Andrew Caulfield, November 10, 2009- (Ire) Now, though, I can=t help wishing that PEDIGREE INSIGHTS had challenged for the Classic. How great would it have BY ANDREW CAULFIELD been to see him matching strides with another equine phenomenon in Zenyatta? Had he managed to win--and Saturday, Santa Anita I=m sure that Zenyatta=s legions of admirers would GREY GOOSE BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE-GI, dismiss the possibility--he would have completed a $1,818,000, OSA, 11-7, 2yo, c/g, 1 1/16m (AWT), magnificent two days for his grandsire . 1:43 2/5, ft. 1--s@VALE OF YORK (IRE), 122, c, 2, by (Ire) Andrew Caulfield cont. 1st Dam: Red Vale (Ire), by 2nd Dam: Hamsaat (Ire), by Sadler's Wells VALE OF YORK (IRE), c, 2007 3rd Dam: Steel Habit (Ire), by (23,000gns yrl '08 TATDEC) O- Racing LLC Pas de Nom Green Desert Lessee; B-Stock Vale Ltd (IRE); T-; Foreign Courier J-Ahmed Ajtebi; $1,080,000. Lifetime Record: SW & Invincible Spirit Courtly Dee GSP-Eng, G1SP-Fr, 5-3-0-1, $1,142,839. Click for (Ire) (GB) (GB) the eNicks report and 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Doubly Sure (GB) (GB) Rating: A++. Click for the brisnet.com chart o r Eljazzi (Ire) video, sponsored by Taylor Made. Border Bounty (GB) Sharpen Up (GB) When the connections of Sea the Stars announced (GB) Doubly Sure (GB) that their brilliant colt wouldn=t be traveling Halling to Santa Anita, I wholeheartedly approved the decision Dance Machine (GB) Red Vale (Ire) Never a Lady (Ire) to retire him. He had, after all, danced every dance in Unraced Northern Dancer Europe and it would have been a shame to risk 4Fls, 1GSW Sadler’s Wells Hamsaat (Ire) Fairy Bridge tarnishing his glittering record on an unfamiliar surface 1-1-0-0 after a long journey at the end of a very demanding 11ls, 1GSW Steel Habit (Ire) Habitat season. 11Fls, 2SW Ampulla (Ire)

www.coolmore.com Andrew Caulfield cont. Border Bounty excelled with the top miler Petingo, American racegoers with lengthy memories may recall notably producing the champion sire , whose that Green Desert also made the trip to Santa Anita for son Ela-Mana-Mou made a big impact as a sire on the Breeders= Cup back in 1986. The idea of a European Britain=s long-distance races. Pitcairn=s sister Dingle Bay turf sprinter defeating America=s specialist dirt became the dam of the top-class stayer Assessor, speedsters was considered sufficiently ridiculous for whose stamina stretched to 2 1/2 miles.@ Green Desert to be sent off at 32-1, even though he Invincible Spirit=s i35,000 crop reached the yearling had won two of Britain=s best sprints. The betting sales this year and the broodmare sires of his proved correct, and Green Desert trailed home last of youngsters that achieved six-figure prices included With nine behind Smile. Coincidentally, Green Desert=s son Approval, , Sadler=s Wells and Shirley Heights. also made the long journey to Santa Anita The shift in mare type can only have accelerated when for the Breeders= Cup, but this very fast horse was also Invincible Spirit=s fee rose to i75,000. For example, out of his comfort zone in the Mile and could finish no Jim Bolger seems to have decided that the Irish closer than 10th. National Stud resident is an ideal option for daughters It was therefore good to see Green Desert make his of the stamina-packed Galileo. mark on the latest Breeders= Cup via his sons Vale of York is the ninth Group winner and third Oasis Dream and Invincible Spirit. Thanks to the Group 1 winner to emerge from the first four crops by admirably tough and Visit, Oasis Dream was Invincible Spirit, the other Group 1winner being the fast responsible for first and fourth in the F/M Turf (and was filly , who wasn=t seen at her best in the also represented by GII Las Palmas H. winner Tuscan Breeders= Cup Sprint. Vale of York had won nothing Evening two hours later). The next day saw Invincible more important than a listed race in Europe, but had Spirit=s son Vale of York show plenty of pluck in been beaten only a neck in the G1 Gran Criterium in driving between Noble=s Promise and to Italy. He had appeared at the Craven Breeze Up Sale in snatch victory in the Juvenile, in his debut on April, when knocked down to his vendor for synthetic. 