Caulfield Pedigree Insights: La Cressonniere

When a truly great stallion becomes so dominant that stud farms clamour to stand his sons, you would think that his broodmare daughters would find it that little bit harder to make a similar impact. Think again!

Despite having endless successful stallion sons, the two-time champion sire Mr. Prospector notched up a lengthy sequence of broodmare sire championships. The same has happened in Japan, where 13-time champion sire Sunday Silence is well on his way to recording his 10th consecutive broodmare sire title. And in Britain and Ireland, where Sadler's Wells became champion sire 14 times in a 15-year period, this superstar went on to achieve seven straight broodmare championships.

More recently we have seen Danehill, who dethroned Sadler's Wells as champion sire, add three broodmare sire titles to his three titles as champion sire, even though a sizeable number of his sons have been at the forefront of the Anglo-Irish industry.

All this suggests that it can only be a matter of time before the broodmare sire championship is taken by Galileo, who appears to be well on his way to his eighth sires' title in the last nine years.

Less than two months ago, in my column on Galileo Gold, I pointed out “there are now more than 20 Northern Hemisphere group winners out of Galileo mares and we can expect to see plenty more in the next few years, as success as a broodmare sire tends to increase at an exponential rate.

“Galileo's daughters (the oldest of which are 13-year-olds) were credited by equineline with having 855 foals of racing age in 2014, with the figures rising to 1,248 foals in 2015 and now to 1,715 in 2016. Those figures represent a rise of 46% from 2014 to '15 and 37% from 2015 to '16. It also means that more than half of the total of 1,715 foals are youngsters aged two or three.”

Well, a fair amount has changed in the short time since that review. Last week saw stakes winners out of four Galileo mares, including Galileo Gold, who secured his status as Europe's best 3-year-old colt over a mile with his success in the G1 St James's Palace S. Then La Cressonniere, who had won the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches 15 days after Galileo Gold's G1 2000 Guineas triumph, added another Classic victory in Sunday's G1 Prix de Diane Longines. In between, we saw the Queen's Dartmouth narrowly defeat Galileo's son Highland Reel in the G2 Hardwicke S. (which ranks as one of Britain's most competitive mile-and-a-half contests despite its Group 2 status).

With Galileo's progeny having an average winning distance of 11.3 furlongs, it is easy to think of Galileo simply as a very strong influence for stamina. This is backed up by the Classic victories of the likes of New Approach, Ruler of the World, Australia, Was, Minding, Sixties Icon, Soldier of Fortune, Cape Blanco, Treasure Beach and Great Heavens.

But Galileo is no one-dimensional force. He is also capable of siring Guineas winners, as he has proved with such as Frankel, Gleneagles, Minding, Roderic O'Connor, Magician, Misty For Me, Marvellous, Golden Lilac and The Gurkha. Consequently, it isn't so surprising that the five Classic winners out of Galileo mares include three over a mile (Night of Thunder, Galileo Gold and La Cressonniere) and only one over a mile and a half, namely Fastnet Rock's G1 Oaks-winning daughter Qualify.

Incidentally, when the Irish 2-year-old Intricately made a winning debut two days ago, she became Fastnet Rock's 29th starter out of a Galileo mare and 23rd winner. No doubt she will soon be bidding to become this cross's seventh black-type winner. Expect to see plenty more winners emerging from this burgeoning cross over the next year or two.

In completing the Pouliches-Diane classic double La Cressonniere not only extended her unbeaten sequence to seven but also completed a remarkable double-double for her young sire Le Havre. The Haras de la Cauviniere resident had achieved the exact same double two years ago with Avenir Certain, a filly from his first crop.

It is worth stressing that these dual Classic winners were sired when Le Havre's fee stood at a very modest €5,000. His profile began to rise almost as soon as his first runners reached the track and they have done so well that Le Havre stood the 2016 season at €35,000, up from €20,000 last year.

