Godolphin Trio
“Pedigrees made in heaven” could have been the title encompassing Godolphin’s rippling success last Saturday.
A trio of three-year-old colts, winning a Group 1 and two Group 2s, all the produce of mating blueprints from Sheikh Mohammed’s top drawer, and each with a slightly different twist to whet the appetites of breeding buffs.
Attica (Lonhro) claimed the elite title with his stirring, storming victory in the Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) which – the start after his Dulcify Stakes (Listed, 1600m) success – kicks off the breeding journey of his seven-time stakes-winning dam Savatiano (Street Cry) in the best possible way.
Also at Randwick, Ohope (I Am Invincible) claimed his first stakes victory (the “NSW Listed” Tapp-Craig the start before doesn’t count) in the Callander-Presnell (Gr 2, 1600m). He, too, has brought early success for his black-type winning dam, as the second foal of Pohutukawa (Medaglia D’Oro), the dual stakes winner who was Group 1-placed.
And at Moonee Valley, Observer (Ghaiyyath) lived up to his odds-on quote and his Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) third by becoming the second stakes winner among three runners for 11-year-old unraced mare Smooth (Lonhro). In so doing, Observer earned short favouritism – at around $2.50 – to this Saturday become another top-tier winner for the royal blue in the VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
Of the three pedigrees involved, Observer’s is probably the most interesting, with a latticework of fourth and fifth generation inbreeding to key stallions supporting exquisite quality up front.
He’s from the first crop of European shuttler Ghaiyyath (Dubawi), who’s starting to mirror another of Darley’s sons of the great Dubawi in more ways than one.
Too Darn Hot shuttled for four straight years, had a year off, and due to his outrageous success is back this spring.
Ghaiyyath shuttled for the past four years, but after his numbers of mares declined, he’s not here this year. With his first crop making waves at three, however, he would seem likely to return next spring.
He has three stakes winners from 26 runners in Australia at 11.5 per cent – comparing favourably even to Too Darn Hot’s 11 from 118 at 9.3 per cent, though off a far smaller sample size.
Ghaiyyath’s trio have scored as spring three-year-olds since September 20, in Listed winning fillies Yum and Freedom Flame, and now Observer. Two hours before Observer contests the Derby, Freedom Flame will be out for Group success in the Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m), before an intended tilt at the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).
Though their stories run closely similar, distance puts distance between Ghaiyyath and Too Darn Hot. The latter’s three Group 1 wins came from 1400 metres-1600 metres, but Ghaiyyath’s quartet ranged from 2000 metres-2400 metres, helping him to the Cartier Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse titles in 2020.
Ghaiyyath screams quality, being by the triple Group 1-winning Dubawi out of a Galileo mare who won one of them herself – Irish 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) heroine Nightime, who only raced five times. She’s gone on to throw two elite winners, with Ghaiyyath joined by Zhukova, a daughter of Australia’s own Fastnet Rock (Danehill) who claimed Belmont’s Man O’ War Stakes (Gr 1, 11f).
And Ghaiyyath is emerging as an exciting means for Australians to breed a stayer, if he comes back, which judging by his burgeoning results would seem likely.
“Ghaiyyath looks like making a very good stallion here,” Darley’s head of stallions Alastair Pulford told It’s In The Blood.
“It’s kind of not rocket science. He was a world champion multiple Group 1 winner, by one of the best stallions ever in Dubawi, out of a Group 1 winner by another best sires in the northern hemisphere in Galileo.
“It’s never easy to get the stamina-oriented horses off the ground here, but once they do make it, there’ll be plenty of support for him if he comes back.
“And if people turn their minds to breeding a stayer, if we start to just change our focus slightly from all the 1200-metre horses we keep breeding, and try to breed something with a bit more stamina, there’s plenty of rich races there for the taking, and hopefully we can match it with these older imports in the weight-for-age stakes later on.”
Godolphin were indeed aiming to breed a Derby winner by sending Smooth to Ghaiyyath (or an Oaks winner if the chromosomes fell differently).
Smooth already had a stakes winner before Ghaiyyath was born, just. Three weeks prior, Sandpaper (Snitzel) won a Melbourne three-year-old Listed event over 1400 metres – three years before adding a Group 3 win over the same trip at Newcastle.
Godolphin reckoned putting her to Ghaiyyath would produce a stayer, which looks to have been manifested by Observer.
That’s because Smooth is a sister to Pierro (Lonhro), out of city-winning Irish-bred import Miss Right Note (Daylami), who also threw the Group 2-winning, Group 1-placed mare Ambience (Street Cry).
Pierro won the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) and the Run To The Rose (Gr 3, 1200m). That doesn’t scream “stayer”, but among his five elite victories were the ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), and he ran third in the 2012 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
He’s also left four stakes winners beyond 2400 metres, while his six Group 1 victors include VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) heroine Pinot, ATC Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Levendi, and Regal Power, who won to 2400 metres and was Australia’s joint Champion Middle Distance Horse in 2020.
