Rapper Dragon Emerges As A New Star In Hong Kong
Champion jockey Joao Moreira piloted the four-year-old gelding to a two length win over Seasons Bloom (Captain Sonador) with the winner’s stablemate Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) another three quarters of a length back in third place.Time was a quick 1:34.98, the last 400 metres covered in 22.03 seconds.
This was Rapper Dragon’s fifth and most important victory since arriving in Hong Kong in 2015, his best previous win coming in the Lion Rock Trophy (HK Gr 3, 1600m) last May. The gelding is now likely to contest next month’s Hong Kong Classic Cup (Listed, 1800m) as a lead in to the highly prized Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) in March.
Rapper Dragon also won as a two-year-old at Wyong in New South Wales under the name of Street Rapper when trained by Gai Waterhouse but it was his two stakes placings in Sydney, especially his second to Pasadena Girl (Savabeel) in the 2015 Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), which attracted the interest of Hong Kong buyers.
A product of Eduardo Cojuangco’s Gooree Park Stud which raced the horse in Australia, Rapper Dragon is the third foal of unraced homebred mare Swing Dance (Danehill Dancer) whose first two foals Swing Vote (Northern Meteor) and Swing Sensation (Northern Meteor) were both winners with Swing Vote stakes placed in the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) (Listed,1000m).
Swing Dance’s now two-year-old filly by Your Song (Fastnet Rock) fetched $150,000 as a yearling in 2016 with the mare being sold in 2015 to Michael Wallace Bloodstock while her Congrats (A P Indy) yearling colt for $110,000 at the recent Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Following him is a 2016 colt by Deep Field (Northern Meteor). Swing Dance is believed in foal again to Street Boss (Street Cry) to produce in 2017 what would be a full relation to Rapper Dragon.
No breeder active in Australia has a better appreciation of American bloodlines than Eduardo Cojuangco and his purchases over many years of mares from some of the most celebrated families in United States breeding have led to him producing a number of outstanding racehorses, among them the grand warrior Desert War (Desert King), ill-fated sire sensation Northern Meteor (Encosta De Lago), Laser Hawk (Artie Schiller), Swift Alliance (Don Eduardo), Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) and Dreamscape (Choisir).
In the case of Rapper Dragon, the initial mare import was of his third dam Stormy Dream (Storm Cat) who produced five winners but none of great consequence, however, a mating with champion sire Marscay (Biscay) produced the placegetter Newscaster whose three foals to race all became stakes winners.
One of these was Swing Dance’s brother Turf Express (Danehill Dancer) whose 15 wins included a Listed race in Melbourne and other races in France and Hong Kong during an international career. Another was Sports Edition (Northern Meteor), also a Listed winner, but her best foal was Sports Edition’s sister Amanpour (Northern Meteor) whose four wins were highlighted by her victory in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m).
Storm Dream’s greatest appeal to Eduardo Cojuangco was probably not her great speed sire Storm Cat (Storm Bird) but her female line tracing to Northern Dancer’s (Nearctic) dam Natalma (Native Dancer), Rapper Dragon’s sixth dam, whose daughter Born A Lady (Tentam), fifth dam of the new Hong Kong star, is a half-sister to the more famous Spring Adieu (Buckpasser), second dam of the great sire Danehill (Danzig).
Through sons such as Danzig, Sadler’s Wells, Nijinsky, Nureyev and a host of others Northern Dancer established the dominant male line in international breeding in the latter part of the 20th century and it has continued just as strongly into the 21st century with the amazing Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and others in Europe plus in Australia current leading stallions I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), Not a Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and Exceed And Excel (Danehill) all members of his tribe.
Natalma’s dam Almahmoud (Mahmoud) also earned a place in equine history as the mother of top class American race filly Cosmah (Cosmic Bomb) who became the dam of outstanding performer Halo (Hail To Reason), twice champion sire in the United States whose major winners include perennial champion Japanese sire Sunday Silence, Devil’s Bag and More Than Ready’s sire Southern Halo whose dam Northern Sea is by Northern Dancer making him linebred 3 x 4 to Almahmoud.
An earlier source of excellence in this remarkable family is Mother Goose (Chickle), ninth dam of Rapper Dragon, who was among the best juvenile fillies in the United States in 1924.
Rapper Dragon is one of 26 stakes winners worldwide for his rather undervalued sire Street Boss (Street Cry) who stands at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky and shuttles to Northwood Park in Victoria where his 2016 fee was $27,500 (inc GST).
A multiple Grade One sprint stakes winner in the United States, Street Boss has a number of talented black type winners in Australia headed by The Quarterback (Gr 1 VRC Newmarket Handicap, 1200m), Petits Filous, Thiamandi, Scarlet Billows and Tris.