Montjeu influence in four Sydney Group One winners
Now winner of seven races and earner of over $4million, Lucia Valentina
Lucia Valentina (NZ) in the $4million Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m)
VICTORIES by Gallante (Ire) in the $2milion Schweppes Sydney Cup (3200m) and Lucia Valentina (NZ) in the $4million Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) on the second day of the Australian Championships at Randwick meant that four 2016 autumn Group1 winners carried the Sadler’s Wells prematurely deceased European superstar classic performer and sire Montjeu in their immediate pedigrees.
He appears as the sire of Gallante, a Lloyd Williams family raced 5-year-old gelding who in 2014, a year he raced in Europe as a 3-year-old colt for a Coolmore partners ownership, won the Group1 Grand Prix de Paris over 2400m at Longchamp, and Lucia Valentina is a 5-year-old mare by the Zabeel Cox Plate winner Savabeel and from Staryn Glenn (NZ), a New Zealand bred non-winner by Montjeu.
Now winner of seven races and earner of over $4million, Lucia Valentina races out of the Kris Lees stables at Newcastle for a single owner, New Zealander Lib Petagna (JML Bloodstock). He also races Australian Oaks winner Sofia Rosa (trained in NZ by Stephen Marsh).
Saturday’s winners were preceded by Tarzino (NZ), winner of the Rosehill Guineas), and Tavago (NZ), annexer of the Australian Derby. Both are by Tavistock, a New Zealand bred son of Montjeu standing at the Cambridge Stud.
Tavistock, a winner in New Zealand of two Group1s at 1400m, was one of five to succeed at this level left by Montjeu from four southern hemisphere seasons in that country, 2002-2005.The others have been Wall Street (Group1 winner NZ, Aust, fourth Cox Plate twice), Nom du Jeu (won AJC Australian Derby, second Queen Elizabeth, MRC Caulfield Cup; sire of winners from use at Fairdale Stud, NZ), Sharvasti (female, won Avondale Gold Cup) and Roman Emperor (won AJC Australian Derby, second Caulfield Cup).
Besides Tavistock and Nom de Jeu, New Zealand studs host the Montjeu good southern hemisphere performers and sires Guillotine (Group 2 winner, Group1 placed), Gallant Guru (Australian foaled Group 2 winner) and Mettre en Jeu (second New Zealand Derby). In addition Roman Emperor stands at the late Bart Cummings’ Princes Farm stud in the Hawkesbury Valley.
There have also been some good Ireland sired performers in Australia by Montjeu besides Gallante including Green Moon (also raced by the Lloyd Williams family; won Melbourne Cup, second Caulfield Cup; at stud Ireland), The Offer (won Sydney Cup), Speed Gifted (won AJC Metropolitan) and Mount Athos (third Melbourne Cup).
On April 9, Montjeu had two imported winners, Gallante and Caillebotte, a 6-year-old gelding who easily won the 2220m event which opened the Doomben program. Like Montjeu out of a mare by Machiavellian, Caillebotte runs out of Matthew Dunn’s stables at Murwillumbah for a full complement of owners, including OTI Racing (Simon O’Donnell), Glenlogan Park (Jon Haseler) and Werrett Bloodstock (N.R.J. Werrett).
In addition to his southern hemisphere representation, Montjeu has an outstanding honor board from ten and a half seasons of use at the Coolmore stud in Ireland. Contributors have included St Nicholas Abbey (six Group1s including Epsom Coronation Cup three times, American Breeders’ Cup Turf), Camelot (won English Derby,Two Thousand Guineas, Irish Derby; looked after 114 mares at Coolmore Hunter Valley in 2014), Hurricane Run (Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Irish Derby, Ascot King George V1 & Queen Elizabeth), Aurhorized (English Derby, Racing Post 2YO Trophy; left winners up to Group1 level from four visits 2009-12 to Darley Hunter Valley), Motivator (Irish Derby, Racing Post Trophy), Pour Moi (English Derby, visited NZ 2012 and 13), Frozen Fire (Irish Derby), Leading Light (Ascot Gold Cup, English St Leger), Chicquita (Irish Oaks), Bracelet (Irish Oaks), Fame and Gory (Irish Derby, Ascot Gold Cup) and many more.
