Andrew Caulfield, April 20, 2010-Tuscan Evening (Ire) PEDIGREE INSIGHTS BY ANDREW CAULFIELD SANTA BARBARA H.-GII, $147,000, SAX, 4-17, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/4mT, 2:00 1/5, fm. 1--TUSCAN EVENING (IRE), 124, m, 5, by Oasis Dream (GB) 1st Dam: The Faraway Tree (GB) (GSP-GB), by Suave Dancer 2nd Dam: Sassalya (GB), by Sassafras (Fr) 3rd Dam: *Valya, by Vandale (Fr) (4,500gns yrl '06 TATOCT; $650,000 HRA >09 FTKNOV). O-William Deburgh; B-Hascombe and Val- iant Studs (IRE); T-Jerry Hollendorfer; J-Rafael Bejarano; $90,000. Lifetime Record: GISP-US & MGSP-Ire, 25-10-4-5, $909,408. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the brisnet.com chart, the brisnet.com PPs o r the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Taylor Made. It was only last July that I reported on a remarkable run of success for Oasis Dream (click here for Caulfield=s column of July 14, 2009), who was represented by four Group 2 winners in the space of four days. Well, the 10-year-old stallion has been in dominant form again, as has Dansili, his neighbour at Banstead Manor Stud. Between them, they have been represented by seven stakes winners over the last five days. Oasis Dream=s contribution was three group victories, thanks to Sri Putra, Tuscan Evening and Alta Fedelta, and these successes came only a few days after he had boosted his total of stakes winners from his first three crops to 28, thanks to Keredari=s encouraging success in the Loughbrown S. Oasis Dream might even have made it four group victories in four days had his son Address Unknown not had a luckless run in the G3 Ballysax S. The Racing Post reported that Address Unknown, Acan be considered unlucky not to have gone close, as he found himself trapped with no room to manoeuvre from over a furlong out.@ TUSCAN EVENING (IRE), m, 2005 Northern Dancer Danzig Pas de Nom Green Desert Sir Ivor Foreign Courier Courtly Dee Oasis Dream (GB) Lyphard Dancing Brave Navajo Princess Hope (Ire) Mill Reef Bahamian (Ire) Sorbus (GB) Nijinsky II Green Dancer Green Valley (Fr) Suave Dancer Alleged The Faraway Suavite Tree (GB) Guineveres Folly GSP-GB Sheshoon (GB) Sassalya (GB) Sassafras (Fr) 7Fls, 1GSW Wnr Ruta (Fr) 16Fls, 2GSW, *Valya Vandale (Fr) 2SW, 3GSP, 1SP 8Fls, 1GSW, 1SW, 1SP Lilya (Fr) www.coolmore.com Pedigree Insights cont. However, there are a couple of notable exceptions among these winners. The Breeders= Cup Filly and Mare As Oasis Dream was a champion two-year-old who Turf winner Midday and the G2 Great Voltigeur S. went on to become champion sprinter, anyone could be winner Monitor Closely are, respectively, out of mares forgiven for expecting speed and precocity to be his by the top milers Kingmambo and Selkirk. The fact that progeny=s main assets. While he has certainly proved Monitor Closely=s next two dams are daughters of Forty highly effective in passing on these qualities, with as Niner and Green Desert suggests that the stamina in many as 38 individual the bottom half of Oasis Dream=s pedigree can juvenile winners in a occasionally be the dominant force. single crop, he has proved It is Tuscan Evening who is out of a mare by Suave to be much more than Dancer. This outstanding son of Green Dancer was only just a very effective sire 10 when he was killed by lightning in Australia on of two-year-olds. Christmas Eve, 1998. He had already fallen out of favor Indeed, he is proving with European breeders, but later salvaged his reputation to some extent through the Group 1 victories wonderfully versatile, of Compton Admiral, Execute and Volvoreta. siring winners over a wide Tuscan Evening=s dam The Faraway Tree didn=t have range of distances in a a great deal to show for the level of form she showed wide range of countries as a three-year-old, when Timeform rated her 113. Tuscan Evening Benoit photo on a wide range of Although she failed to become a stakes winner, The ground conditions. He is Faraway Tree was beaten only a neck in the G3 Park even currently leading the Anglo-Irish list of sires of Hill S. over a distance in excess of 1 3/4 miles. all-weather performers for the 2009/2010 season. Oasis Dream seems to be well suited by staying One aspect of his record that I find especially mares from the Nijinsky sire