A $3,000 bargain filly has the Group III WATC WA Oaks in her sights .
The last time Perth training legend and WA Hall Of Fame inductee Neville Parnham saddled up a WATC Oaks winner it was 2003, when his fine filly Superior Star (Nothin’ Leica Dane) collected one of the last G2 editions of the Ascot fillies Classic before it became a G3 in 2005.
The Parnham trained fillies Yasmin Tudor and Meine Leibe had run third in 1996 and 1991 respectively, and in 2009 stable star Brava Fortune would again claim the minor money - but it is a $3,000 cheapie who finally looks to be the trainer’s best hope of bagging another Oaks.
Her name is Masmelo and the stable’s confidence will be riding high in no small part due to the fact she is a daughter of Maschino - who sired last season’s runaway Oaks / Derby heroine Machine Gun Gracie - and out of a mare by the VRC Derby winner Blackfriars.
Like Gracie, Masmelo has swept into Oaks contention with a dominant win in the traditional lead up, the Listed Natasha Stakes over 2200m. At her third run of the preparation, the athletic filly was primed to improve off her last start second to the hot Natasha favourite Wonderfully Made (Playing God) in the 1800m Ascot 1,000 Guineas, where she was eating up the ground in the run to the line.
Punters preferred to stick with the winner - but the Natasha Stakes was always Masmelo's to lose. She lobbed into a beautiful trailing position for Chris Parnham behind Simon Miller's bold-going chestnut Admire Astra ( Admire Vega) while Wonderfully Made went back to the rear of proceedings.
Four of the eight runners in the race were sired by Maschino!
11/1 shot Admire Astra ( Admire Mars) gave her backers a great sight, entering the straight full of running for Lucy Fiore and fighting hard all the way to the post, but Masmelo was arrogant.
She was going away from them on the line and stormed into Oaks favouritism by a length, with Admire Astra holding second and Wonderfully Made coming home honestly for third, but lacking the acceleration she needed to pick up the first two.
With her Natasha Stakes victory, Masmelo becomes the eleventh Stakes winner for Alwyn Park Stud's evergreen Maschino. The son of Encosta De Lago is an incredibly versatile stallion able to get high class performers over all distances.
She advances her record to 9 starts for 2 wins and 3 placings, with earnings of $176,040, already a nice return on investment! Not to mention her residual value as a broodmare has gone through the roof.
Masmelo was a gawky youngster when Gervase Park Stud ( as agent for D and D Keens) consigned her to the Magic Millions Winter Yearling sale, but Parnham saw something he liked and shelled out $3,000 to put her on the truck.
The “ugly duckling” is the second foal produced from the winning Blackfriars mare Melteme, who has not been served since.
Her first foal, a filly by Long Leaf named Flaming Ronda, has placed twice in four starts.
Masmelo's grand dam Pride was unplaced in three starts, but she was a daughter of the influential broodmare sire Hussonet - and a half sister to the dam of Listed WA Breeders Classic winning filly Summer Swallow ( Catbird). Pride produced four winners - all her foals to race, so she did a good job.
Masmelo's third dam Pride Of The Park was a winning daughter of another prepotent broodmare sire in Bluebird. She was a full sister to the stakes placed juvenile Nightbird and a three quarter sister to the G1 Oakleigh Plate winner Singing The Blues, who also won stakes races in WA.
Pride Of The Park produced four winners like her dam, and the next mare on the page is the winner Coronation Night by Sir Tristram's champion Marauding (yet another elite influence through his daughters) - a half sister to not only Singing The Blues but to a beloved champion of the Australian turf Shogun Lodge,( 58 starts, 13 stakes wins, 3 x G1 wins) and to G1 winning sprinter Referral.
Coronation Night's half sisters Tahnee ( by Bluebird son Lake Coniston) Pride Of Tatius ( full sister to Shogun Lodge by Grand Lodge) and Irish Truce ( Brief Truce) all bred on successfully - see more below - further enhancing the status of their wonderful 3 x G1 producing dam dam Pride Of Tahnee as a true Australian Blue Hen.
