It’s In The Blood – Sass Appeal & Watadeel

Image: Sass Appeal, (Credit Racing Photos)

A bit of champagne breeding looks set to continue fizzing for some time after the stakes-winning Sass Appeal (So You Think) won her fifth race on the bounce – and fourth at Flemington – last Saturday from six starts.

Danny O’Brien’s later-blooming four-year-old mare is a budding star of the spring, as was reflected in her $1.45 starting price in a field of six for the 1400m BM100 event.

She was bred by the Echo Beach Bloodstock concern of the late Alan Green and his great mate and business rival Brian Singer, the surfing gear competitors whose breeding history has been closely tied to Vinery Stud, in which Green was a shareholder.

Sass Appeal is already a dual black type winner, having claimed the autumn’s Desirable Stakes (Listed, 1400m) and Kewney Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m).

As such, she’s part of a wonderful family for her breeders, given her half-sister Cristal Clear (Exceedance) had, a week before the Kewney, also become a black type victor at the second level, taking Randwick’s Ajax Stakes (Gr 2, 1500m).

The pair hail from a regal female family. Their dam Cristal Eyes (All Too Hard) won three times for Lindsay Park and was black type placed, running third in Flemington’s Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at two.

But the real pop lies a couple of generations further in.

The fourth dam was the outstanding and influential Bint Marscay (Marscay). Bred and sold by the late Sydney Turf Club supremo Jim Fleming, and trained by Lee Freedman, the filly was Head of the 1992-93 Australasian 2YO Classification after her stirring victory in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m). That was one of her four wins – all at stakes level – from 10 starts, alongside a third in the Doomben Ten Thousand (Gr 1, 1350m) at three.

At stud she was just as successful, leaving three Group winners – in succession – all bred by Vinery’s early boss Tom Simon, who’d bought Bint Marscay off the track.

Her second foal was the filly Mannington (Danehill), who won two juvenile stakes races and was third at three in the VRC Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) of 2001.

Mannington also left three Group winners, though unlike her mum they were spread over 13 years.

First foal, the Vinery-bred Benicio (More Than Ready), won the VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) of 2005.

Third foal Romneya (Red Ransom) scored three stakes wins at Group 2, Group 3 and Listed level and ran fourth in an MRC Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) before leaving four city winners, one of them G3-placed.

And Mannington’s last foal, born in 2015, was Roheryn (Lonhro), who won a Sydney G3 and two Brisbane Listeds.

A year after Mannington, Bint Marscay left Sheraton (Woodman), who won the males’ Blue Diamond Preview (Gr 3, 1000m) in 2001.

And a year after that came the mare’s finest effort, the filly Bollinger (Dehere), Sass Appeal and Cristal Clear’s third dam.

Raced by Vinery and trained by Gai Waterhouse, Bollinger thrilled Australian racing in the autumn of 2003, unfurling a Sass Appeal-style picket fence of four consecutive victories including her three career black type wins, highlighted by the STC Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m).

Like Bint Marscay, Bollinger was then sent to the US under Vinery’s then dual hemisphere operation. Unlike Bint Marscay, who suffered fertility problems, Bollinger was a success in America.

Her colt second foal Friesan Fire (A.P. Indy) won four black type races highlighted by the 2009 Louisiana Derby (Gr 2, 1900m), and started favourite in the Kentucky Derby (Gr 1, 2000m), before becoming a sire with some success.

Returning to Australia and Vinery Stud, Bollinger completed her global breeding career with seven winners from as many starters. For what transpired as her last foal, she went to Vinery’s young new stallion All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and left Villermont (All Too Hard), who became his sire’s third stakes winner in taking the 2017 Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m), before adding the BRC Gunsynd Classic (Gr 2, 1615m).

Meanwhile, Bollinger’s last US-born foal, Vintage Strike (Smart Strike), followed her to Australia a few years on and left, among others, the gelding Aim (Star Witness), who won the $2m Gold Coast Magic Millions Guineas (RL, 1400m) and the $500,000 Silver Eagle (1300m) in 2021, and was Group 2 placed.

Bollinger had another US daughter who followed her to Australia in Champagne Run – by Vinery’s great American shuttler More Than Ready (Southern Halo). A 1200m Churchill Downs maiden winner from six starts, in the Hunter Valley she threw Cristal Eyes – Sass Appeal and Cristal Clear’s mother, who’s a three-quarter sister to Villermont.

Cristal Eyes was offered by her breeders Arrowfield Stud at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale of 2017. Green and Singer were circling, with their bloodstock advisor Bruce Elkington, who in turn was guided by Vinery’s now general manager Adam White.

