Both Harzand (Sea The Stars) and Minding (Galileo), winners respectively of Saturday’s Gr1 Investec Derby and Friday’s Gr1 Investec Oaks, have strong pedigree ties to a number of past and present South African sires and broodmares.
The pedigree link uniting the two 2016 Epsom Classic winners comes via the great broodmare and former Arc winner, Urban Sea (Miswaki) – dam of both Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Sea The Stars (Cape Cross).
The once beaten Harzand, who emulated his sire when he won Saturday’s Epsom classic, is a grandson of the recently retired Cape Cross (Green Desert), whose offspring have enjoyed such notable success at Epsom.
Cape Cross (Green Desert – Park Appeal)
Winner of the Gr1 Lockinge Stakes, Gr2 (now Gr1) Queen Anne Stakes and Gr2 Celebration Mile (under top weight), Cape Cross is a full brother to the Highlands Farm based sire, Great Britain. Cape Cross, sire of Epsom Classic winners Sea The Stars, Ouija Board (dam of Derby winner, Australia) and Golden Horn, is also from the same family as former leading South African sire, Preamble II (Alycidon) and SA champions, Louis The King (Black Minnaloushe), National Emblem (National Assembly), Mazarin (Preamble II) and Roland’s Song (Roland Gardens).
The Green Desert male line is also responsible for 2016 2000 Guineas winner, Galileo Gold.
Harzand wins
Harzand gave the once defeated legend, Sea The Stars, his second Epsom Classic winner, with Taghrooda, a member of her sire’s stellar first crop, having triumphed in the 2014 Gr1 Investec Oaks.
The winner of the 2016 Derby is one of two stakes winners for his dam, Gr3 Athasi Stakes winner Hazariya, whose sire, Xaar (a full brother to Modus Vivendi –sire of former Equus Champion Dancewiththedevil), is also damsire of this season’s top class Australian 2yo filly, Yankee Rose (All American).
Harzand’s second dam is by Darshaan (broodmare sire of Epsom Derby winners, High Chaparral and Pour Moi), and is a direct descendant of one of the stud book’s great mares, Lost Soul (Solario).
Darshaan
Interestingly, Harzand’s dam, Hazariya, is inbred to Lost Soul’s Oaks runner up granddaughter, Netherton Maid (Nearco). Darshaan’s name is found in the pedigrees of both Minding and Harzand, with the former French Derby winner responsible for Hoity Toity – second dam of Minding.
Lost Soul features as the ancestress of a host of top class performers, including former multiple Oaks winner, Alexandrova (Sadler’s Wells), classic winner and sire Hethersett (sire of Harzand’s third dam), former top miler and leading sire, Derring Do (Darius), another Epsom Oaks winner in Neasham Belle (Nearco), Champion Stakes winners, Narrator (Nearco) and Flossy (Spy Well), Gr1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine, Magical Romance (Barathea), and dual French Gr1 winner, Indian Lodge (Grand Lodge), to name but a few.
She is also the ancestress of Welcomed –sire of former South African champion, Welcome Boy, whose wins included the Gr1 SA Derby, Gr1 Cape Guineas and Gr1 Holiday Inns.
That mare has also made a further impact in South Africa. Lost Soul is the fourth dam of Royal Prerogative, a former champion sire in this country and outstanding broodmare sire. She is also the ancestress of promising young sire, Golden Sword (High Chaparral), whose first juvenile crop already includes a number of winners.
Minding, a second Investec Oaks winner for her outstanding sire, Galileo
Minding, a second Investec Oaks winner for her outstanding sire, Galileo (whose son New Approach sired the 2013 winner, Talent), shares her sire with a number of highly regarded young South African sires, including Flying The Flag, Global View, Kingsbarns, and The Assayer.
Bred on the same Galileo/Danehill Dancer cross as this year’s French 2000 Guineas winner, The Ghurka, Minding (now a four time Gr1 winner) is out of dual Gr1 winner, Lillie Langtry who is a direct descendant of Gr3 Lancashire Oaks winner, Noble Lassie (Nearco), dam of Arc winner and outstanding sire/broodmare sire, Vaguely Noble (by Vienna).
Noble Lassie’s dam, Belle Sauvage (Big Game) is also the ancestress of the outstanding South African broodmare, Lorehana, whose three stakes winners include former dual champion filly Arabian Lass (Al Mufti) and the latter’s graded winning own brothers, Prairie Breeze and Princely Affair.
Lorehana (Lord Henham) is also the second dam of four time Gr1 winner, Smart Banker (Strike Smartly) and the third dam of the R6 000 000 record priced yearling Silver Coin (Silvano).
Last week’s classic results continued the overwhelming dominance that the Northern Dancer male line has enjoyed in the Epsom classics. Minding’s pedigree contains three of Northern Dancer’s finest sons –Sadler’s Wells, Danzig and Nijinsky II.
Northern Dancer, himself the sire of three Epsom Derby winners (including the outstanding racehorse and sire Nijinsky II), is the male line ancestor of the last six Investec Derby winners, while 2010 winner, Workforce (by King’s Best) is inbred to the mighty Canadian.
Northern Dancer holds on to win the 1964 Kentucky Derby
The last six Oaks winners, similarly, are descended in male line from Northern Dancer, who himself failed to sire one winner of the great fillies classic. This season, all four of the English classics have been won by Northern Dancer’s male line descendants!
None of the Epsom Derby winners this century are free of Northern Dancer, which once again underlines the power and dominance that this great sire has exerted on the modern day stud book.
Staggeringly, Northern Dancer is the male line ancestor of nine of the top ten leading sires in GB/Ireland this season, with the only Mr Prospector line horse in the top ten being Dubawi, who is inbred to Northern Dancer!
