Former top-class Blushing Groom sire Rahy, a half-brother to former South African sire Rakeen and champion Singspiel, certainly made his mark as a broodmare sire.
Rakeen (Northern Dancer – Glorious Song)
The former Three Chimneys resident currently ranks as damsire of 145 stakes winners.
Putting this into perspective, daughters of Rahy have bred more black type winners than high-class broodmare sires like Quiet American (78 ), Distorted Humor (55), Galileo (59) and Machiavellian (100).
Among the notable performers produced by Rahy mares are the Gr1 winners Giant’s Causeway, After Market, Sophisticat, Courageous Cat, Declaration Of War, Life At Ten, Alverta, Furthest Land, Rahy’s Attorney, Rutherienne, and Megahertz.
It is worth noting the success that Rahy mares enjoyed when mated to Storm Cat, with that mating producing Giant’s Causeway, the siblings After Market and Courageous Cat, and Gr1 Coronation Stakes winner Sophisticat.
Champion Stakes
Rahy’s most influential and important daughter remains the outstanding Mariah’s Storm, who ranks as the second dam of last Saturday’s Gr1 Qipco Irish Champion Stakes winner Decorated Knight and Sunday’s Gr1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Happily (both by Galileo).
Now a three time Gr1 winner, Decorated Knight is out of Mariah’s Storm’s placed daughter Pearling (Storm Cat). The latter fetched 1.3 million guineas at the 2011 Tattersalls December Sale.
Giant’s Causeway
Pearling is a full-sister to two outstanding producers in the form of Giant’s Causeway and You’resothrilling respectively.
Her dam’s legacy continues to grow –both through the ongoing success of her son Giant’s Causeway and through her daughters.
Mariah’s Storm is another nod to the theory that the best racemares make the best broodmares, having won 10 of 16 outings – despite fracturing her pastern as two-year-old. She won six graded races, with Mariah’s Storm also scoring a notable success at the expense of Rahy’s great daughter Serena’s Song in the Gr3 Turfway Breeders’ Cup of 1996 and won three major stakes at Arlington Park.
It’s A Bet
Like another outstanding broodmare Hasili, Mariah’s Storm traces back in female line to the Heliopolis mare Itsabet.
Her triple US champion sire son, and former Horse Of The Year, Giant’s Causeway is well established as Storm Cat’s very best sire son, with more than 170 stakes winners to his name, including the successful sires Shamardal, Footstepsinthesand and First Samurai – sire of this weekend’s stakes winning 2yo Bet She Wins.
His grandsons Lope De Vega and Justin Phillip have also made promising starts to their respective stud careers giving hope that Giant’s Causeway may yet maintain the Storm Cat male line.
Giant’s Causeway Gr1 winner Blueridge Mountain
Giant’s Causeway, sire of South African Gr1 winners Blueridge Mountain and Our Giant, is also broodmare sire of current outstanding US galloper Gun Runner (Candy Ride). The latter has won the Gr1 Stephen Foster Stakes, Gr1 Whitney Stakes and Gr1 Woodward Stakes at his last three outings and is currently a leading contender for Horse Of The Year honours. Giant’s Causeway, whose South African based son Eightfold Path was represented by his first winner this weekend, has himself been represented by a pair of graded winners in North America this year.
Mariah Storm’s Gr2 Cherry Hinton Stakes winning daughter You’resothrilling (Storm Cat) shows every sign of becoming at least as an important mare as her dam. She is already dam of five stakes horses (each by Galileo) including Irish 2000/2000 Guineas winner and Coolmore sire Gleneagles, Irish 1000 Guineas winner Marvellous, the above mentioned Happily and Gr3 CL Weld Park Stakes winner Coolmore.
Dance On
You’resothrilling has once again made her mark in 2017 – with her son Taj Mahal finishing second in the Gr1 Secretariat Stakes and and 2yo daughter Happily landing the Gr3 Silver Flash Stakes prior to taking out Sunday’s Gr1 feature.
Mariah’s Storm is also responsible for the very successful Freud, sire of US Gr1 winners Giant Ryan and Franny Freud, as well as current high-class performer Sharp Azteca (he has more than 40 stakes winners to his credit), and Chilean sire Tumblebrutus.
Mariah’s Storm’s Storm Cat son Tiger Dance, now deceased, resided in South Africa where he produced Gr3 East Cape Derby winner Tribal Dance and Listed Perfect Promise Stakes winner Kitti Cat.
