Andrew Caulfield-Oct. 28- (GB) The stallion=s connections decided the time had come PEDIGREE INSIGHTS for a change and moved to Mickley B Y A N D R E W C A U L F I E L D Stud, where the switch in emphasis to jumping mares accelerated. RACING POST TROPHY-G1, ,216,000, DON, 10-25, The fact that Elm Park is the first group winner from 2yo, 8fT, 1:43.82, sf. Phoenix Reach=s first five crops sounds much more 1--sELM PARK (GB), 127, c, 2, by Phoenix Reach (Ire) damning than it is. Those five crops contained only 114 1st Dam: Lady Brora (GB), by (GB) foals, all of them sired at fees of ,3,500 or less. A 2nd Dam: Tweed Mill (GB), by couple of Elm Park=s predecessors, Whiplash Willie and 3rd Dam: Island Mill, by Rawaki, have shown form worthy of a stakes winner. O-Qatar Racing & Racing; B-Kingsclere Whiplash Willie, for example, has run well in several of Stud (GB); T-; J-Andrea Atzeni. Europe=s top stayers= races this year. ,122,493. Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-1, ,212,040. Werk All three of these good performers are trained by Nick Rating: C+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Andrew Balding, who owes a considerable debt to Click for the Racing Post result, the brisnet.com PPs or Phoenix Reach. This son of helped put the the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, young trainer on the map in the years immediately courtesy attheraces.com. following his taking over the licence from his father at In the 13 years prior to Saturday=s edition of the Park House Stables, Kingsclere. Racing Post Trophy, this Group 1 mile contest had been In my role of correspondent to a Japanese magazine, won by four future winners of the Derby, two of the St I was tasked with asking Andrew Balding about Phoenix Leger, two of the Irish Derby, one of the 2,000 Guineas Reach prior to his challenge for the 2004 . and one of the French 2,000 Guineas, with a Breeders= AHe=s an amazing horse,@ he told me. AHe=s been beset Cup Turf winner thrown in for good measure. by injuries and setbacks his whole career. I think without those he could have been a champion--and he The stallions involved in this impressive baker=s dozen included such stand-outs as Montjeu, Galileo, could still be now. He was beaten a head by Norse Dancer in his first Shamardal, Rainbow Quest, Machiavellian and Sadler s A = start at two and then suffered a fracture to his pastern. Wells, who were collectively responsible for 10 of the He had to have a year off, but won his first race 13. A back very easily,@ Balding recalled. AHe was having only It therefore makes an interesting change that the his third career start when he won the G3 Gordon S. latest impressive winner, the Phoenix Reach colt Elm and then was third in the St Leger. He was still quite Park, has a much less fashionable pedigree than most inexperienced when he went all the way to Canada to of his predecessors. It is worth remembering at this win the Canadian International. point that one of the most famous winners of this AWe had his pastern X-rayed again during the winter, contest, which has had a variety of names, was just to check that everything was fine, and the X-rays Vaguely Noble. This son of the none-too-fashionable revealed a slight problem which required a small clip Vienna held no Classic entries but went on to defeat being inserted into his fetlock again. He came out of the 2,000 Guineas and Derby winner Sir Ivor in the Arc. that well and ran a very good race in the Prince of Elm Park was conceived in 2011, when his sire Wales=s S. Then he went to France, where he was Phoenix Reach was advertised by as beaten four lengths in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, a dual-purpose sire, at a fee of only ,2,500. Despite his but he needed that run. modest fee, Phoenix Reach covered only 25 mares, for ASadly, he was suffering from a viral infection when 16 foals, including a few out of mares who had raced he ran in the King George. It has taken him a long time over hurdles and fences. to recover, but he seems right back to his best now.