Andrew Caulfield, October 9, 2012-Solemia Sadler=s Wells=s sons and daughters have kept up the PEDIGREE INSIGHTS good work. Montjeu sired the 2005 winner Hurricane B Y A N D R E W C A U L F I E L D Run, with this victory being sandwiched between two triumphs for Sadler=s Wells=s broodmare daughters. QATAR PRIX DE L=ARC DE TRIOMPHE-G1, Thawakib became the dam of Sakhee, an impressive i4,000,000, Longchamp, 10-7, 3yo/up, c/f, 1 1/2mT, winner in 2001, and the unraced Soviet Moon helped 2:37.68, hy. thwart another bold Japanese bid when her son 1--sSOLEMIA (IRE), 128, f, 4, by Poliglote (GB) Workforce edged out Nakayama Festa in 2010. 1st Dam: Brooklyn=s Dance (Fr) (GSW-Fr), And now history has repeated itself, with the by Shirley Heights (GB) Japanese champion Orfevre being worn down by 2nd Dam: Vallee Dansante, by Lyphard Solemia, a courageous daughter of the Sadler=s Wells 3rd Dam: Green Valley II (Fr), by Val de Loir (Fr) stallion Poliglote. In other words the Sadler=s Wells clan O/B-Wertheimer & Frere; T-Carlos Laffon-Parias; has proved a sizeable hindrance to Japan=s Arc J-Olivier Peslier; i2,285,600. Lifetime Record: ambitions, being involved in each of the three occasions 13 starts, 5 wins, 7 places, i2,542,155. *1/2 to when the Japanese have finished a close second. Prospect Park (GB) (Sadler's Wells), MGSW & For the record, Sadler=s Wells=s brother Fairy King also G1SP-Fr, MGSP-US, $617,510; Prospect Wells (Fr) sired an Arc winner (Helissio in 1996), as did their (Sadler's Wells), GSW & G1SP-Fr, SW-Eng, three-parts brother Nureyev (Peintre Celebre in 1997). $400,185; Gold Dodger (Slew O' Gold), SW-Fr; And Youmzain, the frustrating character who finished Brooklyn's Gold (Seeking the Gold), SW-Fr & SP-Eng- second in three consecutive Arcs, is another out of a stp; Never Green (Ire) (Halling), SW-Fr. Werk Nick Sadler=s Wells mare. Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the Remarkably, it was Solemia=s Arc which provided eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Poliglote with his first Group 1 success as a stallion in Click for the Racing Post chart, the AmWest PPs or the the Northern Hemisphere. He has generally slipped free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Click for under the radar at Haras d=Etreham, but his success in Equidia video. several spheres caught my eye sufficiently for me to As the connections of Camelot were reminded, the write about him in the June 2010 issue of Arc can be one race too many at the end of a Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder. demanding season, especially when the ground is very AWhen one thinks about Sadler=s Wells= successful testing. The Coolmore camp had been reminded of this stallion sons,@ I wrote, Athe names of Montjeu, Galileo, as long ago as 1984, when the admirably consistent El Prado, High Chaparral and Barathea are generally Sadler=s Wells--tackling his seventh consecutive Group among the first to spring to mind. But spare a thought 1--could finish only a moderate eighth to Sagace on for Poliglote, who has been plying his trade at Haras heavy ground. d=Etreham since 1998. The intervening years have seen Sadler=s Wells make APoliglote was bred well enough for anything, his dam ample amends for that below-par Arc effort. He being the very successful broodmare Alexandrie. He supplied two Arc winners in Carnegie and Montjeu, lived up to his illustrious bloodlines by winning the G1 with Montjeu just managing to wear down the gallant Criterium de Saint-Cloud at two and the G2 Grand Prix Japanese raider El Condor Pasa in an epic 1999 race. d=Evry at four, as well as by finishing second in Celtic Coincidentally, El Condor Pasa was out of a Sadler=s Swing=s G1 Prix du Jockey-Club. However, he started Wells mare. Another of Sadler=s Wells=s daughters, out at only 35,000 francs, having failed to win in his Leggera, had been beaten only a neck in the previous last season on the track, in a career spent principally year=s Arc. over the unfashionable distance of a mile and a half.