Here's a bit of banter involving Last Tycoon.
Might be of use.
April 28, 2009
ONE MORE FOR RED RANSOM
by Alan Porter
For recent issues of the leading Australian thoroughbred breeding magazine Bluebloods, a publication we write for on a monthly basis, we’ve explored how the Hail to Reason line through Red Ransom (from the Roberto branch) and More Than Ready (from the Halo branch) might provide the ideal outcross for Australia’s current profusion of Northern Dancer line mares.
That point was re-emphasized at the weekend when Red Ransom’s son, Onemorenomore captured the Champagne Stakes (gr. I) over a mile atroyal Randwick. Onemorenomore, who was winning his second race in six starts (all in stakes events), has steadily improved with distance, having scored his previous victory in the T L Baillieu Handicap over 7 furlongs, and then finished fourth in the Sires’ Produce Stakes (gr. I), and his connections were apparently confident that he would appreciate the mile better than the horses who finished in front of him in the Sires’ Produce.
As far as distance is concern, Red Ransom has – in the most positive sense – always been something of a split personality horse. He himself showed tremendous speed winning both his starts at two, setting a new track record for five furlongs at Saratoga on his debut. However, his sire, Roberto, won the English Derby (gr. I), and his broodmare sire, Damascus, the “Horse of Steel” won the Jockey Club Gold Cup when it was still contested at two miles. At stud, he’s sired the winners of top-class races from five furlongs to 1½ miles, and most distances inbetween.
In Australia, the local population seems to have almost exclusive reacted to Red Ransom’s speed influence, and almost all his graded scorers are sprinters and milers. Onemorenomore is the fourth Australia grade one winner for Red Ransom, following Charge Forward – in line for freshman sire honours – Red Dazzler and Typhoon Tracy, and he has 14 other Australian graded scorers, including the grade two winners Portillo, Halibery, Romneya, Duporth and Domesday.
A $800,000 William Inglis Easter Yearling Sale purchase by Anthony Cummings on behalf of Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm, Onemorenomore is out of Palia, winner of the Emancipation Stakes (gr. III) and Ra Ora Classic. Oddly enough, Palia’s sire, Last Tycoon represented the same kind of distance conundrum as Red Ransom. By Try My Best, a Champion European Two-Year-Old, and brother to El Gran Senor, who won the Irish Derby (gr. I) at 1½ miles, out of a mare by Mill Reef – one of the best 1½ mile horses ever seen in Europe – Last Tycoon broke the five furlong course record at Royal Ascot when winning the King’s Stand Stakes (gr. I), although he did eventually see out eight furlongs well enough to capture the Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. I). Last Tycoon has been a tremendously successful broodmare sire in the Southern Hemisphere, where his daughters have so far produced more than 50 stakes winners, 35 of them graded, and 15 grade one.
Palia herself has been a more than useful producer, as in addition to Onemorenomore, she is dam of the Fusaichi Pegasus colt Dr Green, a brilliantly fast but erratic two-time listed winner in New Zealand and graded placed in both Australia and New Zealand, and Dr Green’s brothers Roussay and Fury, both of who have been graded stakes placed. Palia also has two good producing sisters, Lady Capel and Mrs Squillionaire. Stakes placed Lady Capel is dam of the Chipping Norton Stakes (gr. I) winner Casino Prince (by Flying Spur), now a resident at Patinack Farm as a stallion, and black-type scorer Lord of the Land (by Timber Country). Mrs Squillionaire produced the Catbird gelding Green Birdie, winner of two Hong Kong graded events, and runner-up in the Hong Kong Sprint (gr. I). Since Red Ransom has enjoyed success with Danehill line mares, and two of Palia’s sisters have produced good winners by sons of Danehill, there is a very good chance that Onemorenomore will cross well with mares from that line when he retires to stud.
