Andrew Caulfield, August 13- (GB) It had been a different story over a mile for this PEDIGREE INSIGHTS daughter of the sprinter . Moonlight B Y A N D R E W C A U L F I E L D Cloud had been successful in only one of her four previous Sunday, Deauville, attempts at the longer trip, PRIX DU HARAS DE FRESNAY-LE-BUFFARD - when she scraped home at JACQUES LE MAROIS-G1, i600,000, Deauville, 8-11, odds-on in last year=s G1 Prix 3yo/up, c/f/m, 1mT, 1:33.39 (NTR), gd. du Moulin. And she had 1--MOONLIGHT CLOUD (GB), 127, m, 5, by Invincible Spirit (Ire) finished only fourth in last 1st Dam: Ventura (Ire) (SP-Ire), by (Ire) year=s Jacques le Marois. 2nd Dam: Wedding Bouquet (Ire), by The presence of several 3rd Dam: Doff the Derby, by pacemakers threatened to Moonlight Cloud (GB) O/B-George Strawbridge; T-; J-Thierry expose any lack of stamina in Scoop Dyga Photo Jarnet; i342,840. Lifetime Record: Hwt. 3yo, Older Moonlight Cloud, but they Horse & Older -Fr at 5-7f, Hwt. Older Mare-Fr at collectively failed to blunt her ability to quicken in the 7-9f, Hwt. Sprinter-Eur, 18-11-2-0, i1,481,423. final stages. , on the other hand, just lacked the *1/2 to Cedar Mountain (Ire) ( {Ire}), SW & necessary pace in the final 100 meters, but still GSP-US, $137,284. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. achieved an honorable third, which will surely add to *Triple Plus*. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for his appeal as a . the Racing Post result or brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. With seven Northern Hemisphere Group 1 winners to EQUIDIA VIDEO. his credit, including GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile winner At the Anniversary Games in London last month, Mo , it is easy to forget that Invincible Spirit Farah, the Olympic champion at 5,000 and 10,000 started his stallion career at a very different level to his meters, challenged Usain Bolt, the world record holder current position. Although he stood the latest season at at 100 and 200 meters, to a charity race over 600 or i65,000 (and the 2008 season at i75,000), his first 800 meters. A possible clash between these titans of four crops were all sired at only i10,000. His excellent the track created plenty ofspeculation, with many first-season results led to his fee rising to i35,000 in predicting that Farah=s stamina would trump Bolt=s 2007, the year that Moonlight Cloud was conceived. speed. Invincible Spirit=s finest moment on the track came The connections of Intello no doubt hoped that his when he emulated his sire by winning the stamina would also prove decisive when this impressive G1 Sprint Cup at Haydock. However, his pedigree winner of the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club tackled the very wasn=t that of a one-dimensional sprinter. His dam speedy Moonlight Cloud in Sunday=s G1 Prix Jacques le was a G1 winner from a family Marois--especially when there was reason for thinking with endless stamina, so I expected him to sire some that the distance of a mile wasn=t absolutely ideal for quality winners at a mile and a quarter or more, given either of them. After all, George Strawbridge=s mare some help from his . He has duly done so, with had gained nine of her 10 previous successes over six , his very promising stallion son, staying well and a half or seven furlongs. She had also gone very enough to land the Prix du Jockey-Club. Lawman has close to defeating the brilliant Australian mare Black been followed by such as Ektihaam, Allied Powers, Caviar over six furlongs at Royal Ascot. Speaking of Which and G1 Irish Derby second Born To Run. MOONLIGHT CLOUD, m, 2008 However, there is no escaping the fact that speed-- often precocious speed--has been the main virtue of Invincible Spirit s progeny. Moonlight Cloud has Pas de Nom = Green Desert underlined this with her trio of victories in the G1 Prix Foreign Courier Maurice de Gheest, and he has also sired two winners Invincible Spirit Courtly Dee of the G1 ( and ) and (Ire) (GB) (GB) two of the G1 Cheveley Park S. ( and Rosdhu Rafha (GB) Doubly Sure (GB) Queen). His lengthy list of group winners also includes Eljazzi 14 others who gained all their victories over five or six Border Bounty (GB) furlongs. For the record these are Captain Marvelous, (Fr) Our Jonathan, Conquest, Madame Trop Vite, Zebedee, Spectrum (Ire) I Will Follow Swiss Spirit, Spirit Quartz, Glamorous Spirit, Age of Ventura (Ire) River Dancer (Ire) (Fr) Chivalry, Lockwood, Beyond Desire, Tickled Pink, SP-Ire, 11-2-2-2 Dancing Shadow Invincible Ash and Charming Woman. Cont. p6 6Fls, 1Ch, Wedding Bouquet Kings Lake II 1G1SW, 1SW GSW-US & Ire, *Fish-Bar 9-3-0-1 Doff the Derby Master Derby Click here to access TDN Progeny PPs 6Fls, 0 SW 8Fls, 4SW Margarathen Moonlight Cloud=s owner must be torn between wanting to keep his great mare in training and the desire to start her broodmare career as quickly as possible. She has the attraction of having the blue-hen Doff the Derby as her third dam. Doff the Derby in turn was a daughter of the similarly celebrated Margarethen, who also produced the outstanding Trillion, dam of the extraordinary Triptych. Margarethen=s name has also cropped up this year as the fifth dam of Treve, the exciting winner of the Prix de Diane. Doff the Derby earned her blue-hen status by producing a pair of dual Classic winners in Generous (Derby and Irish Derby) and Imagine (Irish 1000 Guineas and ), plus four other stakes winners. One of them, Wedding Bouquet, is the second dam of Moonlight Cloud. Wedding Bouquet was a 3/4-sister to Generous, as both were by sons of Nijinsky. However, Wedding Bouquet=s sire Kings Lake was much speedier than Generous= sire Caerleon and Wedding Bouquet was fast enough to win the GIII Monrovia H. over 6 1/2 furlongs. She had earlier been placed in the G1 Phoenix S. and G1 National S. at two, when she also scored three times. Moonlight Cloud=s dam Ventura resulted from Wedding Bouquet=s visit to Rainbow Quest=s son Spectrum. This was a likeable match, as Rainbow Quest had done very well with daughters and grand-daughters of Nijinsky, once siring a French 2000 Guineas second from a Kings Lake mare. Spectrum was very good on his day, as he showed in winning the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and the Champion S., but his sale to South Africa in 2004 reflects the fact that he hadn=t developed into the excellent outcross stallion that Coolmore no doubt had in mind when they bought him. He had his moments, though, notably siring Golan (G1 2000 Guineas and G1 King George) and Gamut (G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud), as well as Tartan Bearer. This narrow loser of the 2008 Derby was out of a mare by Generous, so had a pedigree quite similar to that of Moonlight Cloud=s dam Ventura. A listed-placed winner over a mile, Ventura was sold for 500,000gns at the end of her racing career. Her price dropped to 58,000gns by the time Strawbridge sold her in 2009. Then along came the 2-year-old Moonlight Cloud to restore Ventura=s price to 260,000gns a year later. Moonlight Cloud=s Group 1 victory at three prompted another visit to the sales ring in 2011, when Ventura sold for 900,000gns to M.V. Magnier. She has a yearling filly by Makfi and is now in foal to Galileo, who sired her other stakes winner, the stayer Cedar Mountain. Incidentally, Galileo yet again had a magnificent time last week, including with his 2-year-olds. Ventura=s half-sister Maddelina now ranks as the second dam of the group-winning middle-distance stayer Hawaafez, while another half-sister, Wedding Morn, produced the 2012 2-year-old Group 2 winner Probably. Moonlight Cloud is by no means the Margarethen family=s first Group 1 winner from the Danzig male line, as it also scored at the top level with Danehill=s sons Landseer (French 2000 Guineas and Keeneland Turf Mile) and Horatio Nelson (Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere), as well as with Green Desert=s son Tamarisk (Sprint Cup at Haydock).