Who are we highlighting this week? - Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for this season has made us realise how many horses on this list took giant strides from two to three, so we are looking into the crystal ball to find some juveniles we believe could end next season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.
Click here for the story on 3YO G1 winners this season.
Darley's 3YO European Champion and Cartier Champion Older Horse of 2022, Palace Pier (Kingman) notched up his first Australian stakes winner in March this year, when his stunning colt Southend ran away with the G3 ATC TL Bailleau Hcp(1400m) at just his second race start.
Trained by Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou for a big group of owners headed by Glentree Racing, the striking near-black was a $420,000 purchase for his trainers from the Mill Park draft at the MM Gold Coast Yearling Sale, and is one of 70 foals resulting from his sire's sole Australian season.
From the same crop came the promising Wolf Gap, spelled after his third to Paradoxium and Stretan Ruler in the G2 Todman Stakes at start two for Anthony and Sam Freedman. That colt had claimed the honour of becoming the first Australian winner for Palace Pier when he won on debut at Warwick Farm.
Like Wolf Gap, Southend burst out of the blocks running when he showed an explosive turn of foot to come from last and win easily over 1300m on debut at Newcastle.
The decision was made to give Southend his chance at a juvenile G1 and he duly lined up in the Champagne Stakes, where he turned in an even performance to finish seventh, without ever threatening this season's star Snitzel colts Fireball and Campione D'Italia, who ran the quinella.
The colt went to the paddock with two wins from three starts and $178,625 in the kitty.
Southend, his stakes-winning dam So We Are ( So You Think) and all her foals were bred by the Defiant Thoroughbred Breeding Trust, Pat Hodby and Charlie Parletta, and all are graduates of Mill Park Stud.
The dam of two winners to date, So We Are produced her first filly last season to Maurice, before visiting Harry Angel.
Southend's grand dam Oui Si Attitude ( Bianconi) was a stakes-placed good middle distance performer in Adelaide and is a daughter of the regally bred, Irish-born mare Sizzie ‘Em by Arrowfield's Golden Slipper winner Flying Spur. Conceived during the big Spur's final shuttle to the NH, she raced in Ireland and then Australia, where she was twice a winner.
Sizzie ‘ Em had seven to race and three won, two earning black type and she is also the grand-dam of So You Think’s extraordinarily fast G2/G3 winning sprinter Peltzer.
Now standing at Twin Hills Stud, Peltzer was an undefeated juvenile and won up to a mile. The promising young sire has stakes winners Buccleuch and Thanks Gorgeous flying the flag from his first crop.
Sizzie ‘Em was out of the placed Mill Reef daughter Shanama, a full sister to Listed winner and stakes producer Shelina and half sister to Shanizadeh (Baldric) a multiple stakes and G1 producer from the fantastic family of the French-bred Safiah ( St Paddy)
Most notable of the numerous stakes winners under Safiah:
Olympic Glory's dual G1 Coronation Stakes / FR Prix Rothschild winner of the 2019/20 season Watch Me;
Shawanda by Sinndar, Champion 3YO Filly of Ireland, G1 Irish Oaks / Longchamp Prix Vermeille, dam of the ill-fated champion colt Encke (Kingmambo) who headed the 2012 WTR (ext), Champion 3YO Stayer of Europe and GB, won the G1 St Leger;
Listed winner Shawara (Barathea), dam of the great filly Shareta (Sinndar) - G1 wins in the Yorkshire Oaks / Prix Vermeille, runner up in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
The immediate family descends from Flaming Heart ( Sheshoon) a full sister to Afasheen ( ancestress of multiple G1 winners) and a half sister to Runaway Bride who would attain immortality as the dam of Blushing Groom.
This elite damline is that of the Tudor Minstrel mare Aimee and traces to the dual Falmouth Stakes winner Eclair (dam of champion racer and sire Khaled) to Black Ray by Black Jester, that stallion being a member of the 1-s family which would produce the breedshaping Blue Hen La Troienne.
As Mill Reef descends from Eclair's full sister Infra Red, Southend's dam carries a potent double cross of Black Ray on her tail female line - while her second damsire Bianconi brings the Khaled son Swaps.
This most illustrious branch of the 22-d family traces back through the Epsom Oaks winner Our Lassie to the taproot mare of the tribe Grand Duchess, foaled in 1871.
Palace Pier has made an excellent start with his progeny in the NH.
Daughter Royal Fixation leads the charge with her win in the G2 Lowther Stakes and third in the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes, with G3 winners A Bit Of Spirit and Dr Omran, Morris Dancer (Listed winner, G2 placed) and multiple stakes placed Sirius A, Pacification Pier and Starlit Destiny the best of his runners to date.
Palace Pier has not shuttled back to Australia, with Darley stating the reasoning behind this decision was ‘in the best welfare interests of the horse’ - so even if his Aussie progeny step up in some big races at three, we may not see him here again.
The son of Kingman achieved one of his greatest victories at Royal Ascot, when he beat the previous season's Champion European 2YO Pinatubo, in the sire-making St Jame’s Palace Stakes.
Previous winners of that famous G1 contest over the Ascot mile include (since 1900) such breeding luminaries as Rock Sand and his son Tracery, Minoru ( sire of Blue Hen Selene), Craig an Eran (his wondrous grand dam Sceptre had won the St James’ Palace, the Epsom Oaks, the 1000 Guineas, 2000 Guineas and St Leger twenty years before ), Bahram, Khaled, Tudor Minstrel, Palestine, Roan Rocket, Silly Season, Petingo, Right Tack, Brigadier Gerard, Thatch, Kris, and Marju to name a few.