Palia’s dam, Kew Gardens, a daughter of Kenmare, raced in France, where she earned black-type with a second in the Prix Soya. She is half-sister to Le Johnstan, who captured the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot, and to Woodwind, dam of the Nunthorpe Stakes (gr. I) and King’s Stand Stakes (gr. II) winner Piccolo, a successful sire in England, and sire of Australian grade one winner Picaday from a shuttle crop. Kew Gardens is also bred on similar lines to the dam of Canadian Horse of the Year Arravale, whose dam is by Kaldoun (a Grey Sovereign line horse, like Kenmare, the sire of Kew Gardens) out of a half-sister to Kew Gardens. Oddly enough, Arravale is also from the Roberto line (she is by the Kris S. stallion Arch), so her pedigree has some broad similarities to to Onemorenomore. The third dam of Kew Gardens, Lady Kells, won the Phoenix Plate (which would then have been the equivalent of a group two event) and was half-sister to the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Solonaway. Lady Kells is know internationally through her Nasrullah daughter Dangerous Dame. She was only a minor winner at the track, but at stud produced the top-class sisters Heavenly Body and Hidden Talent. Through them she is ancestress of numerous top-class horses, among them Broad Brush, Exceller, Capote, Sakhee, Bob and John, River Memories, Pressing, and Mull of Kintyre.
Rated A++ by TrueNicks, the Red Ransom/Last Tycoon cross is proving to be a very potent one. In addition to Onemorenomore, it has also produced the brilliant filly Typhoon Tracy, her full brother in the stakes winner Red Element, graded winner Valpolicella, and grade one placed Kylikwong. Red Ransom is always a threat to combine well with Northern Dancer blood as his granddam is a daughter of Northern Dancer’s sire, Nearctic, and he also has Mossborough, a very close genetic relative to Nearctic, and grandsire of his third dam. With Last Tycoon, the cross also supplies the genetic relatives My Babu and Never Bend (with another cross of My Babu appearing in the dam of Onemorenomore). The pedigree of Onemorenomore also shows an unusually high concentration of the great racehorse and sire, Nearco, and Onemorenomore is unusual in that his dam carries not only Nearco’s Italian Derby winner half-brother, Niccolo Dell’Arca, but also his half-sister, the Italian Oaks heroine Nervesa.
karel miedema said:
April 28, 2009
Alan,
you wrote: “we’ve explored how the Hail to Reason line through Red Ransom (from the Roberto branch) and More Than Ready (from the Halo branch) might provide the ideal outcross for Australia’s current profusion of Northern Dancer line mares.”
To my mind the word outcross is a bit of a misnomer. In kin-breeding terms Northern Dancer’s Nearctic and Halo and Roberto are much the same, and might be expected to combine well.
A nice example is current South African champion sire Jet Master, who is by Rakeen (Northern Dancer x Halo) out of a mare by Rollins (Damascus x full sister to Roberto; Kerala, dam of Damascus, and Hail to Reason are also close kin). I’m lucky to have a Gr-winning daughter of Jet Master, Starlit, her dam bringing more Hail to Reason & Damascus, plus another Turn To.
Sunday Silence (by Halo) is another interesting one in the Last Tycoon context, as he has had a few good ones out of mares with Nijinsky – look at Special Week’s damsire Maruzensky (Nijinsky’s Flaming Page x Buckpasser, the pair going to Halo & Edelweiss from Sunday Silence).
In Last Tycoon I see kin-breeding Nearctic x Irish Lass (Scollata). Given that Irish Lass got Last Tycoon’s dam Mill Princess by Mill Reef, have Last Tycoon mares done anything with sons of Sadler’s Wells (Bold Reason to Mill Princess) (or vice-versa)?
Hey, I could fiddle with this forever…
Alan Porter said:
April 29, 2009
Hi Karel,
I’d agree with you that there is a high degree of genetic relationship between the horses that you mention. For this article was writing at a fairly elementary level, and in terms of the horses being an outcross for Northern Dancer (particularly Danzig), in as much as they are free (or relatively so) of Northern Dancer, particularly in the male line.
It’s probably the ideal – outcross close up, but high degree of genetic relationship.
And of course, Sadler’s Wells/Last Tycoon is tremendous, including grade one winners by King’s Theatre, Tobougg, and Entrepreneur, not exactly the best Sadler’s Wells line horses out there.
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