Bill Oppenheim, December 18, 2002 –Asian Season Mention of Hernando brings me to Niniski, a dual St. Leger winner by Nijinsky II who stood at Lanwades (where he was FROM THE DESK OF... succeeded by his son Hernando) for the wily Kirsten Rausing (I Bill Oppenheim should interrupt myself to say here that I really, genuinely do admire wily people. I wish I was wily myself). In his seventh ASIAN SEASON crop, Niniski sired Lomitas, who made such a good start at stud With several major European contenders knocked out by injury in Germany that Sheikh Mohammed brought him to Darley. In his or sickness, Hong Kong-trained horses won three of their four ninth crop, Niniski sired Hernando. In between, in his eighth international races last Sunday, proving that they are just as crop, Niniski sired a horse called Alflora. Now, Alflora was out of capable of stepping up to the plate in international Group 1 a fast Bold Lad mare who was a half sister to the great Ardross. company as their contemporaries in Japan and Australasia. It He was trained by Clive Brittain and after being tried over longer was Hong Kong racing’s biggest day ever in Group 1 company, distances, won the first of four group races over one mile when he and a great tribute to the system they have evolved. I think I say, sprang a 20-1 shock in the 1993 Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot. about this time every year, that the winter Asian circuit, now It was a big gamble for the Shade Oak Stud in Shropshire to including Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai, has stand a group winner over a mile as a jumping sire, but he was emerged as a real big-money opportunity for all but the top out of a half sister to Ardross, and it was there he went to stud Classic horses--and even some of them are in action, certainly at in 1995. His first crop are now six-year-olds, and last weekend the Dubai World Cup meet at the end of March. he had the winners of two good Novice Chases in England from Besides the locals, the other big winners on the day were the that first crop: a horse called Paxford Jack won the £50,000 French; specifically, the Haras du Mesnil operation of Henri and Doncaster Sales Future Champions Novices’ Chase at Antonia Devin, who, amazingly, bred two of the day’s four Group Cheltenham; and Farmer Jack, another six-year-old from Alflora’s 1 winners. One of them, the 10-furlong Cup winner Precision, first crop, won a good race at Haydock. The name’s Niniski: Sire was bred by Mme Devin and sold as a yearling to go to Hong of Sires. Two more impressive performances in the jumping Kong. He becomes the third Group 1 winner from Anabaa’s first division last weekend: Ireland’s top staying hurdler Limestone crop, joining Amonita (champion two-year-old filly in France in Lad notched up win number 34 at Navan on Sunday and a 2000), and Anabaa Blue (French Derby winner at three, 2001). second-season French-bred chaser, Fondmort (by Arctic Tern’s But an even bigger win for the Devins was Ange Gabriel, who successful jump sire son, Cyborg) won the Tripleprint Gold Cup won the 12-furlong Vase, defeating last year’s Arc second over 21 furlongs at Cheltenham. You can pencil him in now as Aquarelliste for the second time in Group 1 company this year, the winner of the Cathcart Chase (second-season chasers, 21 with ex-French trained Falcon Flight completing the trifecta for furlongs) at Cheltenham next March. France in the Vase. Give Me an F... In many respects the Vase was a re-run of the June 30 Grand Prix The most important four-letter word in horse racing: F-O-R-M. de Saint-Cloud (G1), in which Ange Gabriel, then 16-1, seemingly Time and again it’s been demonstrated to us that a horse doesn’t benefitted from a mulish display by Aquarelliste, the 3-5 favorite, have to be an undefeated champion to make a sire. As who just didn’t want to know that day, and couldn’t even get past mentioned above, Grand Lodge and Distant View are examples the Fabre-trained Polish Summer for second. The real Aquarelliste of milers who mixed with the best but didn’t win them all, and showed up in Hong Kong, but Ange Gabriel beat her fair and square. now have gone on to be significant sires. A lot of people will Polish Summer finished fifth Sunday, beaten around four lengths. have gone off Noverre, who closed out a disappointing--and But, even more than Anabaa, Sunday’s big winning sire was the winless--four-year-old season with a lackluster eighth in the Hong Haras de Mesnil’s Kaldounevees, a son of Caro’s best French sire Kong Mile. Besides that, he’s a three-quarter brother to the son, Kaldoun, but from a fairly obscure female family which hadn’t disappointing sire Arazi. Never mind all that. Noverre ran seven produced a sire since Ole Fols, son of Tudor Minstrel, in California in times at two, going 4-1-1; he won his first three starts (five to the late 60’s. Kaldounevees was trained by the wily John Hammond six furlongs), including the G3 July S. at Newmarket, and went and in typical Hammond fashion, won two Group 3s at one mile in on to win the G2 Champagne at Doncaster and place in two France as a four-year-old in 1995 (in the second of them he defeated Group 1s, the Dewhurst and the Prix Morny. He ran seven times the cult sire sensation Fraam). Then the rubber met the road. He ran again at three, winning the French 2000 Guineas (though DQ’ed second in a 10-furlong Group 1 in Germany, fourth in the Arlington on a bad test), and the G1 Sussex S., and placing in the UAE Million, then another second in the Man o’ War (11 furlongs that 2000 Guineas (to Street Cry), the St. James’s Palace S., the year) at Belmont Park. It’s another one of those cases where he Jacques le Marois, and the Queen Elizabeth S.; Timeform rating-- maybe wasn’t the best horse around, but he was a legitimate 125. This year he ran--you guessed it--seven times, placing in Group 1 horse who was always right there in the big races. five Group 1s (behind horses like Terre A Terre, Keltos, and Rock Among milers, horses like Grand Lodge and Distant View were of Gibraltar), and running unplaced twice, once in the Atto Mile like that. Know who else was? Noverre. But more about him in a in Canada from an impossible draw, and last weekend in Hong minute. Kong; Timeform rating--123. So, in his career, he ran 21 times. This is relevant in Kaldounevees’ case because he has now had He went 5-7-4, which is 16 times in the first three. He won one Terre A Terre--winner of the G1 Prix de l’Opera last year and the Group 1, was DQ’ed from another, and placed in 10 Group 1 G1 Dubai Duty Free earlier this year--in his first crop, and now races. He was unplaced five times--three in North America, once another dual Group 1 winner, Ange Gabriel, in his second. This in Hong Kong, and once DQ’ed. He might have his knockers at makes Kaldounevees the French answer to Hernando, who has i15,000 at Kildangan, but I’m not one of them: I think he was sired two French Derby winners (Holding Court and Arc second plenty good enough to be a sire. Incidentally, another horse I Sulamani) in his first three crops. And what great value these love with similar ratings is Aljabr, a grey son of Storm Cat who ‘staying’ sires are. Oldest foals for both are five-year-olds of stands at Shadwell in Kentucky, now down to a mouthwatering 2002. Hernando stands next year for £12,000 at Kirsten $15,000 fee himself. Aljabr won Group 1 races at two, three, Rausing’s Lanwades Stud, and Kaldounevees has just been and four in 1998-2000. He was rated 121 pounds by Timeform bumped to i15,000. One has two French Derby winners in his after going unbeaten in three starts at two, including the (then) first three crops, and the other has a dual Group 1 winner in each G1 Prix de la Salamandre, then had the same ratings as Noverre of his first two crops. Hear that train whistle (could have been a at three (125) and four (123). I give him a big shot to make a harmonica)? Time to Get on Board. sire, too; like Noverre, like Kaldounevees, like Hernando, like Then There’s Alflora... Grand Lodge, like Distant View, he had the form. .