Since the 1990s the race has been won by the likes of Grand Lodge, Bahri, Giant's Causeway and his son Shamardal, Rock Of Gibraltar, Azamour, Henrythenavigator, Mastercraftsman, the all-conquering Frankel in 2011 and more recently by Palace Pier's sire Kingman, Gleneagles ( sire of current worldbeater Calandagan), and Circus Maximus.
Winners since 2022 are Coreobus (Dubawi) sadly deceased, Paddington ( Siyouni) who shuttles between Coolmore Ireland and Windsor Park Stud in NZ , Rosallion ( Blue Point) a new boy for Darley, plus Kingman's glorious grey Field Of Gold who will commence service beside his sire at Juddmonte this season, and this year's hero the undefeated Bow Echo (Night Of Thunder).
Southend is bred
Danzig 5m x 4m,6m
Northern Dancer 6m, 5m x 5m,6m,5m
Mr Prospector 6m,5m x 6f sex balanced
This pedigree is rich in the Classic blood of one particularly influential Epsom Derby winner, Crepello.
The glorious chestnut was foaled in 1954, and was a member of the final crop from the great Blenheim son Donatello II, out of the Mieuxce mare Crepuscule, from the Dora Agnes branch of the famed and far-reaching Agnes family. The taproot mare of Crepello's line was Wild Agnes (16-d) He was a half brother to another Classic winner Honeylight.
The powerful colt was a heavy-topped horse with imperfect front legs, not an ideal combination! He always raced in bandages, and was ridden throughout his brief but brilliant career by the great Lester Piggott, who rated him among the top five horses he ever sat on.
At two, the colt won the G1 Dewhurst Stakes from just three starts, beating the Queen’s horse Doutelle, who would also become a fine sire.
Crepello returned in his Classic season to contest the 2,000 Guineas first up, after an unconventional preparation aimed at protecting his legs for as long as possible. He was disadvantaged by a horror barrier, and had to contend with mayhem at the start when a horse bolted and three jockeys hit the deck as their mounts became entangled in the starting tapes.
Piggott managed to keep Crepello out of trouble and settled him back in the field, then brought him home with a dazzling burst of acceleration which he maintained all the way to the post.
The big chestnut was now the raging favourite for the 1957 Epsom Derby.
Again Piggott tucked the colt away well back in the field and played the waiting game. With only two furlongs remaining in the great race, Crepello came with a blinding run and rocketed away to a big win over Ballymoss.
They had clocked 2.35.4 seconds for the Derby, just a fraction outside Mahmoud’s record time set in 1936.
Runner up Ballymoss would go on to win the Irish Derby, Eclipse, King George V and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Arc, before commencing his own great stud career.
We’ll never know what Crepello might have done, because the Derby was his last race. His tendon issues worsened and led to his retirement later that season to Beech House Stud in Cheveley, from where he would soon sire a stream of remarkable horses.
We need to get to some Blue Hen linebreeding action because there's a heap of it going on in Southend's pedigree!
First the obvious - a sex balance of Ciboulette, the dam of Night Shift carried by Palace Pier and of his full sister Fanfreluche, ancestress of Flying Spur.
Red Sunset - this fine daughter of Solario was the grand dam of the major linebred influence Crepello.
She is sex balanced by her son Rasper in Palace Pier's pedigree, carried by Gulch.
Black Ray - Southend's own ancestress, is linebred through sex balanced duplications of Mill Reef - via daughters in Kingman and on his own damline, and son Shirley Heights via Darshaan, plus a sex balance of Eclair via half brother and sister Khaled and Emali
Betty Derr - the ancestress of Green Desert and Swaps, who were bred on reversed War Admiral / Beau Pere crosses via grand daughters Iron Reward and Tulle. Nayef's sire Gulch is from another branch of this family (A4)
Lalun - her son Never Bend, the sire of Mill Reef, is sex balanced by a daughter in Green Desert, while Sadler's Wells provides his half brother Bold Reason.
Feola / Aloe / Alope - Feola is the inbred ancestress of Nayef's dam Height Of Fashion. Southend's ancestress Safiah was sired by St Paddy, an Epsom Derby winning son of her grandson Aureole, and So You Think provides daughters of relations Round Table and Foxlaw.
The duplicated sire Kris is tail male to family member Atan, a relation of Gone West - these two sires sex balance the mare Mixed Marriage by Hyperion's grandson Tudor Minstrel - another line of the family.
This is a five star nick for Height Of Fashion, and also for Southend's own damline which traces to a Tudor Minstrel daughter.
Palace Pier's sire Kingman carries the Round Table son Marju.
Marchetta (1-w) - her daughter Rose Red by Swynford x 2 in Height Of Fashion was a full sister to the ancestress of linebred subjects Turn-To and My Babu, of Klairon and half sister to the sire Marco Polo carried by So You Think.
Flaming Page - sex balanced via daughter Fleur ( dam of The Minstrel) and her three quarter brother Nijinsky.
Danzig's ( and Invincible Spirit's) relation Rockefella is another big sex balanced influence in this pedigree, as is the Fair Trial son Petition and Native Dancer, with Danehill contributing two lines of his greatest daughter Natalma.
While Palace Pier is a handsome animal to be sure, his son Southend has inherited much of the Hollywood looks of his damsire So You Think.
We lost the dual Cox Plate champion and international G1 winner last year, but his legacy is assured and the versatility he showed on a racecourse was bequeathed to his progeny with G1 winners coming at all distances and of both sexes.
It's interesting that both his sire High Chaparral and Palace Pier's sire Kingman are noted for passing on a lethal turn of foot, and the combination of these two electric stallions with the enormous Classic depth of both Nayef's damline and that of Southend himself makes for a beautifully balanced pedigree.
It looks like just the right mix for an elite miler and a sparkling Guineas prospect come Spring!
