Andrew Caulfield, October 21, 2008–Intense Focus P EDIGREE INSIGHTS When a championship race like the Dewhurst sees the first seven colts separated by only two lengths, the BY ANDREW CAULFIELD immediate response has to be that none of them is outstanding. The bookmakers generally have Intense Saturday, Newmarket, Britain Focus on offer at 16-1 or 20-1 for next year=s 2000 DARLEY DEWHURST S.-G1, ,270,000, Newmarket, Guineas, so they clearly don=t hold him in the same 10-18, 2yo, c/f, 7fT, 1:23.33, gd. regard as Jim Bolger=s last two Dewhurst winners, 1--#INTENSE FOCUS, 127, c, 2, by Giant=s Causeway Teofilo and New Approach. But it would be hasty to 1st Dam: Daneleta (Ire) (GSP-Ire & SP-Fr), by dismiss Intense Focus as a possible future Classic 2nd Dam: Zavaleta (Ire), by (Ire) winner, especially if he gets the fast ground he seems 3rd Dam: La Meilleure (Ire), by Lord Gayle to favor. , the Giant=s Causeway colt who (i340,000 yrl >07 GOFMIL). O-Mrs J S Bolger; won the 2004 Dewhurst in great style, went on to B-Robert N Clay & Airlie Stud; T-Jim Bolger; J-Kevin complete a Classic double in France. Then Sir Percy, Manning; ,163,356. Lifetime Record: G1SP-Fr, who had only a neck to spare in the 2005 Dewhurst, GSP-Ire, 9-2-1-3, ,334,357. Werk Nick Rating: A++. went on to win the Derby, and so did New Approach, Click for the eNicks report and 5-cross pedigree, Racing Post chart, the half-length winner in 2007, who was so impressive brisnet.com PPs or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. in his swan song in Saturday=s G1 Emirates Airline Considering that Giant=s Causeway=s first 10 graded- Champion S. stakes winners of 2008 comprised a quintet of five- Intense Focus is the fifth Northern Hemisphere Group year-olds, a quartet of four-year-olds and a solo three- 1/Grade I winner of 2008 for Giant=s Causeway, and his year-old, it looked safe to say that his progeny generally 11th in all. Giant=s Causeway=s 2008 five-timer puts improve with age. But then Britain=s premier juvenile him level with New Approach=s sire Galileo, and the race, the Darley Dewhurst S., fell to a son of Giant=s Ashford resident also has Group 1 winners in Australia Causeway for the second time in the five years he=s and South Africa. had runners, this time going to the 20-1 Intense Focus. I=ve heard a few people say that they don=t quite Racing for the ninth time, the progressive Intense Focus know what to make of Giant=s Causeway=s record as a lived up to his name in managing to keep his nose stallion. I think the confusion stems partly from the fractionally ahead of those of two other well-seasoned tendency for data services to include his Southern performers, Lord Shanakill and Finjaan, in a thrilling Hemisphere progeny in his totals. For example, The three-way finish. Blood-Horse credits him with having 868 foals in his five crops of racing age, when his Northern Hemisphere total of named foals appears to be nearer to 662. Condition Codes for Allowance Races While we can=t ignore the foals sired by Giant=s Causeway during the three seasons he spent in Code Description Australia, from 2002 to 2004, experience has taught us NW...... Non-Winner of... that shuttle stallions often fail to replicate one 1-6...... Number of Races hemisphere=s success when switched to another. $...... Monetary Condition Perhaps they are less well suited by the bloodlines R...... Distance Condition available to them or perhaps the ground conditions and 3M, 6M, 9M, training methods are less to their progeny=s liking. Y, Y+, L...... Time Period (ex: NW2L = NW 2 races lifetime) X...... Other-than Condition (ex: NW3X = non-winners J Watch Out for “TDN Rising Stars” J of 3 races other than maiden, claiming, or statebred) Stars of tomorrow grabbing the spotlight today... C...... Other Conditions Not Specified

