Andrew Caulfield, July 18, 2006–Rail Link (GB) P EDIGREE INSIGHTS BY ANDREW CAULFIELD JUDDMONTE GRAND PRIX DE PARIS-G1, i500,000, Longchamp, 7-14, 3yo, c/f, 1 1/2mT, 2:26.40, gd. 1--sRAIL LINK (GB), 128, c, 3, by Dansili (GB) 1st Dam: Docklands, by Theatrical (Ire) 2nd Dam: Dockage, by Riverman 3rd Dam: Golden Alibi, by Empery O-Khalid Abdullah; B-Juddmonte Farms; T-Andre Fabre; J-Christophe Soumillon; i285,700. Lifetime Record: 5 starts, 3 wins, 1 place, i341,800. *1/2 to Chelsea Manor (GB) (Grand Lodge), GSW & MG1SP-Fr, $134,685. Click for the Racing Post chart or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. No doubt there are plenty of breeders in Kentucky who would rather not think back to the comparatively dark days of 1988, when the bloodstock market continued to fall from the ridiculous heights it achieved four years earlier. Dispersal sales became all too common an occurrence and 1988 kicked off with the dispersal of Nelson Bunker Hunt=s huge racing empire, which had earned him three Eclipse Awards for leading breeder. No fewer than 580 Hunt horses sold at Keeneland in January, including 281 mares which sold for a total of $27,562,811. Among those mares was the great Dahlia. Although she had just turned 18 and was barren, this brilliant daughter of Vaguely Noble and Charming Alibi drew a bid of $1,100,000 from Allen Paulson, for whom she went on to produce the Grade I-winning Dahlia=s Dreamer and the Grade II winner Llandaff. Tough enough to race 48 times from two to six, Dahlia had been talented enough to win 10 Group 1 races during her dazzling career. Anyone who expected her exertions on the racecourse to compromise her broodmare career was in for a shock. Unlike her contemporary Allez France, who produced only five foals, Dahlia produced 13 live foals (the last at the age of 26) and as many as six of them became graded winners, including the Grade I scorers Dahar, Rivlia, Delegant and Dahlia=s Dreamer. Dahlia=s yearling filly by Northern Dancer followed her into the ring, where she attracted a bid of $1,300,000 from Sheikh Mohammed. Named Wajd, she became a Group 2 winner before producing the G1 St Leger hero Nedawi. This family continues to come up with the goods and Golden Alibi, a three-parts sister to Dahlia by Vaguely Noble=s Derby-winning son Empery, is the third dam of two fairly recent Group 1 winners in France. The first, Linda=s Lad, took the 2005 Criterium de Saint-Cloud and then, four days ago, the Grand Prix de Paris was won in very encouraging style by Rail Link, a highly progressive son of Dansili. www.coolmore.com It makes a very interesting exercise to re-read Kent I don=t know whether it is just coincidence, but the Hollingsworth=s foreword to the Nelson Bunker Hunt Newsells Park broodmare band contains at least three dispersal catalogue. descendants of Charming Alibi, including Dahlia=s AThis extraordinary succession of international Krissy, a stakes-placed granddaughter of Dahlia, and triumphs resulted from deliberate implementation some Diamond White, an exceptionally tough winner of the 15 years earlier of a specific breeding theory,@ he G2 Prix de l=Opera whose second dam, Wedding, was a wrote. AThe theory, as articulated and advocated by half-sister to Dahlia. Joe Estes, was that breeding race horses was a matter Of course, there are still plenty of breeders who of probabilities and that the chance of breeding a good would rather buy an ordinary racemare from a top horse was more probable with a good race mare, family, in the hope of resurrecting the ability which irrespective of her pedigree, than from a mare with a made the family so fashionable. good pedigree but poor race record.