P Edigree Insights
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Andrew Caulfield, June 3, 2003 – Dalakhani (Ire) P EDIGREE INSIGHTS Dalakhani’s victory in Sunday’s Prix du Jockey-Club came 19 years after Darshaan had defeated Sadler’s BY ANDREW CAULFIELD Wells and Rainbow Quest to win the same Classic. In the meantime, Darshaan has--together with other PRIX DU JOCKEY-CLUB-G1, i1,100,000, Chantilly, members of the Never Bend male line--become one of 6-1, 3yo, c/f, 1 1/2mT, 2:26.70, gd. the greatest contributors to Sadler’s Wells’ exceptional record as a sire, as was underlined by Yesterday’s 1--DALAKHANI (IRE), 128, c, 3, by Darshaan (GB) recent victory in the Irish 1000 Guineas. This filly 1st Dam: Daltawa (Ire) (SW & GSP-Fr), by Miswaki became the seventh Group 1 winner that Sadler’s Wells 2nd Dam: Damana (Fr), by Crystal Palace (Fr) has sired from his first 31 foals out of Darshaan mares. 3rd Dam: Denia (Fr), by Crepello (GB) Altogether, Sadler’s Wells has 11 stakes winners among O-H H The Aga Khan; B-H H The Aga Khan's Studs those 31, plus another 14 (including 10 Group winners) SC; T-Alain de Royer-Dupre; J-Christophe Soumillon; out of mares by Darshaan’s sire Shirley Heights and a 628,540. Lifetime Record: 6 starts, 6 wins, i further eight out of daughters of Shirley Heights’ sire 952,750. *1/2 to Daylami (Ire) (Doyoun {Ire}), Ch. i Mill Reef. Turf Horse-US, Hwt. 3yo-Fr at 7-9.5f, 2x Hwt. Older With the Derby just four days away, it’s worth Horse-Eng at 9.5-11f, Hwt. Older Horse-Eng at 11- pointing out that it was a Darshaan mare that provided 14f, Hwt. Older Horse-Ire at 9.5-11f, MGISW-US & Sadler’s Wells with last year’s winner, High Chaparral, Eng, G1SW-Fr & Ire, $3,472,032. and that Aidan O’Brien’s challengers by Sadler’s Wells Click for the free brisnet.com catalog-style pedigree. this year include Alberto Giacometti (out of a Shirley Fifteen years ago I had the privilege of conducting a Heights mare) and The Great Gatsby (out of a mare by lengthy interview with the Aga Khan for a feature in Shirley Heights’ Derby-winning son Slip Anchor). Pacemaker magazine. The line that has always stuck in As Darshaan himself sired the Derby second City my memory from that meeting was His Highness’ Honours from a Sadler’s Wells mare, this is a proven assertion that he remained “convinced that the Never Classic combination, and Dalakhani will surely be on the Bend male line is going to be a very, very powerful line. short-list for many of Sadler’s Wells’ good daughters as We have used it and used it and I would like to continue soon as he retires. Indeed, with no Northern Dancer using it. I am a great believer in this male line, to the blood in his pedigree, he will have tremendous appeal as point of saying that 10 years from now it may be as an outcross for many European mares, especially as influential as the Northern Dancer line, if not more.” Darshaan sired Group winners from mares by Northern While this last prediction has yet to be realised, the Dancer’s sons Ajdal, El Gran Senor, Northfields, The Aga’s faith in Never Bend has been amply rewarded, as Minstrel and Try My Best, as well as Sadler’s Wells. the stallion team at his Gilltown Stud shows. Daylami, a Rather surprisingly, Dalakhani--a member of his sire’s seven-time Group 1 winner, is by Never Bend’s 15th crop--officially ranks as the first Group 1 winner grandson Doyoun; Kalanisi, winner of the 2000 that the Aga Khan has bred by Darshaan. I use the word Breeders’ Cup Turf, is inbred 3x4 to Never Bend, “officially” because Darshaan also sired Aliysa, who through his main standard-bearers, Mill Reef and was stripped of her victory in the 1989 Oaks after a Riverman; and Sinndar, the outstanding three-year-old derivative of camphor was detected in her post-race of 2000, has a granddaughter of Mill Reef as his dam. test. The Aga has also bred quite a few other Group Many other breeders must now be looking forward to winners by Darshaan, including Zayyani, Arzanni, the Aga Khan adding Daylami’s unbeaten half-brother Khalafiya, Sharamana and Narwala, Narwala being the Dalakhani to his stallion team, because this colt looks a second dam of Sunday’s impressive Group 2 winner ready-made replacement for his much-missed sire Maiden Tower. Darshaan, a grandson of Mill Reef. I asked Darshaan’s breeder for his views on the horse www.coolmore.com back in 1988, when Darshaan was just completing his fourth season as a stallion. The Aga explained that: “Darshaan represents a lot of things I like: he represents the Never Bend male line; and he represents a bringing in of a major Boussac family, namely Tourzima, which of course hasn’t been the case in the past in my operation. So he brings to my operation two aspects which I consider very, very exciting indeed. If you look at the Boussac female lines I think you’d conclude that Tourzima is probably to Boussac what Mumtaz Mahal is to my bloodlines. If that’s the case, then we have to watch all the descendants of Tourzima and how they are influencing our breeding.” Dalakhani’s female line was also introduced to the Aga’s studs through the purchase of the Boussac mares in 1978. His dam, Daltawa, traces to Zariba, an outstanding filly born in 1919. Zariba produced several top winners, including the dual Arc-winning filly Corrida, who in turn produced Coaraze, winner of the 1945 Prix du Jockey-Club. Zariba was also the fourth dam of Philius, winner of the same Classic in 1956, and of Galcador, who took the Epsom Derby in 1950. Among the members of this family that the Aga acquired from Boussac were Crepellana, winner of the 1969 French Oaks, and Crepellana’s non-winning half-sister Rose Ness, who is the fourth dam of Dalakhani. Dalakhani could be said to have been bred to win a Derby. Rose Ness, a daughter of the French Derby winner Charlottesville, was mated to the Derby winner Crepello to produce his third dam, Denia (a three-parts sister to Crepellana). Denia in turn was bred to the French Derby winner Crystal Palace to produce his second dam, the talented Damana. Although steps were then taken to inject some speed by sending Damana to Miswaki, the resultant foal, Daltawa, stayed well enough to win over 1 1/4 miles as a juvenile and to become a Group-placed stakes winner over 1 5/16 miles at three. No wonder Dalakhani looked so much at home in his first attempt at 1 1/2 miles, but his stamina is clearly allied to an ample measure of speed, as he showed with his three wins at up to a mile as a juvenile. Of course, the Derby links also run strongly through the top half of Dalakhani’s pedigree. Darshaan won the French Derby, while his sire Shirley Heights and grandsire Mill Reef won the Epsom Derby, so Dalakhani is the fourth consecutive generation to have won the Epsom Derby or Prix du Jockey-Club. What is fascinating is that these four Derby winners made a total of 18 starts at two and won no fewer than 12 of them, with all four recording at least one important victory. Could it be that they owe this ability to shine at two to Never Bend, the Guggenheim colour-bearer who won seven of his 10 juvenile starts to head the two-year-old class of 1962? .