www.coolmore.com Whatever the explanation, Giant=s Causeway has so Daneleta was bred by Jim Bolger, who trained her to far failed to live up to expectations in Australia, where win over seven furlongs at two in his wife=s colors. The he started out at A$137,500. He has three Australian Danehill filly also showed a lot of potential when third group winners from his first two Southern-Hemisphere to Rock of Gibraltar and Hawk Wing in the G3 Railway crops, his third and largest Australian crop having S. on what proved to be her last appearance for Bolger. recently started its sophomore season. Unfortunately, she failed to add significantly to her It has been a similar story so far with Galileo. He has reputation when switched firstly to France, where she two group winners, including the recent Group 1 raced at up to a mile, and then the USA. Perhaps she winner Sousa, a newly turned three-year-old from his would have been suited by a mile and a quarter or third crop. As he still has two large Australian crops to more, as her younger sister Danelissima was a Group 3 come, Galileo may yet restore his reputation down winner over a mile and a half for Bolger, before being under. sold for 470,000gns. It is probably wiser to separate the two hemispheres Danelissima has a two-year-old Sadler=s Wells colt when trying to assess a stallion=s merit. Giant=s and a yearling filly by Montjeu. The Montjeu filly failed Causeway=s 26 Northern Hemisphere graded/group to find a buyer at Tattersalls earlier this month, and winners equate to nearly 4 percent of his 662 named Daneleta=s yearling colt by Mr. Greeley was led out foals. Even this figure may be a little misleading, as 151 unsold at $675,000 in September. of his 662 foals (nearly 23 percent) are two-year-olds of Perhaps these are two occasions where the vendor is 2008. More than 90 of them have yet to race and, now happy they failed to sell. judging by his high proportion of older graded winners, The chances are that Intense Focus will stay a mile this crop can be expected to produce several more and a quarter next year, as Giant=s Causeway shone at graded winners. It also contains Dreamtheimpossible, a around that trip and so did three of his 2008 Grade I Group 1-placed listed winner. winners--Heatseeker, Frost Giant and Red Giant. His To get back to Intense Focus himself, the bottom half other Grade I winner, the mare Carriage Trial, shone of his pedigree also supports the view that he could when returned to a mile and an eighth in the Spinster improve further from two to three. His dam Daneleta is S., and his 2008 graded winners also include Niagara by Danehill out of a Kahyasi mare, which means that Causeway, who scored over a mile and a half. she is bred to the same pattern as those distinguished The majority of Giant=s Causeway=s good winners, performers Dansili, Banks Hill, Intercontinental, Cacique, therefore, seem to need a route, but they are more Champs Elysees and Promising Lead, produced by the versatile when it comes to track surface. This year=s sisters Hasili and Arrive. Incidentally, both these mares five Grade I winners have scored on dirt, two types of will be bidding to add to their family=s Breeders= Cup synthetic and turf. gains when Champs Elysees and Visit compete at Santa Intense Focus=s third dam, La Meilleure, is also the Anita later this week. Only Intercontinental earned black second dam of Soldier of Fortune, winner of the 2007 type at two. Irish Derby, and she=s the dam of Sholokhov, runner-up in the 2002 Irish Derby. A listed winner over a mile, La INTENSE FOCUS, c, 2006 Meilleure showed plenty of versatility on the track and she also proved versatile as a broodmare, producing South Ocean stakes winners to four different stallions. One of them was Intense Focus=s second dam Zavaleta, a tough Terlingua Crimson Saint performer at up to a mile and a quarter who scored Giant’s Causeway (Fr) three times as a juvenile, despite being by the Derby winner Kahyasi. Mariah’s Storm There is clearly an attractive mix of speed and Immense Imsodear stamina in this tough family, which once produced the Northern Dancer champion sprinter . Danzig Pas de Nom Danehill His Majesty Razyana Daneleta (Ire) Spring Adieu GSP-Ire & SP-Fr 4Fls, 1G1SW Zavaleta (Ire) Kahyasi (Ire) MSW-Ire Kadissya 10Fls, 1GSW La Meilleure (Ire) Lord Gayle 2GSP 13Fls, 4SW Gradille (Ire)