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Thursday, April 7th, 2011 6
One of the things that always fascinates
in looking at pedigrees, me at least, is
how proven female families can always be
relied upon to come up with a good horse,
even if there might be the odd blank
generation, writes Darryl Sherer.
Mares that throw Group One winners are
usually related to Group One winners or
other mares that have thrown Group One
winners. There might be the odd spare
generation in between but, as the saying
goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the
tree and I tend to look at these pedigrees
as ‘cluster’ families. The female members
usually leave at least one good runner,
usually two or three, and then they keep
producing.
Last Saturday’s BMW H.E. Tancred
Stakes (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Cedarberg
(Helenus) is another example of this. The
best winner by a long way sired to date by
the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner
Helenus, Cedarberg is empty up close
but descends from Knighton House (Pall
Mall), a good runner herself and a sister
to Reform (Pall Mall).
This is a family that has been nurtured and
developed in partnership by the late Sir
Michael Sobell and Sir Arnold Weinstock
over decades.
Reform won 11 of his 14 starts,
highlighted by the Champion Stakes (Gr 1,
1m2f) but he was essentially a miler with
victories in the St James’s Palace Stakes
(Gr 1, 1 mile), Sussex Stakes (Gr 1, 1
mile) and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1,
1 mile). Knighton House shared the same
racing aptitude as her brother, winning
the Prix de la Calonne (Listed, 1 mile) at
Deauville over the straight 1600 metres
and finishing runner-up in the Coronation
Stakes (Gr 1, 1 mile).
At stud she left two stakeswinners, the
Royal Ascot King Edward VII Stakes (Gr 2,
1m4f) winner Open Day (Northfields) and
the Prix la Rochette (Gr 3, 1400m) winner
River Knight (Riverman). A stakesplaced
daughter was School Bell (Baldric)
who came to Australia and left the WA
Champion Fillies Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m)
winner Taj Bell (Taj Rossi), herself the
granddam of Cup winners Cardinal Colours
(Chief’s Crown) (in Perth) and Lord Serry
(Islero) (in Queensland).
PEDIGREE PAGE
CEDARBERG
ANZ
Cedarberg SPORTPIX
It is two daughters of Knighton House that
have excelled at stud and stay true to my
cluster theory.
Sea Venture (Diatome) left the stakeswinner
Sailor’s Mate (Shirley Heights) who in turn
threw three stakeswinners but she is put
in the shade by Grecian Sea (Homeric),
who won at Saint-Cloud and is the dam
of the Yorkshire Oaks (Gr 1, 1m4f) winner
Hellenic (Darshaan). Hellenic is the dam of
three Group One winners in the Champion
mare Islington (Sadler’s Wells), Greek
Dance (Sadler’s Wells) and Mountain
High (Danehill) plus a further two Listed
winners.
Troyes (Troy), another daughter of Grecian
Sea, is the dam of the Ribblesdale
Stakes (Gr 2, 1m4f) winner Mont Etoile
(Montjeu) and is the granddam of three
stakeswinners.
Closer to home, Cedarberg is out
of Infrared, an unraced daughter of
Spectrum, ironically enough also bred and
raced by the Weinstock family. Winner of
the Irish 2000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1 mile),
Spectrum stretched out to a mile and a
quarter in winning the Champion Stakes
(Gr 1, 1m2f).
For a horse bred the way he is - by the
champion racehorse and sire Rainbow
Quest (Blushing Groom) – and as good
a runner as he was, Spectrum probably
proved disappointing as a stallion but he
is such a well-bred horses that it will come
as no surprise to see him do well as a
broodmare sire.
Interestingly another of his Group One
winners as a broodmare sire is the North
American Turf and Dirt winner Winchester,
a son of Theatrical, whose sire Nureyev
is a three-quarter brother to Helenus’s
grandsire Fairy King (Northern Dancer).
Infrared is a half-sister to the Talindert
Stakes (Listed, 1100m) winner Comic
Dame (Rory’s Jester) with her dam a
daughter of Gorytus (Nijinksy), a Groupwinning
juvenile but a failure at stud.
Cedarberg’s tabulation features a
duplication of Nijinsky, who appears in the
pedigree of Helenus too, but it is Infrared
that has the interesting tabulation from a
theorist’s point of view.
Infrared’s sire Spectrum has Sunny Valley
as his third-dam and Sunny Valley’s sire
Val de Loir (Vieux Manoir) is a direct
descendant of Carpet Slipper (Phalaris),
the sixth dam of Infrared. Carpet Slipper
is a half-sister to Dalmary, the dam of
Rough Shod (Gold Bridge), the fourth-dam
of Cedarberg’s great-grandsire Fairy King.
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