Designs On Rome won the planet's 2nd richest race this weekend in the Hong Kong Cup. It was an exciting finish as Designs On Rome came from last at the top of the stretch to nip Military Attack at the wire. Criterion finished third. All top three finishers were descendants of Northern Dancer. Designs On Rome's sire Holy Roman Emmperor was the son of Danehill and Fanfreluche's daughter L'on Vite.
1) Designs On Rome (IRE) - great great grandson x3
2) Military Attack (IRE) - great great grandson x2 through Danehill/Lyphard
3) Criterion (NZ) - great great great grandson x3 also through Danehill and Dancer's HOF daughter Fanfreluche
That wraps up another year of Classic G1 races from around the globe and it's fair to say Northern Dancer's impact on the International sport is as big as ever. It was a difficult year for me to keep track of just because of the changes in my own life. I missed a lot of live coverage and had to settle for my own video links to experience the excitement after the events took place. The races took place on 4 different continents but 6 different continents and many more countries were represented in the breeding of the world's top thoroughbred champions who all shared one common thread in the DNA of our little Canadian Sire. It looked like a few years back things were going to change and we might see the impact wain but now it's stronger than ever. I hope I can keep this up in some fashion but if not it may not be necessary to document what is becoming more and more obvious. Let's see what happens next spring.
photos from hjkc.com
video of race
http://campaign.hkjc.com/en/2014-hkir/2014-media-video.aspx?vdo=replay-full/2014/20141214/08/eng/replay-full_20141214_08_eng
