'Tiz a small world' - the rest of my Chapter 30

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Wow, 'Tiz a small world'. A few weeks ago I found a friend on facebook (and I only have 47) who must have found me off this blog. He hooked me into a great group (over 5000) of us who happened to be following this year's Eclipse award winning Farm - WinStar (before they were named the winners). Two weeks ago they ran a great contest to name a yearling. Golden Ticket (the winning name) was another great-grandson of our Dancer and I couldn't begin to count the number of names entered. This week they are running another contest and guess what? The 2nd dam of this colt was mentioned in the same Chapter 30 I posted the excerpt from last week. Here is the rest of that chapter 30 where I mention Sulemeif - Tiz Drizzt's grandmother (Tiz Drizzt is my suggestion and that's his yearling pic above). Drizzt is a character in the book Crystal Shard (his dam) which was part of the trilogy Icewind Dale. His sire is the great Tiznow (mentioned several times in my book and another descendant of Northern Dancer). Withallprobability mentioned here was a full sister to the unraced Crystal Shard. If you get a chance have a look at WinStar's facebook page. Such fun.


… Back to the rest from 1980 ...Chapter 30 continued

... I was describing the Dancer's crop of foals from 1980

Eskimo managed to win the Quaker Handicap and placed in several others before retiring to some modest success as a sire. His best runner was the colt Silent Eskimo (1995) ($1,039,485 31-9-4-9) while daughter Eskiway (1992) was a two-time champion in Puerto Rico.

Lomond was the only classic winner from the 1980 crop of foals. He won the Two Thousand Guineas in his brief racing career before retiring to a solid career in the breeding shed. He produced some outstanding fillies including Marling (1989) ($748,950 10-7-1-1) who was a high weight ranked filly in Europe at two and three winning several Grade 1 stakes including the Irish One Thousand Guineas, Cheveley Park stakes, Coronation Stakes and Sussex Stakes and the Irish Champion Two Year Old Filly, Flutter Away (1985). Several of Lamond’s daughters have gone on to solid careers as broodmares in Europe.

Sulemeif started her racing career in France where she placed in her three starts before coming back to the U.S. and Florida where she won a couple of G3 stakes as a four year old. She produced several good runners with the most notable being the filly Withallprobability (1988) ($643,438 27-9-4-5) out of Mr Prospector. A multiple G2 stakes winner she went on to be another good broodmare. While her best runner was the mare With Ability (1998) ($558,124 19-7-3-1) who died in 2004 before she could produce a foal, her unraced daughter Probable Colony (1994) was the dam of the great mare Summer Colony (1998) ($1,448,930 245-10-5-1) a multiple stakes winner.

Danzatore was a controversial character. Bred by E.P. Taylor and sold at the Keeneland Yearling sales in 1981 for $1,000,000 he became another Vincent O’Brien project. He was the Champion Two Year Old Colt in Ireland going undefeated in 3 stakes outings. He won his first start as a Three Year Old before his temperament got the better of him and cost him his next and last race. O’Brien was grooming him for the Two Thousand Guineas but he was just too much to handle and he was sent to New Zealand to breed instead of extending his racing career. The tough English columnist Tony Morris wrote “Fortunately for the British breeding industry Danzatore has been banished to the colonies.” Danzatore’s temperament continued to be an issue with his offspring but it didn’t stop him from producing a Breeders Cup winner in the gelding Reraise (1995) ($922,830 9-8-1-0) who won the 1998 Breeders Cup Sprint and was the Eclipse Champion Sprinter that year. Danzatore went on to produce over 400 foals, 145 winners and 122 producing daughters.

Salmon Leap won the G2 Nijinsky Stakes in Ireland and finished 4th in the 1983 Epsom Derby. He produced several crops of foals with no memorable runners but some useful broodmares.

Glenstal won the G2 National stakes in Ireland and went on to sire foals in Ireland, France, Hungary and the Czech Republic. His daughter Glen Kate raced in England, France, North America and Hong Kong winning the G1 Hong Kong International Bowl and amassing almost $700,000 in earnings. She produced an Irish stakes winner in Perfect Touch (1999) ($135,340 13-3-3-2) and through another daughter Tremkate (1995) the Santa Anita Handicap winning mare Katdogawn (2000) ($817,553 35-7-7-6). Glenstal’s daughter Las Meninas (1991) ($301,186 9-2-2-1) won the Thousand Guineas and is now producing offspring in Japan.

Night Shift was the last one worth mentioning from the 1980 crop of Northern Dancer foals and it was not because of his race record. In over 20 crops of foals, Night Shift has sired more than 70 stakes winners and has been in the top 10 of broodmare sires in Great Britain since 2002. His greatest runner so far has been Azamour (2001) ($2,414,362 12-6-1-3) the Champion Older Horse of Europe. Azamour had 4 G1 wins in his 6 victories including The Prince of Wales and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. He now stands at Gilltown Stud for his owner and breeder; the Aga Khan. Other notable runners from Night Shift were In The Groove (1987) ($1,250,000 21-7-4-4) winner of The Irish One Thousand Guineas, Coronation, International and Champion Stakes and the filly Daryaba (1996), winner of the Prix de Diane and Prix Vermeille. As a broodmare sire some of Night Shift’s most noticeable runners are Somnus (2000) ($1,069,608 19-9-3-0) out of Midnight’s Reward (1986), Majestic Desert (2001) ($684,715 17-3-6-3) out of Calcutta Queen (1989) and the Indian bred winner of the Indian Two Thousand Guineas, Berlioz (2001) out of Innocent Pleasures (1995).

Night Shift’s son Moon Solitaire (1997) ($474,115 23-5-1-9) has just launched his career as a sire in Barbados. At the Barbados Turf Club annual exhibition and awards one of Moon Solitaire’s first foals was named best weanling filly of the show (she still doesn’t have a name). It’s hardly an Eclipse award but I doubt her great grandfather could have pulled that one off, she does have two of his white stockings but she is a pretty chestnut.

With each passing season, the Northern Dancer crops seem to get busier and busier generating more and more widespread success stories. It becomes difficult to research and discuss them all. I will do my best to hit the highlights, at least from my perspective.

WinStar's facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?fbid=496847263921&set=a.391534678921.174259.261791448921