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13.
Widden Stud - The House Of Danzig
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01/07/2002 |
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As breeders come to terms with the fact that champion stallion Danehill will not be returning to Australia, they will not have to look far to access the blood of the influential sire of sires, Danzig. Widden Stud built an unequalled reputation in the latter part of the twentieth century on the back of champion colonial stallions, Bletchingly, Marscay and Vain. Australian-bred stallions still feature strongly on the current Widden roster, with Filante, Intergaze and Danehill’s son Shovhog proving immensely popular.
But as Brian Russell reports the historic stud located in the Widden Valley in the western Hunter region is at the dawn of a new era as it has become one of the world’s bastions of the Danzig sire dynasty with four of his best sons on their dual hemisphere sire visiting list.
BELONG TO ME
Two of these, Anabaa and Belong to Me, are already sires of Group One winners in the northern hemisphere and also have had early success in Australia including stakes winners, while the others, the Group One winners Agnes World and Mujahid, were only put to stud last year.
Belong to Me, a winner of seven sprints from16 outings in America, has got off to a flying start in Australia with his first crop of two-year-olds in the current season through to the end of June including eight individual winners. They appeal as tough, sound, tenacious horses and like his American stock should include top three-year-olds. In America Belong to Me had had 34 stakes horses in his first four crops through to the end of 2001 including Group One winners Jersey Girl - challenged as the best three-year-old filly of 1998 - Circle of Life and Lucky Roberto.
Three years younger Anabaa stands the northern hemisphere seasons in France and has quickly stamped himself as the world’s best young Danzig sire with his oldest current four-year-olds. His quality as a sire in Europe has been shown up in recent weeks by the success in France of Rouvres (won the Group One Prix Jean Prat) and Anabaa Blue (successful in the Group Two Grand Prix de Chantilly).
Anabaa Blue was rated one of the best two three-year-old colts in France last year, one in which he took out their Derby. That success gave the Australian used Danzig sires the French Oaks-Derby double as Danehill’s daughter Aquarelliste annexed the fillies’ classic.
Anabaa had got off to an impressive start in Europe the previous year, taking out the French champion juvenile sire title with ten winners including Group One winner Amonita. She was rated their best two-year-old filly. He also quickly made his presence felt as a quality sire in Australia with his first crop of two-year-olds racing in 2000-01 comprising ten individual winners. One of these, Donna Natalia, exploded into the limelight with a 5 3/4 lengths win in race record time in the Gimcrack Stakes at Randwick.
Anabaa has continued to show up here with his oldest three-year-olds in 2001-01supplying some 30 winners of 50 races and in excess of $1.1million to the end of June. The period saw him with the highest percentage of winners to runners of any of the sires in the leading 50 on the Australian sires list.
Anabaa’s success is not surprising as he is one of the best European sprinters used in Australia. In fact he challenged as the best sprinter in the world in1996, a year in which he went within a neck of winning all his six outings. He was successful in the first five of them including Group One races in France and England and then finished second as an odds-on favourite in Europe’s premier sprint, the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, after being slowly away.
Widden’s other two Danzig visitors, Mujahid and Agnes World, were also Group One winners in Europe. Mujahid won three of four starts at two, a year he was named the best of the age group in England, and like Danehill finished third in the English Two Thousand Guineas at three, while Japanese owned and trained Agnes World won two Group One sprints in Europe including the Prix de l’Abbaye. He also won races in Japan where he set their national 1200 metre record.
By: Mark Smith
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