“It was a family we’d had so much success with at Vinery,” White tells It’s In The Blood. “We’d raced Bollinger, and we’d had so much of that family on the farm, with a lot of success.”

Aside from the aforementioned performers, Fleming had also bred from the family 2015 Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Always Allison (More Than Ready) – a Mannington granddaughter.

“Cristal Eyes was a bit immature as a yearling, and looked like she needed a bit of time,” White said. “Bruce Elkington goes over them and quite liked her, and could see she was a filly that was going to improve.”

Cristal Eyes was knocked down to Green and Singer for just $100,000.

“It was surprising really – I thought we’d have to pay more,” Elkington says. “Bollinger was a terrific racemare herself, and went on to breed some good horses. It was just a great family.

“She was a clean legged filly with a good top, good depth of girth, so we were happy to get her.”

After her solid racing career, Cristal Eyes went to Danehill-line sire Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) to produce Cristal Clear. A year later, in 2021, she went a different direction, to Coolmore’s Sadler’s Wells line sire So You Think (High Chaparral), and the result was Sass Appeal, bought from Vinery’s draft by O’Brien for $120,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

“So You Think had some good horses going around at the time, and Alan Green was a fan,” says White, mentioning Group 1 winners such as Think It Over, Quick Thinker, Inference and Nakeeta Jane.

The cross of So You Think over Cristal Eyes’ sire All Too Hard has only had the one runner – Sass Appeal – for that bristling 100 per cent Stakes Winners To Runners ratio.

So You Think over second damsire More Than Ready has had more exposure, with 19 winners from 20 runners and two black type victors at 10 per cent, the sire’s second best nick of 20 runners or greater.

White points out the cross has also worked in Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) queen You Whang (So You Think), whose dam is by All Too Hard’s sire Casino Prince (Flying Spur).

Sass Appeal’s pedigree is powered by hybrid vigour, with no inbreeding to report.

Influential US stallion Hail To Reason (Turn-To) bobs up in a 6m x 6m duplication through two influential sons in strong places, with Bold Reason being the damsire of So You Think’s grandsire Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer), and Halo the third sire of Champagne Run, Sass Appeal’s second dam.

Deeper in, there’s an enticing 6m, 8m x 9m, 9m of the great American blue hen Lalun (Djeddah). The first comes through Bold Reason and the second via Never Bend (Nasrullah), who’s behind the sireline of High Chaparral’s dam. At the bottom, Lalun appears on both sides of All Too Hard’s pedigree, through Never Bend.

Northern Dancer (Nearctic) makes nine appearances as the greatest contributor of blood (14.84 per cent), ahead of his dam, the super mare Natalma (Native Dancer), who has 10 spots for 7.81 per cent.

Nearco (Pharos) is the most common sire, with 15 mentions, ahead of the 12 of Native Dancer (Polynesian).

Pedigree buffs will delight in the bloodlines of Monday’s Darwin Cup (2050m) winner Watadeel (Dundeel) which, with all due respect to the Top End, suggest far higher success than that dirt-track event, much loved as it is.

Bred by Segenhoe Stud and carrying the increasingly successful colours of Bennett Racing, the seven-year-old packs a powerful presence of those wonderful Northern Dancer x Fairy Bridge full-brothers Sadler’s Wells and Fairy King, close up in the third generation in both sirelines.

The sequences run Sadler’s Wells-High Chaparral-Dundeel, and Fairy King-Encosta De Lago into Watadeel’s dam Water Kiss (Encosta De Lago), a four time winner out of the Listed-winning Kishkat (Spinning World).

The great Nureyev (Northern Dancer) is repeated at 5f x 4m. The first is through his famed daughter Lady Giselle – Australia’s Broodmare of the Year in 1995 and the dam of Zabeel (Sir Tristram), Dundeel’s damsire. Down below, Nureyev is the sire of Spinning World.

And Nureyev’s dam, the great American mare Special (Forli) thus makes four appearances relatively close in, since she’s the dam of Fairy Bridge and Nureyev.

Throw in a 5m x 6f of Sir Ivor (Sir Gaylord), the sire of Sir Tristram in Dundeel’s maternal sireline and of Encosta De Lago’s third dam Grand Luxe, and the close-up intricacies abound.

For good measure, as with Sass Appeal but stronger, Lalun appears twice on both sides – neatly through Bold Reason and Never Bend each time – at 6m, 8m x 6m, 7m.