@ Phoenix Reach was far from disgraced in Japan, ELM PARK, c, 2012 finishing a creditable sixth of 16, and the run had him in perfect shape for the G1 two weeks Alhaarth (Ire) Height of Fashion later, which he won. His rich vein of form continued Irish Valley Irish River when he moved on to Dubai, for the very valuable Phoenix Reach Green Valley II . That became his third (Ire) Hatim Exclusive Native international Group 1 success and he later went quite Carroll’s Canyon Sunday Purchase close to winning a Group 1 in Singapore. His earnings (Ire) Tuna (GB) Silver Shark fell just short of the equivalent of ,2 million, and we Vimlette can only wonder what heights he might have scaled Elegant Air (GB) Shirley Heights had he proved less susceptible to injury. Dashing Blade (GB) Elegant Tern Although Phoenix Reach was highly accomplished, Sharpen Up Lady Brora (GB) Sharp Castan (GB) breeders could be forgiven for not stampeding to 12-1-2-1, $11,632 Sultry One support him in his new role as a stallion in 2007. He Sharpen Up 4Fls, 1GSW Tweed Mill (GB) Selkirk had sold comparatively cheaply as a weanling and a 7-1-1-1, $8,928 Annie Edge yearling, perhaps because none of his first three dams 6Fls, 4Wnrs Island Mill (GB) Mill Reef had won. 8Fls, 6Wnrs Siliciana His dam Carroll=s Canyon was an unraced daughter of Lady Broare is also inbred 3x3 to the high-class 2- Hatim, a very disappointing stallion. However, Carroll=s year-old sprinter Sharpen Up. The inbreeding didn=t Canyon was a half-sister to , winner of impart any special talents to the filly as a racehorse, her the Arc and Irish Champion S., but a disappointment as only victory in 12 starts coming in a one-mile a stallion in Japan. The fact that all three of Phoenix all-weather event. However, it is beginning to look as Reach=s Group 1 wins were gained over a mile and a though it has been a considerable help to Lady Brora as half wouldn=t have made it any easier to attract support a broodmare. Elm Park is her second foal (and he is from commercial breeders. followed by a colt by Shirocco and a filly by Passing Fortunately the Balding family wasn=t about to forget Glance). what Phoenix Reach had done for them, and Elm Park=s Elm Park has now won the last four of his five starts, dam, Lady Brora, has a pedigree which combines some generally showing that he has an excellent cruising of the finest performers to have been trained at speed. While he can be expected to shine over a mile Kingsclere during the last 50 years. and a half, I see no reason why he shouldn=t be The sequence starts with Elm Park s fifth dam = effective over shorter distances at the start of his Anippe, who was sent out by to win two of her five juvenile starts in 1965. That was the second second season. His grandsire Alhaarth started favorite year Balding had held the licence. He had formerly for the 1996 2,000 Guineas and ended his 3-year-old assisted Captain Hastings-Bass, the trainer who had campaign with an all-the-way group victory over a mile. bought Kingsclere in the early 1950s. Sadly Hastings-Bass died at the age of only 43 in June 1964. Balding later married the Captain=s daughter Emma, who can take credit for breeding Elm Park under the name of Kingsclere Stud. Balding had been only 26 when he took over the licence. Even so, he made an impressive start, notably sending out =s Tom Fool colt Silly Season to win the 1964 Dewhurst S. Silly Season went on to win the Champion S. at three. It wasn=t long before Silly Season and Anippe met again, this time in the breeding shed, the resultant foal being Elm Park=s fourth dam, Siliciana. This filly, who was bred by Ian Balding, recorded her first important success for Balding in 1972, when she took the G3 Prix de Flore over 1 5/16 miles. Siliciana later landed one of Britain=s most competitive handicaps, the Cambridgeshire, and her form was good enough to earn her access to some of the best racehorses of that era. She produced three foals to Mill Reef, the brilliant racehorse who will always rank as Ian Balding=s finest achievement as a trainer. One of the three was Elm Park=s third dam Island Mill, who gained her only success for Balding over the St Leger course and distance. The next link in the chain was Island Mill=s daughter Tweed Mill, who was by Selkirk, an outstanding miler who was sent out by Balding to win the 1991 Queen Elizabeth II S. Like many a daughter of Selkirk, Tweed Mill handled very soft ground and she won over 1 1/16 miles at Epsom. For the final link, the Baldings sent Tweed Mill all the way to Germany in 2004 to visit Dashing Blade, another alumnus of Ian Balding=s stable. A winner of the G1 National S. and G1 Dewhurst S. at two, Dashing Blade went on to prove he stayed a mile and a half at three, landing important races in France and Italy. Part of Dashing Blade=s appeal as a mate for Tweed Mill was that he was by Elegant Air, who showed smart form for the Balding-Mellon partnership. As Elegant Air was a grandson of Mill Reef, Island Mill=s Dashing Blade foal, Lady Brora, is inbred 4x3 to this great horse. With 16% stakes winners and nearly 10% group winners, Mill Reef confirmed that he was just as brilliant as a stallion as he had been at virtually every stage of his racecourse career.