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51.
Breeding industry
mourns the death of Danehill
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15/05/2003 |
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The
Australian breeding industry lost a great friend following the death of Danehill
at the age of 17 at Coolmore Stud, Ireland on Tuesday.
The Group 1 winning son of Danzig revolutionized the Australian breeding
industry in the twelve seasons he shuttled from Ireland, firstly to Arrowfield
Stud and later to Coolmore Stud.
Just two days prior to his death Danehill’s sons Clodovil and Catcher In The
Rye fought out the finish of the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (G1) (French 2000
Guineas).
Aushorse secretary and award winning journalist Bronwyn Farr pays tribute to the
beautifully natured bay who looks certain to claim his seventh Australian sires
title this season.
DANEHILL
(USA) 1986-1993
The
Australian thoroughbred industry’s renowned in-house annual shindig at Scone
in the NSW Hunter Valley tonight promises to be a sombre affair as a close-knit
bloodstock community comes to terms with the news that Danehill, the stallion
single-handledly responsible for catapulting Australia on to a global stage, is
dead.
Certainly, Danehill was already lost to Australian breeders, with 116
Australian-bred weanlings his final crop, and some 40 mares covered in Ireland
to southern hemisphere time in 2002 now carrying his foals. He did not really
belong to us, in the end, but Australia created the Danehill phenomenon that has
resulted in 49 Group One winners globally, and we claimed him as our own as
surely as he remoulded the shape of our industry.
Danehill stood in Australia from 1990 to 2001, and 36 of his Group One winners
carry an (Aus) suffix; he has had 610 starters for 448 winners and 108 stakes
winners here to date.
He stood in 1990 at Arrowfield at a fee of A$37,500 with John Messara’s
Arrowfield Stud owning 23.5 of Danehill’s 40 shares; Coolmore owned 13.5 per
cent, with the latter initially swapping A$9.1 million and a 19.9 per cent share
in Arrowfield Group for the Jerry’s Plains farm on which Arrowfield was then
located, with Arrowfield leasing the farm back. During Danehill’s fourth
season in Australia, the relationship between Arrowfield and Coolmore soured
when Messara declared Danehill needed to rest from dual hemisphere duties; the
battle reached a climax with a private auction, with both parties presenting
intermediary Sir Laurence Street with sealed envelopes containing bids, a
process that was repeated 27 times before Coolmore was declared victor.
Hence Danehill was the flagship stallion for Coolmore’s opulent and permanent
new Antipodean base, while Arrowfield set about creating an equally magnificent
new farm in the nearby Segenhoe Valley, with Messara rapidly acquiring
Danehill’s best Australian sire sons including homebreds Flying Spur and
Danzero.
History will show that Arrowfield unearthed Danehill and sent him skywards –
more than half the 72 mares he covered in his inaugural season were Arrowfield
mares. In recent years, Danehill has been eclipsed in the sale ring by
Arrowfield’s Sunday Silence yearling sensation, but for Messara, the victory
is probably a pyrrhic one.
Danehill accounted for 23.6 per cent of the Inglis Easter yearling sale gross of
A$55,153,000 with 38 yearlings sold at an average $A342,500; 14 of the top 20
lots were by Danehill and the pattern has been the same for the past five years.
Australians believe that Danehill was overlooked in Europe until his southern
hemisphere results were impossible to ignore, and given the opportunity, he has
produced horses of the ilk of Rock of Gilbraltar and Aquarelliste.
Danehill’s first Australian crop produced the first of his five Slipper
winners in Danzero, a A$55,000 yearling purchase, as well as four time Group One
winner Danewin and outstanding broodmare Joie Denise.
Golden Slipper victor Flying Spur, a A$160,000 yearling, and AJC Derby winner
Nothin’ Leica Dane were second crop luminaries and Danehill’s third crop
yielded Golden Slipper winner Merlene and multiple Group One winner Dane Ripper.
Australia’s 2003 stallion line-up is still taking shape but Danehill sire sons
will dominate with Coolmore putting its considerable weight behind Rock of
Gibraltar. Freshmen Catbird and Redoute’s Choice enjoyed excellent sale
results in a tottering 2003 marketplace.
Immaculately-bred
Flying Spur is a work in progress, and Danehill has a classy crop of rising
three-year-old colts including stakes winners Exceed and Excel and Danbird, and
stakes placed Untouchable.
In the end, Danehill’s value was such that he was out of Australia’s reach,
but our racing and our breeding will be permeated with Danehill’s name for
some time to come.
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