“With Observer, the aim when we did the mating was very much to try to breed a Derby colt or an Oaks filly,” Pulford said.
“Ghaiyyath won at 2000 and 2400 metres and was the best horse in the world over those trips, and the mare was a sister to Pierro who, despite being quite fast, had quite a stout pedigree and had proven capable of throwing stamina. And there’s plenty of stamina in that female family.”
Perhaps Ghiayyath’s major triumph came in beating the great 11-time Group 1-winning mare Enable (Frankel) – his predecessor as Cartier Horse of the Year – in the Eclipse Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at five.
That’s fitting in a way. Enable was powered by daringly close inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer), at 3m x 2f.
And what first strikes the eye in the pedigree of Ghaiyyath’s finest runner to date, Observer, is also a doubling of Sadler’s Wells, not quite as close but strongly positioned at 4m x 4f. He’s the sire of Ghaiyyath’s damsire Galileo, and of Observer’s third dam, Sky Song.
Observer has three more doublings in his fifth column.
Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) is at 5m x 5m as Ghaiyyath’s fourth sire and the sire of Lonhro’s damsire.
Shirley Heights (Mill Reef) is at 5m x 5f as the sire of Dubawi’s damsire, and more directly down below as Observer’s fourth damsire.
And Miswaki (Mr. Prospector) is at 5f x 5f, if a little more buried, as the damsire of Galileo and of Daylami (Doyoun), sire of Miss Right Note. Miswaki’s presence also strengthens the notes of Mr. Prospector overall to a 5m, 6m x 5m, 6m.
Observer also draws from some repetitions of influential broodmares, chiefly Special at 6f x 7m, 6f, via Sadler’s Wells’ dam Fairy Bridge and Nureyev, and Lalun (Djeddah) at 8m, 7m x 7m, 7m, 7m, 8m.
Looking to Attica and Ohope, both stem from Godolphin’s favoured tactic of putting a new mare to a proven stallion.
Attica’s pedigree has the proven cross of Lonhro over Street Cry (sire of Savatiano), also seen in Godolphin stars Lyre and, in reverse, Osborne Bulls.
The mating also duplicates Mr. Prospector at 4m x 4m, as sire of Lonhro’s damsire, and of Street Cry’s sire Machiavellian.
Attica has a host of duplicated broodmares, most notably Nogara (Havresac) with 14 mentions in columns eight and nine, Mumtaz Begum (Blenheim), with nine spots in those two removes, and Natalma (Native Dancer) with six appearances from columns six to nine.
“Savatiano was a high-end racemare with a great family,” Pulford said. “Her dam Retsina has been very good for us, leaving three stakes winners, and the Lonhro-Street Cry cross was well proven.
“The mating has thrown up a very good horse, though it’s something of a surprise in that distance profile, with Attica winning the Spring Champion, since Lonhro was predominantly a sire of sprinter-milers, and Savatiano was a 1400-metre mare herself.
“So if we had any doubts with the mating, it might have been on stamina. But Attica’s a tall, rangy horse who looks like he’d appreciate the 2000 metres, and certainly did on Saturday.
“He wasn’t an obvious horse when younger, but I went to the stables soon after the Golden Slipper this year and saw him. He was unraced, but the stable felt he could be the best of the crop – which included the likes of Tempted and Beiwacht and some other pretty good horses already.”
Similar to the Attica mating, Godolphin sent Pohutukawa to a well proven sire – I Am Invincible – for her second mating. They now appear to have a quality sprinter-miler in Ohope.
Pohutukawa won a 1600-metre Group 3 and a 1400-metre Listed, while her best elite effort was a 0.1 second to Invincibella (I Am Invincible) in the 2019 Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m).
I Am Invincible over the dam’s sire Medaglia D’Oro (El Prado) only has a small sample size but is hitting at 40 per cent stakes winners to runners, with two from five, also including the five-time black type victor, and thrice Group 1-placed, I Am Me.
“Pohutukawa was a high quality mare on the racetrack,” Pulford said.
“With I Am Invincible, you’re never going to get anything that goes too far – they never get much further than a mile – and Ohope has plenty of speed but he’s probably destined to get over a mile in the autumn.”
Ohope packs a 3f x 5f doubling of Canny Lad (Bletchingly), through I Am Invincible’s dam Cannarelle, and the blue hen Shantha’s Choice, whose son Redoute’s Choice is Ohope’s second damsire.
Powered by twin Northern Dancer sirelines, he has a 7m x 7m, 8m of Lalun, with the great mare Selene (Chaucer) underpinning the whole with 13 mentions, 12 in the ninth generation.
Their future is well ahead of them, but the most pressing question regarding this trio concerns Observer’s attempt at the 2500-metre of the Derby this Saturday.
“I’m pretty confident he’ll get the trip,” Pulford said. “Everything he’s demonstrated indicates that he will, and there’s enough stamina in the pedigree, so I would hope so.”