@ As I said, Golden Alibi never raced, so wasn=t able to In his notes on Dahlia, Hollingsworth explained, AIn show whether she possessed any of the talent which keeping with his practice of adding good race mares, made Dahlia so special. Golden Alibi proved to be an irrespective of their pedigrees, to irregular producer, but she did leave a sizeable legacy in his broodmare band, Hunt paid the shape of her Riverman filly Dockage. A very useful $80,000 at the 1969 Keeneland Listed winner over 1 1/8 miles in France, Dockage was January sale for Charming Alibi. very closely related to Dahlia=s Riverman colt Rivlia, a She was a six-year-old empty Grade I winner on turf from 1 1/4 miles to 1 3/4 miles mare by an ordinary stallion, in California. Honeys Alibi, out of an unraced Dockage started her broodmare career in fine style, her first three foals being Rail Link s dam Docklands, Hierocles mare. Charming Alibi = the G3 July S. winner Wharf and Linda s Lad s dam Dahlia The Blood Horse had run 71 times in four racing = = Colza. seasons, had won four stakes in Dockland=s shared the same sire, Theatrical, as Detroit, and had earned $110,483. Hunt bred her to Dahlia=s Grade I-winning daughter Dahlia=s Dreamer and, Vaguely Noble, and Charming Alibi=s first foal was like Dahlia=s Dreamer, took time to flourish. However, Dahlia, which was to earn a record $1,535,443. @ Docklands made up for lost time by winning five of her When Charming Alibi was bred to Secretariat in his 10 starts as a four-year-old. first season, she produced a colt--Canadian Bound--who Docklands was a natural choice to send to Dansili in raised the record price for a yearling to $1,500,000 in his second season in 2002, as she had already done 1976. Golden Alibi also sold well, making $1,100,000 very well with another grandson of Danzig. A visit to as a yearling in 1979, but she never raced. Grand Lodge had resulted in her smart son Chelsea I was reminded of this Estes theory by last week=s Manor, winner of the G3 La Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte stakes victories by two colts who now rank among the over 1 1/4 miles at three and third twice at Group 1 leading contenders for the St Leger. Both these colts-- level at four. Soapy Danger and Linas Selection--were bred by the Rail Link=s triumph at Longchamp was just one of Jacobs= Newsells Park Stud. My impression of the numerous victories by Dansili=s progeny last week. It stud=s purchasing policy is that it is geared much more was only a few weeks ago that I pointed out that to acquiring stakes-winning mares, rather than Dansili=s sire Danehill was capable of getting important ultra-fashionable bloodlines. Indeed, the Newsells winners over all sorts of distances, and Dansili is website states, AWe have invested in supreme following his example. His two-year-old son Strategic performing mares on the racetrack and chosen the most Prince produced an impressive finishing burst to win the suitable premier league stallions worldwide.@ G2 July S. over six furlongs earlier in the week and Although there are plenty of fashionably bred mares Dansili is also sire of Price Tag, a filly who was unlucky among the Newsells Park broodmare band, the quest to be demoted after winning the G1 French 1000 for stakes-winning mares has also led to the acquisition Guineas. of daughters of such as Bartok, Bates Motel, Distinctly There are currently 19 runners by Dansili with Racing North, Emperor Jones, Half A Year, Line in the Sand, Mi Post ratings of at least 92, with 10 of them rated 100 Cielo, Mountain Cat, Roanoke, Septieme Ciel, Sharp or more, and these 19 are likely to be joined before too Victor, Stack, Take Risks, Travelling Victor and Yachtie. long by several of Dansili=s promising third-crop The Mi Cielo mare, the CCA Oaks winner On A juveniles. His sons Thousand Words and Codeword Soapbox, is doing very well with her Danzig colt Soapy both showed considerable potential in winning over six Danger, who has added the G2 Princess of Wales=s S. furlongs on their respective debuts, and his daughter to his earlier success in the G3 Queen=s Vase. The Line Supposition earned a Group 1 entry with her close in the Sand mare, the Grade III-winning Lines of Beauty, second to an Aidan O=Brien hotpot on her first also enjoyed stakes success for Mrs. Jacobs when appearance. Vasilia and Alexander Goldmine, two Linas Selection scored for the fourth time in his last five unraced two-year-old fillies by Dansili, also hold Group starts. 1 engagements, so they too should be names to remember. RAIL LINK, c, 2003 Northern Dancer Danzig Pas de Nom Danehill His Majesty Razyana Spring Adieu Dansili (GB) Ile de Bourbon Kahyasi (Ire) Kadissya Hasili (Ire) High Line (GB) Kerali (GB) Sookera Northern Dancer Nureyev Special Theatrical (Ire) Tree of Knowledge Sassafras (Fr) Docklands (Ire) Sensibility Wnr Never Bend 10Fls, 2GSW Dockage Riverman SW River Lady 16Fls, 1GSW Golden Alibi Empery 1SW 6Fls, 1SW Charming Alibi.