That he was initially available for so little was more a reflection of the unfashionable nature of his immediate pedigree than any weakness as a racehorse. He had won four of his six starts, notably taking the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club in 2009, after finishing second in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains.

Arguably less appealing was the fact that his sire Noverre had been sold in January 2008 to the Sohna Stud Farm in India. As often happens, Noverre's sale was followed by a considerable improvement in his progeny's results, including the emergence of four Group 1 winners. Three of those four Group 1 winners–Music Show, I'm A Dreamer and Enora–were fillies and fillies accounted for eight of his 10 group winners. This is possibly relevant in view of Le Havre's early results. Four of his six group winners are fillies, including both of his Group 1 winners, and so are seven of his nine listed winners, which makes it 11 fillies among his 15 black-type winners. I should add the caveat that these imbalances have a tendency to become less pronounced.

To get back to Noverre, although he had won the G1 Sussex S. at three he then failed to win at four (when he once tried to take a chunk out of a passing rival). His close relationship to the brilliant 2-year-old Arazi also raised a few doubts, as Arazi's record as a stallion was distinctly disappointing.

Then there was the fact that Le Havre's broodmare sire was Surako, a horse whose name probably means little to most breeders outside his native Germany. Although runner-up in the G1 Deutsches Derby, Surako numbered only one black-type winner among his 152 foals.

There were some pluses, too, concerning Le Havre's bloodlines. Le Havre's dam Marie Rheinberg is a half-sister to the high-class sprinter-miler Polar Falcon, who found lasting fame as the sire of Pivotal, an important British stallion.

Also, despite having Northern Dancer in the third generation, Le Havre has a pedigree which makes him eligible for the majority of European mares–an asset not to be underestimated in an industry where so many breeders are looking for something different.

La Cressonniere may be the product of a mating between a 5,000-euro stallion and a non-winning mare, but that doesn't mean her pedigree is in any way unfashionable.

Her dam Absolute Lady never managed to finish closer than fourth (when beaten a length at Clairefontaine) in six starts over middle distances in the French Provinces. However, Absolute Lady is a sister to the talented Paris Winds, who was group placed over a mile and a quarter in Ireland before becoming a stakes winner over 1 1/16 miles in the U.S. Paris Winds was quite speedy for a daughter of Galileo, no doubt because her dam, the Kris mare Lil's Jessy, won the G3 Nell Gwyn S. before running respectably in the 2001 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.

La Cressonniere is by no means the first Classic winner to represent her distinguished female line, which traces back to Aloe, the foundation of much of the Royal Studs' success. For example, La Cressonniere's sixth dam is Hypericum. This granddaughter of Aloe won the 1946 1000 Guineas and later became the third dam of Aureole, the colt who went closest to fulfilling the Queen's ambition of winning the Derby.

Hypericum provided the Queen with an excellent producer in Highlight, La Cressonniere's fifth dam. Highlight in turn produced four daughters to Queen's Hussar, three of which have left a lasting legacy. The first, Highclere, could be compared to La Cressonniere, in that she too won a European Guineas race, followed by the Prix de Diane. Highclere has since found lasting fame by producing Height of Fashion, dam of the 2000 Guineas and Derby winner Nashwan, as well as Nayef and Unfuwain. Height of Fashion is also the second dam of the 1000 Guineas heroine Ghanaati, while Highclere also has the distinction of being the third dam of Deep Impact, sire of so many Classic winners in Japan.

Highlight's second Queen's Hussar filly was Light Duty and next came La Cressonniere's fourth dam, Light O'Battle. La Cressonniere's third dam, the Mill Reef mare Lobmille, was a sister-in-blood to Light Duty's daughter Rise and Fall, dam of the G1 Lockinge S. winner Fly To The Stars and second dam of G1 Coronation S. winner Fallen For You. Lobmille was also bred along similar lines to Highclere's Shirley Heights filly Highbrow, second dam of G1 Coronation Cup winner Ask, so you would be hard pressed to find a more productive female line.