Andrew Caulfield, June 22, 2004– (Ire) P EDIGREE INSIGHTS champion sire. However, his Group 2 victories with Punctilious and Five Dynasties weren’t enough to BY ANDREW CAULFIELD prevent his old rival from returning to his customary position at the top of the sires’ table. Incidentally, Five Tuesday, Royal Ascot Dynasties is out of a Sadler’s Wells mare and the great ST JAMES’S PALACE S.-G1, £241,200, Royal Ascot, stallion also made his presence felt through his son 6-15, 3yo, c, 1mT, 1:39.02, gd/fm. , sire of the impressive Queen Mary S. 1--sAZAMOUR (IRE), 126, c, 3, by Night Shift winner Damson, and his grandson Singspiel, who was 1st Dam: Asmara (SW-Ire), by responsible for Papineau, winner of the G1 Gold Cup. 2nd Dam: Anaza (Ire), by (GB) Sadler’s Wells wasn’t the only Coolmore-based son of 3rd Dam: Azaarika (Ire), by to hit the Group 1 target at the Royal O-H H The Aga Khan; B-H H The Aga Khan’s Studs meeting, as the veteran Night Shift landed the meeting’s SC; T-; J-; £139,896. first Group 1 contest, the St James’s Palace S. Lifetime Record: GSW & G1SP-Ire, 5-3-1-1, £290,573. Azamour is the latest in a very long line of major Click here for the brisnet.com pedigree winners bred by the Aga Khan, whose current stud For years now, one widely accepted theory has been book lists 236 broodmares. It is interesting that none of that Sadler’s Wells’ progeny do not--repeat not--act on them was listed to visit an American-based stallion in 2003, a policy which I believe partly stems from the firm ground. Perhaps that will change now that the Aga’s concern about the use of drugs in racing, perennial champion sire has dominated a Royal Ascot especially in the U.S. “Racing is the window which meeting which started on good-to-firm ground and provides the evidence of a horse’s capability,” he told ended up on firm (or as jockey Steve Drowne colorfully me many years ago. “If that window is somehow put it: “It’s like a road--the only thing that’s missing is falsified, and the evidence no longer true, how do you the cat’s eyes.”). As many as 11 of Sadler’s Wells’ make valued judgements of the horse? You can’t.” representatives finished in the first four at the 30-race When the Aga did have broodmares in the U.S., they meeting. almost invariably visited stallions who had raced in Of course some Sadler’s Wells animals aren’t at their Europe and who had European bloodlines. A case in best when conditions are fast, but I have never been a point is Azamour’s second dam, the unbeaten Anaza, fully paid-up subscriber to the blanket theory that his who had the distinction of becoming the first of many progeny are best avoided on firm ground. For a start, stakes winners sired by the Aga’s excellent Darshaan. Sadler’s Wells acted on any going, including firm, as he Anaza, who won the Prix Herbager over 1 1/16 miles as showed with his victories in the Derrinstown Stud Derby a juvenile, started her broodmare career in Kentucky, Trial and the G1 Coral-Eclipse. There is also the record where she visited Shahrastani, Trempolino, Lear Fan, of his American-raced progeny to take into account. Alleged and Irish River before being returned to Europe. Surely, if his offspring are so unsuited to fast ground, Two of those matings resulted in stakes winners, with he would never have built up a total of 21 individual Alleged siring Astarabad, a French Derby third who later graded winners on turf in North America, including 12 took the G1 , and Lear Fan siring Azamour’s at Grade I level. Some of those Grade I winners, such as dam Asmara. Racing for John Oxx, Asmara won the Beat Hollow and Islington, actually preferred fast ground Listed Trigo S. over a 1 1/4 miles and she gave the and it clearly holds no fears for his Royal Ascot winners impression she would stay further (her disappointing Refuse To Bend, , Moscow Ballet or Double effort on her only attempt at 1 1/2 miles possibly owed Obsession. more to the ground than the distance). I speculated only a few weeks ago that Danehill might Azamour’s family was introduced to the Aga Khan’s be poised to end Sadler’s Wells’ very long reign as broodmare band in 1974 through the purchase of his fourth dam Arcana. Although Arcana failed to win, she

www.coolmore.com possessed a high-class middle-distance pedigree, being by the Washington D.C. International and Prix Ganay winner Diatome out of the classic-placed Dreida, who was runner-up in the . Perhaps the incentive to acquire Arcana was that her female line traced to Anne de Bretagne, a source of many good horses, including the top filly Roseliere. Arcana’s purchase didn’t provide any immediate dividends, as none of her four foals won a stakes race. Indeed her Ribero filly Azaarika (the third dam of Azamour) managed to win only when she was despatched to the minor provincial tracks of Vernon and Amiens as a four-year-old. As she was Arcana’s only daughter, she was retained. Azaarika won at up to 1 3/8 miles, so all of Azamour’s first three dams had middle-distance potential, which explains why the colt’s connections are so keen to step him up from a mile to a mile and a quarter. Night Shift has sired a wide variety of winners, including some very fast sprinters. His finest previous achievements, though, are arguably his daughters , who collected four Group 1 successes from a mile to a mile and a half, and , who won the and Prix Vermeille for the Aga Khan. Azamour is his third son to win a group event at the Royal Meeting, following Nicolotte (1995 Queen Anne S.) and Baron’s Pit (2002 Norfolk S.). Azamour ranks alongside Kitten’s Joy, D’Anjou and Policy Maker as one of four group winners out of Lear Fan mares this year. They follow last year’s Grade I winners Johar, Dessert, Volga and Vallee Enchantee, so Lear Fan is doing very well in this department. Two recurring themes among the good winners out of Lear Fan mares are the three-parts brothers Sadler’s Wells and Nureyev, with breeders opting to produce pedigrees containing Lt. Stevens and his sister Thong. The Aga Khan has tried this ploy with Asmara, sending her to Entrepreneur (sire of her seven-furlong winner Arawan) and (sire of her two-year-old colt). Although Azamour has no inbreeding in the first five generations of his pedigree, it’s a safe bet that breeders will be sending him mares from the Sadler’s Wells, Fairy King and Nureyev sire lines if he joins the impressive team of stallions at his owner’s Gilltown Stud.