No wonder Neville Parnham took a punt on this girl and the more you delve into her pedigree the more you realize what a diamond in the rough she was.
Pride Of Tahnee, by Bletchingly's G1 AJC Spring Champion Stakes winning son Best Western, hailed from a prolific stakes winning and stakes producing female line, Colonial family 12. It's a rare and precious family!
And it's fascinating to trace its origins.
Let's go all the way back to a mare called Iris, sired by Rous’ Emigrant and born in 1834 at the Macarthur family's Camden Park Stud in NSW.
The Macarthurs were among the leading breeders of the time and (as was common practice) they incorporated Arabian blood into their program - the blood that was prized for imparting endurance, athleticism, courage and intelligence.
Camden Park stood and used the Arabian stallion Satellite, imported from Madras, India, in 1822.
Satellite covered Iris and the result was a filly named Messenger born in 1845. Iris, Messenger and Messenger's unnamed filly by Euclid were all sold in an unreserved Camden Park sale in 1858.
The Euclid filly ended up at Ramornie Stud where she was covered by their stallion Gemma-di-Vergy. Weird name, good sire!
Imported in utero and born in Australia, he also sired the fillies who would become the taproot mares of Colonial families 14 (Heris) and 15 ( Myrtle).
Messenger's grand daughter by him from the Euclid mare was named Contessa - and it is she who is acknowledged as the taproot mare of Masmelo’s Colonial family 12.
Contessa would establish herself as a broodmare at Biraganbil Stud at Gulgong, near Mudgee NSW - an area still renowned as great horse raising country and the home of Gooree Park Stud today.
Contessa was the dam of eight colts and three fillies, and it was her daughter Marvelette by Marvellous, a superior producer of four stakeswinners, who would carry her line forward with distinction - and for some years this family was at the height of fashion.
Its best female was the outstanding Marvel Loch who won the Caulfield Cup, the Metropolitan, and the Rawson Stakes twice.
Then - for almost a century! - the family went quiet, producing decent winners but nothing of real note until 1972.
That's when Masmelo's ancestress Swiftly Ann, a daughter of the (relatively) unheralded stallion Swiftly Morgan, was born. She won eighteen races, three stakes, and suddenly Contessa's line was back in business.
Swiftly Ann’s first foal Tahnee’s Pride (Boucher ) was dam of G2 winner Swiftly Carson and Traffic Watch by Salieri - the dam of Encosta De Lago’s triple G1 winning filly Lashed, who is breeding on in NZ .
But the best she threw was triple G1 producer Pride Of Tahnee.
Another of Pride Of Tahnee’s foals was Tahnee ( Lake Coniston) who visited the great Lonhro in his first season at stud. This mating produced the good racemare Tahnee Topaz who, to the cover of Commands ( Eight Carat linebreeding) foaled Tahnee Tiara and she is the dam of G1 Queensland Oaks winner Socks Nation ( Sioux Nation) and Tahnee Tango, a three quarter sister to Shogun Lodge - she is the dam of Clear Mountain Fairview's sire Worthy Cause by Choisir.
While he won at G3 level Worthy Cause sires better performers than himself and his daughter Hinged won the G1 Surround Stakes.
The stallion on the damline of this tribe Swiftly Morgan is interesting. What was it about him that kick-started the family into gear again? Answer - he was a descendant of the American Blue Hen Friar’s Carse.
The US champion juvenile filly of 1925 was one of the few high class mares bred to the legend Man o’ War in the twilight of his stud career. Good move. She produced his great son War Relic, and his full sister Speed Boat who would become the grand dam of Sword Dancer - his tail male line Damascus would also shape the global thoroughbred, as well as other influential offspring sired by the original “Big Red.”
The Nasrullah son Swiftly Morgan was imported into Australia In the 1960s and was a good but not great sire. His third dam Anchors Ahead was a full sister to War Relic. Now we get to the genetics that woke up Contessa's sleepy female line, because Anchors Ahead and her brother carried duplications of Bend Or, a descendant of the great stallion Birdcatcher along with many,many lines to the stallion Touchstone and his son Newminster.
