatch is by Nijinsky, his dam Georgica a daughter of Raise A Native. The next dam Queen Sucree (by Ribot) is out of Natalma’s half sister Cosmah. Queen Sucree produced (among others) Kentucky Derby winner Cannonade and his in South Africa best know full brother Del Sarto, both by Bold Bidder.
One of the Worldwatch x Ardith Patina daughters, the stakes placed War Wind, visited Smooth Performance, another one of ‘those sires’. Smooth Performace won 3 races and was G2 and Gr3 placed in USA and Ireland, rated Timeform 111. He’s a son of Seattle Slew, his dam Seasonal Pickup an Irish stakes winning sprinter by Nijinsky’s 3-part brother The Minstrel (Seasonal Pickup, aside, is grandam of Designs On Rome who is setting Hong Kong on fire this year). Seasonal Pickup’s grandam Stolen Date is half sister to influential mare Best In Show, who established a dynasty of sires (including SA’s Northern Guest) and will reappear later in this story.
Smooth Performance and War Wind had an unraced daughter, Galoise, inbred 3×3 to Nijinsky and The Minstrel. Galoise visited Hussonet (by Raise A Native’s son Mr Prospector) to get Spontaneous, winner of the Chilean 1000 Guineas. She was sent to the USA (without winning in 5 starts), then on to Australia for stud duties.
Majmu, the way she looked at the 2013 Inglis Easter yearling sale. She was bought for A$300k.
In her first two seasons Spontaneous visited Redoute’s Choice, an inspired mating, of which Majmu is the second outcome (the first, her full brother, raced just 3 times without winning).
Redoute’s Choice’ grandam Dancing Snow is a daughter of Nijinsky – it was noted above that Galoise, the dam of Spontaneous, has Nijinsky and his 3-part brother The Minstrel 3×3.
Dancing Snow’s dam Snow Lady is a daughter of Best In Show, and thus half sister to Stolen Date, the grandam of Seasonal Pickup (by The Minstrel, and dam of Smooth Performance).
The upshot of it all is that Dancing Show is close kin to Seasonal Pickup, and also to Spontaneous’grandam War Wind, the latter with a Nijinsky and Sir Gaylord combination also found in Dancing Snow.
So there we have Majmu, whose name in Arabic means ‘collection, compilation, alliance’. Well-named indeed.
A mile should be the minimum distance for Majmu, who looks set for greater heights during the winter, and will no doubt make her presence felt in Dubai early in 2015 – and beyond.
