Andrew Caulfield, October 3, 2006–Rail Link (GB) P EDIGREE INSIGHTS Rail Link=s excellent victory capped a rewarding week for Dansili, who had earlier notched his ninth stakes BY ANDREW CAULFIELD winner of the season when Thousand Words took the G3 Sunday, Longchamp, France Somerville Tattersall S. Those PRIX DE L'ARC DE TRIOMPHE LUCIEN BARRIERE-G1, nine stakes winners include i2,000,000, Longchamp, 10-1, 3yo/up, c/f, 1 1/2mT, Price Tag, who also crossed the 2:31.70, gd. line first in one of Longchamp=s 1--RAIL LINK (GB), 123, c, 3, by Dansili (GB) Group 1 contests, and the dual 1st Dam: Docklands, by Theatrical (Ire) Group 2 winner Strategic 2nd Dam: Dockage, by Riverman Prince, who is likely to step into 3rd Dam: Golden Alibi, by Empery Dansili Juddmonte.com Group 1 company in the O-Khalid Abdullah; B-Juddmonte Farms; T-A Fabre; Dewhurst S. This string of J-S Pasquier; i1,142,800. Lifetime Record: 7 starts, stakes successes is bound to benefit Dansili=s Grade I- 5 wins, 1 place, i1,558,700. *1/2 to Chelsea Manor winning brother Cacique when he too takes up stallion (GB) (Grand Lodge), GSW & MG1SP-Fr, $134,685. duties at Banstead Manor Stud, following his bid for the Breeders= Cup Turf. Click for the Racing Post chart or the free brisnet.com The prowess of Danehill=s stallion sons was also catalogue-style pedigree. For a race replay, click advertised by Danetime. Although he never won a broadband or modem. stakes race, this good sprinter has a fine crop of Anyone looking for pointers to the direction that the two-year-olds, including Vital Equine, who took third in thoroughbred world is taking could do worse than the Grand Criterium two days after Danetime=s daughter study the 11 Group races contested over the two days Dhanyata had gone close to winning the G1 Cheveley of the Arc de Triomphe meeting. Park S. Unfortunately, Danetime is no longer around to From an American viewpoint, the news wasn=t good. capitalise on this success. Only one of the 11 winners--Mr. Greeley=s impressive daughter Finsceal Beo--was conceived in the U.S.A. An RAIL LINK (GB), c, 2003 Northern Dancer explanation for this lopsided picture is that the Danzig Pas de Nom American industry isn=t as richly endowed in the Danzig Danehill His Majesty blood which is proving so ideally suited to European Razyana Spring Adieu conditions. Dansili (GB) Ile de Bourbon The breakdown of the 11 Group winners reveals that Kahyasi (Ire) Kadissya the Danzig male line supplied five of the meeting=s Hasili (Ire) High Line (GB) seven Group 1 winners. Predictably, Danehill once Kerali (GB) Sookera again played a leading role, with one son, Holy Roman Northern Dancer Emperor, taking the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (Grand Nureyev Special Criterium); and another son, Dansili, supplying the Theatrical (Ire) Docklands Tree of Sassafras (Fr) winner of the Arc, in Rail Link. This was the fourth time 11-5-1-1, Knowledge (Ire) Sensibility $28,656 that a son of Danehill had taken the Grand Criterium, Never Bend 10Fls, 1G1SW, Dockage Riverman but Rail Link=s Arc victory was a first for the Danehill 1GSW SW-Fr, $41,684 River Lady line (although Sinndar, the 2000 winner, was by 16Fls, 1GSW Golden Alibi Empery Danzig=s grandson Grand Lodge). 1SW 6Fls, 1SW Charming Alibi www.coolmore.com Danehill had to share center stage with another Even though none of his first four crops numbered as branch of the Danzig line-Bthe one descending from the many as 50 foals, Desert Style continued to prove to be top sprinter Green Desert. This veteran Shadwell capable of siring group winners. The speedy filly Jessica=s stallion provided one of the day=s biggest surprises Dream came from his second crop and his third contained when his son Desert Lord took the G1 Prix de l=Abbaye, Next Desert, winner of the German Derby in 2002. but Green Desert was overshadowed by his son Desert Desert Style=s potential was quickly noticed by the Style. This Morristown Lattin Stud stallion completed a Aga Khan=s team, who sent him a minor winner, tremendous Group 1 double via Caradak in the Prix de Caraiyma, in 2000 and another, Mandalara, in 2002. la Foret and Mandesha in the Prix de l=Opera. Remarkably both mares went on to produce Group 1 This has been a good year for Green Desert=s stallion winners. Desert Style has also been represented by the sons, as Cape Cross is again riding high on the back of Group 2 juvenile winners Cool Creek and Captain Group successes by Ouija Board, Halicarnassus and Hurricane, and he already has a pair of listed winners Rising Cross. Then there=s Invincible Spirit, the among his current crop of juveniles. This adds up to a outstanding first-crop stallion who has achieved an very impressive record for a stallion who was available impressive proportion of winners, including three stakes for i10,000 (,7,000) in 2006, and his price is surely winners. Now the attention will move on to Green set to rise for next year. Desert=s champion son Oasis Dream, whose first crop is strongly represented at this week=s October Yearling Sale. Predictably, the sire line which provided the Danzig team with the greatest competition was the one descending from Sadler=s Wells. His sons Galileo, Montjeu and In The Wings, respectively, were responsible for Group 2 winners Vendangeur, Montare and Soldier Hollow. Sadler=s Wells= three-parts-brother Nureyev also got into the act via his son King=s Signet, sire of the remarkable stayer Sergeant Cecil. This left only two group races for the Mr. Prospector line, which featured through his grandsons Mr. Greeley (Finsceal Beo) and Dubai Millennium (Echo of Light). The second generation of the 11 group winners provides a telling indication of how much times have changed in recent years. Every single one has a paternal grandsire which was born in the U.S.A. and eight of the 11 have broodmare sires which also carry the (USA) suffix after their name. In other words, the influx into Europe of the best American bloodlines in the 1970s and =80s has been put to such excellent use that Europe is now much more self-sufficient. With the advent of Polytrack, is the day going to come when American breeders need to embrace some of the male lines which have been developing so well in exile in Europe? Desert Style=s Group 1 Longchamp double deserves more than a passing mention. This well-bred stallion shares the same second dam, Canton Silk, as the accomplished Barathea, but whereas Barathea won the Irish 2000 Guineas and Breeders= Cup Mile, Desert Style won nothing more important than a trio of Group 3 contests. His performances were good enough, though, to earn him a rating of 120 on the 1995 International Classifications. This made him the highest-ranked three-year-old sprinter in Europe, some 7 lbs below the top older sprinter, Lake Coniston. His lack of a major success was reflected in his fee of only IR,3,000 at the start of his career, but Desert Style quickly overcame this handicap. His first crop produced two colts-BBachir and Cape TownB-which were well above average. Bachir pulled off a classic double in the French and Irish 2000 Guineas in 2000, with Cape Town taking third place in the Irish version. .