This harks back to that long- forgotten, obscure stallion Marvellous and his meeting with Contessa at Biraganbil Stud, which produced her best daughter Marvelette. Long after his death, Marvellous became integral to the regeneration of this female line.
Imported from Ireland in 1877, Marvellous was an incredibly inbred horse. Most notably he was sired by Blarney (by Claret by Touchstone with three lines to his own ancestress Penelope, one of the greatest of all broodmares - she is also the taproot mare for War Relic etc ) and his dam was by Artillery ( by Touchstone out of a Birdcatcher mare) and his grand dam Gramachree was Birdcatcher's full sister!
This was genetic dynamite when Simply Morgan met up with Colonial family 12.
Now we can understand why the advent of Biscay's mighty son Bletchingly (out of a Relic mare) on the breeding scene was such a boon for this damline, particularly via Best Western who was bred 3f x 4f to the War Relic son.
Ditto Salieri - who was by the Damascus son Accipiter ( bred x 2 to Bend Or grandson Ormondale) and was a descendant of the Blue Hen Cos ( by Bend Or's descendant Flying Orb with many Birdcatcher lines through her dam).
One reason ( just one) that Encosta De Lago works so well with this immediate family is that his Blue Hen ancestress Windy Answer was by Windfields, a direct descendant of a Bend Or daughter, as was Fair Play ( his tail male line)
On Maschino's damline we find the glorious presence of Phar Lap's full brother Friday Night - thank goodness his dam Entreaty produced one!
He was by Night Raid, by Bend Or's champion son Radium and Entreaty traced back to that mare again Penelope ( carried four lines to her as well as the more rarely seen Touchstone son Mountain Deer who ended up in Prussia.
Maschino's ancestress Amorosa is very inbred to the 11 family ( his own, tracing back to Coquette)
We need to revisit old Marvellous again because he was inbred to his own ancestress - like Coquette, one of the most influential mares of her family - Guccioli.
I'm getting off track here, but the legendary Aussie hero Takeover Target traced his ancestry to a half sister to the dam of Marvellous!
What an evolution it’s been for Colonial family 12 and now Masmelo is on the scene flying the flag for this historic Aussie line.
Masmelo is bred
Northern Dancer 4m x 5m,6m
Danehill 4m x 3m
Mr Prospector 5f x 4m sex balanced
Sir Tristram x 2 via Marauding and Grosvenor is very important, as he sex balances the Sir Ivor mares in Redoutes Choice, Encosta De Lago and Bluebird and is a relative of Encosta's damsire Star Way, their dams very close genetically.
Marauding provides a sex balancing Biscay daughter, Grosvenor the Classic blood of Aureole and his son Hermes - another direct descendant of the abovementioned mare Guccioli! - plus more War Relic via Vice Regal, Le Filou x 2 and Summertime, who sired Maschino's ancestress Holiday.
Encosta De Lago sex balances both Mr Prospector and Northern Dancer while Maschino brings a line of Mr P's relative Lomond and lines to Blue Hen La Troienne including Glamour via her son Poker. Glamour is duplicated as the dam of Boucher, Masmelo's sixth damsire. Danehill, Fairy King and Redoute's provide more of this blood .
Lomond provides two lines of Man O’ War's other great son War Admiral through daughters, and Redoute's chips in with his son Mr Busher, all lines through La Troienne's Baby League. Hussonet comes to the party with a War Admiral daughter of his own.
Masmelo carries many lines ( sex balanced) to My Babu, also Round Table - and is linebred to the Nasrullah sons Bold Ruler, Nashua and Princely Gift.
There is an interesting nick between the stallion Tossing back on Masmelo's damline, by Channel Swell ( Fairway) out of a mare by the Irish Derby winner Harinero. He was a full brother to Harina, the dam of Peak Halyard ( by Blue Peter by Fairway) who sired Maschino's ancestress Reprieved.
Maschino stands at Alwyn Park Stud on a fee of $8,800