@ SOLEMIA (IRE), f, 2008 To paraphrase the rest of the article, I pointed out that Poliglote had been enjoying a variety of success, Nearctic Northern Dancer notably with his French-bred jumpers. He had ended Natalma Sadler’s Wells 2009 as France=s leading living sire of jumpers and, Bold Reason Fairy Bridge after the article appeared, he went on to become Special Poliglote (GB) France=s champion sire of jumpers in 2010. We now Val de Loir Val de L’orne (Fr) have the remarkable situation of Poliglote currently Aglae (Fr) Alexandrie holding top place on both the flat and jumping sectors Sir Gaylord Apachee (Fr) of French racing. Americaine (GB) Although Solemia is one of only three Northern Never Bend Mill Reef Hemisphere-born group winners on the flat for Milan Mill Shirley Heights (GB) Poliglote, it was a different story when Poliglote was Brooklyn’s Dance Hardicanute (GB) Hardiemma (GB) shuttled to Argentina. He sired seven Group 1 winners (Fr) Grand Cross (GB) GSW-Fr, 8-3-1-0 there, including a very good filly called Kalath Wells, Northern Dancer 13Fls, 3GSW, Vallee Dansante Lyphard who became his second winner of the Argentine Oaks, 3SW 4-1-0-1, $12,265 Goofed the Premio Seleccion. Cacht Wells, one of these 12Fls, 1GSW Green Valley II Val de Loir Argentine Group 1 winners, became a Grade II winner 1SW 15Fls, 3GSW, 3SW Sly Pola in the U.S. Caulfield cont. Solemia represents another major triumph for the Montjeu also sired a major winner from Solemia=s Wertheimer brothers= first-rate breeding operation. It is female line. Mated to Funsie, a half-sister to Brooklyn=s appropriate that the brothers= first Arc victory should Dance, the resultant colt was Authorized, winner of the come with a filly, as their father Jacques owed his Arc Derby and Juddmonte International before disappointing victories to those outstanding fillies Ivanjica and Gold as favorite for the 2007 Arc. This outstanding female River. Solemia=s victory must have been all the more line, tracing to Sly Pola, has also hit the Group 1 target satisfying because both her parents, Poliglote and the in recent years with Makfi, Alhaarth, Quijano, Group 3 winner Brooklyn=s Dance, were bred by the Okawango and Porlezza, so it is still very much alive. Wertheimer family. For good measure, Poliglote=s dam Alexandrie was bred by Jacques Wertheimer, as was Brooklyn=s Dance=s dam Vallee Dansante, a three-parts sister to Nijinsky=s Classic-winning son Green Dancer. Vallee Dansante=s sire, the excellent Lyphard, also carried the famous blue and white colors, which in 1972 belonged to Mme Pierre Wertheimer, the grandmother of Solemia=s owners. There are a couple of notable features to Solemia=s pedigree. Firstly, she is inbred 4x4 to Val de Loir, an outstanding French stallion who finished a good third in the 1962 Arc, having earlier won the Prix du Jockey-Club. Val de Loir left a string of top performers over a mile and a half or more, including the Classic winners Val de L=Orne, La Lagune and Lagunette, the Arc second Comtesse de Loire and the Grand Prix de Paris winners Tennyson and Chaparral. At the time, it seemed that Val de Lolir would have a long-lasting impact but, like so many of the important European stallions, his name quickly faded in the onslaught of North American-bred stallions, led by Northern Dancer. Appropriately, Solemia is also inbred 3x4 to Northern Dancer. The other notable aspect is that Solemia is yet another top-class representative of the legendary Sadler=s Wells-Shirley Heights cross. Sadler=s Wells=s 112 foals out of Shirley Heights mares contained 12.5% group winners, headed by those outstanding performers In The Wings and Alexandrova. Among their 14 group winners were Brooklyn=s Dance=s sons Prospect Wells and Prospect Park, who were, respectively, second in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris and G1 Prix du Jockey-Club. Of course the nick gained further advocates when Sadler=s Wells did so brilliantly well with mares by Shirley Heights= son Darshaan, with this partnership being responsible for 20 group winners, headed by eight Group 1 winners. This extraordinary record guaranteed that plenty of Sadler=s Wells=s sons--nearly 50 of them--were also tried with Shirley Heights mares. While they failed to match their sire=s spectacular percentages, they have had their moments. Poliglote is the fourth of them to sire a Group 1 winner, his predecessors being Montjeu (Fame and Glory and Montare), Galileo (Sans Frontieres) and Barathea (Magical Romance). Fame and Glory, Montare and Sans Frontieres all won Group 1 races over distances of at least a mile and three-quarters, so it is hardly surprising that Solemia=s stamina (and determination) proved the decisive factor at Longchamp..