line. He also sired Visit, pleasing is the way that many of Oasis Dream=s who twice went close to winning at Grade I level in progeny maintain their form. As many as seven California, from a good stayer by Kahyasi and his members of his first crop scored at stakes level last Group 3 winner Lady Jane Digby is out of a Niniski year as four-year-olds, and at least eight members of mare. One of his latest stakes winners, the three-year- this crop have already won this year, with Tuscan old French mile-and-a-quarter winner Sandbar, is out of Evening leading the way. a mare by Niniski=s son Hernando, while the useful When this admirable mare took the GII Santa Barbara Oasis Knight, who stays two miles, is out of a mare by H. three days ago, she became Oasis Dream=s sixth Nijinsky=s grandson Generous. individual group/graded winner over a distance of a mile The idea of sending The Faraway Tree to Oasis and a quarter or more. Tuscan Evening has now scored Dream probably owed something to the 2001 Classic six graded successes over 6 1/2, eight, nine and 10 success of Rose Gypsy, who was sired by Green Desert furlongs, but even without her help Oasis Dream would from The Faraway Tree=s half-sister Krisalya. Rose have sired a mature group winner (i.e. above the age of Gypsy=s French 1000 Guineas success probably also two) over every distance from five furlongs to a mile encouraged the idea of sending Rose Gypsy=s relative and a half. Crystal Star to the miler Cape Cross, another son of It isn=t too hard to identify why Oasis Dream is able Green Desert. This mating resulted in Crystal Capella, to sire such a variety of stakes winners. Although his who stayed well enough to become a group winner racing career mirrored that of his sire, the fast and over a mile and a half. This is a highly successful family, and Tuscan precocious Green Desert, the bottom half of his Evening=s second dam, Sassalya, proved an outstanding pedigree is packed with stamina. His dam Hope was a servant to the Oppenheimer family=s Hascombe and sister to Wemyss Bight, winner of the Irish Oaks, and Valiant Studs. She produced no fewer than eight foals his first three dams were by Dancing Brave, Mill Reef that earned Timeform ratings in excess of 100, with and Busted, three exceptional racehorses who five rated higher than 110. The best of them were numbered the mile-and-a-half King George VI and Sasuru (G1 Prix d=Ispahan) and Sally Rous (G2 Queen Elizabeth S. among their triumphs. Oasis Challenge S.). Dream=s second dam Bahamian and third dam Sorbus Tuscan Evening has now raced 25 times. She doesn=t both possessed enough stamina to shine over 1 3/4 owe her toughness just to Oasis Dream. Her second miles or more. dam Sassalya was a half-sister to Lafontaine, a horse I thought it likely that Oasis Dream would normally who proved his toughness time and again in the early need to be mated to a mare with plenty of stamina in 1980s. As a four-year-old Lafontaine was asked to race her make-up for this stamina in his pedigree to no fewer than 20 times and kept his form so well that dominate his speed. Sure enough, the broodmare sires he recorded his fourth win of the season in the William of four of his group winners over a mile and a quarter Hill November H. on his final start. It was a similar story or more are Niniski (Irish and French St Legers), the following year, when Lafontaine raced 13 times and Acatenango (Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud), In the Wings scored his best win in the last of them, the G3 (Breeders= Cup Turf, Coronation Cup, etc.) and Suave Cumberland Lodge S. Lafontaine retired as a veteran of Dancer (Prix du Jockey-Club and Arc). 54 races, and his toughness helped him sire the Grand National winner Papillon. Tuscan Evening=s third dam, Valya, won the Prix de Minerve while the next dam, Lilya, was one of the best three-year-old fillies in France in 1958, when she won the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp over a mile. Lilya=s Group 1-winning descendants include the Derby winner Kris Kin and the big-earning international performers Luso and Warrsan. All of which makes one wonder how Tuscan Evening was ignored to such an extent at the 2006 yearling sales that she made only 4,500gns..