65,000gns, but was then bought privately by There are some striking parallels between Oasis Godolphin. Dream and Invincible Spirit. Although both are out of Arguably the most interesting aspect of Vale of mares with plenty of stamina in their pedigrees, both York=s pedigree is that the third generation of his exhibited far more speed than stamina, as did Green pedigree contains the outstanding brothers Kris (sire of Desert. Both have gone on to show themselves capable Invincible Spirit=s classic-winning dam) and Diesis (sire of siring juvenile winners in unusual quantities, while at of the broodmare sire Halling). This means that the the same time being capable of coming up with the Juvenile winner is inbred 4 x 4 to both Sharpen Up and occasional Group 1 winner beyond a mile. Doubly Sure. Although Sharpen Up spent a sizeable At the moment I would say that Oasis Dream is the part of his stallion career in Kentucky, he was regarded more likely to come up with high-class winners at a primarily as a turf sire and the same applied to his son mile and a quarter or more, because his speed is Diesis. However, Sharpen Up did sire a couple of balanced by his first three dams all being daughters of Grade I winners on dirt (Dream Deal in the Monmouth major mile-and-a-half winners. Oaks and Conveyor in the Meadowlands Cup). The situation could change, though, because all four Vale of York=s broodmare sire Halling will also be of Invincible Spirit=s crops of racing age were sired at remembered primarily for his exploits on turf, which fees of only i10,000. In other words, his main included repeat victories in two of Britain=s best supporters will have been commercial breeders intent mile-and-a-quarter contests. Perhaps it is relevant, on meeting the demand for fast and precocious though, that he also scored four victories on the sand two-year-olds. He got off to a flying start in 2006, track at Nad Al Sheba. ending the year as leading first-crop sire with a record Halling has since built a solid record as a sire, even number of 35 individual juvenile winners. Consequently, though it took him an inordinately long time to come up his fee shot up to i35,000 in 2007 and then to with his first G1 winner (the 2009 i75,000 in 2008 after his first-crop son winner ). He was unlucky not to have done recorded Group 1 victories in the Prix du Jockey-Club so several years earlier. His broodmare daughters have and . been faster off the mark in this regard, another of them When I reviewed Lawman=s pedigree in the TDN, I being the dam of the 2008 E.P. Taylor S. winner Folk wrote: ATheoretically, if ever there was going to be a Opera. son of Green Desert suited to a mile and a quarter, it Prior to the Breeders= Cup, I toyed with the idea of was going to be Invincible Spirit. He comes from a recommending Invincible Spirit as a mate for one of stamina-packed female line, starting with his dam =s Halling mares but was a bit surprised to Rafha, who followed up her victory in the Lingfield find that Vale of York is the only smart performer so far Oaks Trial over 1 7/16 miles with a game victory in the with Kris in the top half of its pedigree and Diesis in the French Oaks. bottom half. There=s also a Group 3 winner and a listed The next dam, Eljazzi, was a daughter of the versatile winner with Diesis in the top half and Kris in the Artaius and the stamina-packed Border Bounty. bottom. Perhaps combining these two highly talented brothers hasn=t been tried as often as I imagined, maybe because Sharpen Up=s name has been associated (sometimes unfairly) with poor hocks. Red Vale, the dam of Vale of York, is an unraced half-sister to Uraib. This Mark of Esteem mare was versatile enough to win stakes races at up to a mile and a half on turf and the GIII Buena Vista H. on dirt. With Sadler=s Wells as her sire and the Habitat mare Steel Habit as her dam, the second dam Hamsaat was a winning sister to the very smart Batshoof. She was also a sister-in-blood to three stakes winners sired by Sadler=s Wells from Steel Habit=s sister Zummerudd, headed by the 1998 2,000 Guineas winner King of Kings. Steel Habit was herself a 3/4-sister to the top sprinter Steel Heart, so there is plenty of speed on both sides of Vale of York=s pedigree. He showed no signs of stopping, though, at the end of the Juvenile, and--like most owners of Breeders= Cup Juvenile winners-- Godolphin will probably now by having Kentucky Derby dreams.