Credited with world wide statistics of 795 winners (120 SWs, 69 Group winners) of 2340 races and over Aust$139million, Montjeu was himself world class on the racecourse. His 16 starts included 11 wins, six of them Group1s, including the Irish Derby (by five lengths), French Derby (four), Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Ascot King George V1 & Queen Elizabeth. He finished fourth in another crack at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and in the Japan Cup. He was ranked the World Champion 3YO of 1999, a year he was also awarded a high Timeform of 137.
Montjeu died at Coolmore in Ireland at the age of 16 in March 2012. It was a death which was followed in 2014 while also in their prime of influential sires High Chaparral (at 15) and Street Cry (16).
Fairy King magic at Australian Championships
THE MAGIC of Fairy King, a Robert Sangster (Swettenham Stud) bred and owned stallion who broke down and tailed the field home at his only race start, but still got a box at Coolmore in Ireland in the mid1980s, use stimulated by the excellence of his older brother Sadler’s Wells, played a big role in Group1 racing at this year’s Sydney autumn racing, the centerpiece of which was the Australian Championships.
Paternally it was provided through offspring of his sons Encosta de Lago, an Australian bred Group1 winner and Champion sire who resulted from the first of two visits of Fairy King,1992 and1996, and Shinko King, an Ireland produced Japan Group1 winner who shuttled to New Zealand.
The Encosta de Lago male line Group1 contribution came from the awesome win of his 5-year-old gelded son Chautauqua in the Darley T.J. Smith at Randwick on April 2 and the success of the 3-year filly English in the All-Aged Stakes on the same track on April 16. English was a game third in the T.J. Smith.
In addition Encosta Delago’s 4-year-old daughter Sultry Feeling won the Group 3 Birthday Card at Rosehill Gardens on March 19. The product of Shinko King, a sire inbred 2x3 to Northern Dancer, flying the Fairy King flag during Sydney autumn racing was Azkadellia, the Ciaron Maher (Caulfield) trained runner up at Rosehill Gardens in the Coolmore and then at Randwick third in the Doncaster and a big winner last Saturday (April 9) of the million dollar Coolmore Legacy.
There was also a big showcase for Fairy King in Sydney during the autumn through offspring of daughters of Encosta de Lago.They included the dams of Sofia Rosa (by Makfi (GB); won Australian Oaks), Japonisme (by Choisir; won Arrowfield 3YO Sprint), Happy Clapper (Teofilio (Ire); second AJC Doncaster, third Queen Elizabeth), Tempt Me Not (Strategic Maneuver; won P.J. Bell Stakes) and Supara (Domesday; second at Rosehill in the Emancipation Stakes).
The April 9 earnings of their progeny propelled Encosta de Lago to the top of the 2015-16 Australian Broodmare statistics by earnings, winners and stakes winners. Zabeel is second and Danehill third.
Also in fourth place by money on the General Sires’ List, the now retired Coolmore sire Encosta de Lago is estimated to have left about a thousand females, the youngest of which are weanlings. So far his daughters,19 of which are in the catalogue covering the Australian Broodmare & Weanling Sale May 1-4, have produced over 700 winners (50 SWs) and earners of $62.9million.
Retired from use at Coolmore in the Hunter Valley at the end 2014, Encosta de Lago left over 2000 foals from 19 books in Australia and a light one in Ireland. So far he has supplied just on 1100 winners (109 SWs) of 3487 races (2800 Aust) and $158.9million (Aust $112million). He has been Champion Australian Sire twice and runner up in four years.
Encosta de Lago was bred by the Emirates Park Stud from a mating in1992 of Fairy King with Shoal Creek, a modest winner by Star Way (GB) and half-sister to Danehill Golden Slipper winner and Champion Sire Flying Spur. He ran eight times for wins in three majors in Melbourne, the VicHealth Cup (1400m), Ascot Vale (1200m) and Bill Stutt (1600m).
Brian Russell Bloodstock
