Andrew Caulfield, March 2, 2004–Lucifer’s Stone P EDIGREE INSIGHTS Claiborne Farm so famous. His predecessors include the sires III, , Ambiorix, BY ANDREW CAULFIELD and . Back in 1972, the stallion roster at Claiborne included Saturday, Gulfstream Park as many as seven foreign horses, imported from four HERECOMESTHEBRIDE S.-GIII, $100,000, GPX, 2-28, different countries--Herbager and Le Fabuleux from 3yo, f, 1 1/8mT, 1:52 3/5, fm. France, Pago Pago and Sky High II from , 1--@#LUCIFER'S STONE, 117, f, 3, by Horse Chestnut (SAf) and Pronto from Argentina and Hawaii from South 1st Dam: Ladue, by Demons Begone Africa. Times have changed, though, and the fact that 2nd Dam: Breathless Charm, by Horse Chestnut is the only import among the current 3rd Dam: Marshesseaux, by Dr. Blum Claiborne stallions no doubt reflects the wary approach ($50,000 yrl '02 KEESEP; $150,000 2yo 2003 many American breeders now adopt towards imported FTFFEB). O-Team Solaris Stable; B-Mega Stable (KY); horses of unfamiliar bloodlines. T-Linda Rice; J-J A Santos; $60,000. Lifetime Not that breeders have been very wary of Horse Record: 6-3-1-1, $129,244. *First stakes winner for Chestnut: they sent him 88 mares in his second season sire (by Fort Wood). and 93 in his third. The son of Fort Wood managed to Click for the brisnet.com chart or the free brisnet.com cover 69 mares last year, even though he had to catalogue-style pedigree. undergo colic surgery at a busy part of the season. His comparatively small first crop--39 live foals from 60 When it comes to equine Oscars, there is absolutely mares--was a result of his being forced into premature no doubt as to who is the Lord of the Rings among retirement by injuries suffered in a workout on Jan. 22, Europe's stallions. Sadler's Wells has proved even more 2000. The timing of that injury was most unfortunate, dominant than Peter Jackson's Return of the King, with coming just a couple of weeks after Horse Chestnut's its 11 awards, and last year saw the now-23-year-old highly promising American debut in the GIII Broward H. stallion sweep to his 12th consecutive sires' Making his first start on a dirt track, Horse Chestnut championship (and his 13th in all). drew away to win by five and a half lengths, in a style Naturally, as an enormous fan of the Coolmore which suggested he would be a major player in the GI superstar, I am delighted that his descendants have Donn H. His Broward win was his ninth from 10 starts been busily making their mark in North America in recent weeks. The last day of January saw Red Rioja, a and increased his winning sequence to eight. His filly by Sadler's Wells' Irish-based son King's Theatre, American win also laid the base for comparisons with win the GIII Brown Bess H. Then, during February, his Claiborne's previous South African star, Hawaii, who son El Prado--North America's champion sire of 2002-- arrived in the USA as a winner of 15 of his 18 starts in landed the GIII Palm Beach S. with Kitten's Joy and the his home country. Hawaii then established himself as GI Donn H. with the redoubtable Medaglia d'Oro. North America's champion turf horse, thanks to his Another of Sadler's Wells' sons, the French Group 2 total of five stakes wins in 1969 which included the winner Royal Solo, supplied Binya, winner of the GIII United Nations H. and Man o'War S. The Very One H. on Saturday, the same day that Although Horse Chestnut didn't match Hawaii's feat Sadler's Wells' grandson Horse Chestnut enjoyed his of becoming a champion at two, both headed their first stakes success, thanks to Lucifer's Stone in the generation at three, when they both won the G1 Cape GIII Herecomethebride S. (Binya, incidentally, was Guineas over a mile. Horse Chestnut also gained Group produced when her dam, Beaconaire, was 25 years old, 1 wins over nine, 10 and 12.2 furlongs, even though he which represents quite an achievement on the mare's had been fast enough to score over five furlongs at two behalf.) and to win a stakes race over 6.5 furlongs at three. Horse Chestnut, of course, is the latest in a long line Hawaii sired some good winners in the States, such of foreign-bred stallions which have helped make as Island Charm, Kamehameha, Qualique, Kilauea and

www.coolmore.com Sun and Snow, but the race which best highlighted his merit as a sire was the Derby at Epsom. After his sons Hunza Dancer and Hawaiian Sound had, respectively, finished third and a very close second in 1975 and 1978, Hawaii supplied the winner in 1980, when Henbit was triumphant. It would come as no surprise if Horse Chestnut too were to enjoy plenty of success in Europe. His first-crop juvenile runners in Britain last year included the winners Chester Le Street, who failed by only a head to win the G3 Superlative S. last July, and Aesculus, plus a colt who was second on his last appearance. Demi O'Byrne also seems to have faith in Horse Chestnut, having paid $500,000 for one of his sons at the OBS Calder Sale in February after the colt had worked an eighth in :10 1/5. He described the colt as "very mature and very fast," adding that he has a lovely action and balance. All being well, the youngster should soon be showing exactly what Horse Chestnut is capable of. There hasn't been too much evidence available to American breeders up to now, with five of his 19 first-crop two-year-old runners having raced in Britain. The small American sample includes the stakes-placed performers Tabacchi and Yingyingying and the very progressive Lucifer's Stone, whose record now stands at three wins from six starts. Lucifer's Stone has already shown she stays at least a mile and an eighth and she could conceivably stay a bit further. Her broodmare sire, Demons Begone, started favorite for the 1987 , only to bleed badly, and comes from the family responsible for a Preakness winner in Pine Bluff and a Kentucky Derby hero in Fusaichi Pegasus. Interestingly, the filly's second dam, Breathless Charm, is by Miswaki, who is the broodmare sire of three Group 1 winners by none other than Sadler's Wells, including the Derby-winning . Breathless Charm is in turn a half-sister to ill-fated champion Left Bank, the versatile French Deputy colt who put up such fine effort to defeat Street Cry and Lido Palace in the GI Whitney H. over a mile and an eighth.