When Nile The Boss won at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday, she became the 21st winner to have emerged from her sire Potala Palace’s current crop of three-year-olds.
The Adam Marcus charge Nile The Boss (Gareth Wright) sheds her maiden beating Ice Rain (Corne Orffer) in a good finish (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Solomons Seal became the 22nd winner from this crop when victorious on the same card.
This crop includes a number of promising three-year-olds, notably Gr1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas runner-up and WSB Cape Town Met entry Red Palace, as well as the likes of Eiffel Tower and House Of Romanov.
Eiffel Tower has won three of his first seven outings, while House Of Romanov has won two of his last four starts.
Winner of the 2011 Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes when defeating subsequent multiple champion sire Gimmethegreenlight, and 2013 Gr3 Joburg Spring Challenge, Potala Palace made an immediate impression with his first two crops to race.
Potala Palace: Singspiel – Alignment (Alzao)
(Pic – Ridgemont )
His first crop included 31 runners, of which 17 won, while his second crop, made up of 23 runners, was headed by Gr1 South African Fillies Sprint winner Singforafa and graded stakes winners Katak (recently retired) and Palace Of Dreams.
Potala Palace was sired by outstanding racehorse Singspiel –whose sire In The Wings remains one of the more underrated influences in the modern day stud book.
From the first crop of legendary stallion Sadler’s Wells, In The Wings was a top-class performer whose wins included triumphs in all of the Gr1 Coronation Cup, Gr1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Turf.
In The Wings became the first sire son of Sadler’s Wells to make a name for himself at stud.
He left behind more than 60 stakes winners including the likes of the aforementioned Singspiel, Gr1 Irish Derby winner Winged Love, Gr1 Melbourne Cup runner up Central Park, Gr1 winning fillies Fidelite and Zanzibar, Gr1 Prix Lupin winner Act One – whose progeny included South African champion Dancer’s Daughter – and a pair of top-class stallions in the form of Soldier Hollow and Adlerflug.
Soldier Hollow, champion sire in Germany three times, has sired more than 60 black type horses including German Horse Of The Year Dschingis Secret and Gr1 Prix Ganay winner Pastorius- the latter is sire of 2022 Gr1 Beverly D Stakes winner Dalika.
His paternal half-brother Adlerflug was Champion Sire in Germany in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and Adlerflug’s top performers include Gr1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Torquator Tasso, Arc runner up In Swoop and Gr1 Tattersalls Gold Cup victor Alenquer, among others.
Singspiel trained by Sir Michael Stoute and ridden by Jerry Bailey won the second edition of the Dubai World Cup in 1997. (Pic- Dubai racing Club)
Potala Palace’s sire Singspiel, a half-brother to successful stallions Rahy and Rakeen, won major races in Canada, Britain, Dubai and Japan, and was crowned Champion Turf Horse in North America in 1996.
Singspiel left behind 99 black type winners, with Potala Palace one of his 14 Gr1 winners.
The latter’s triple Gr1 winning daughter Dar Re Mi has proved an excellent broodmare, with her three group winners thus far headed by champion and triple Gr1 winner, Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).
The latter has established himself as one of the more exciting stallions around, with Too Darn Hot’s first Northern Hemisphere crop to race in 2023 headed by four group winners, and his first Southern Hemisphere crop having unleashed three winners from his first five runners.
