THREE VALLEYS AT ROYAL ASCOT
When the Juddmonte-bred THREE VALLEYS trotted up at Royal Ascot,
matching Mill Reef’s magnificent 8-length winning margin in the
Coventry Stakes, he was merely maintaining a family tradition. His
third dam, Sookera, had also won impressively over the same course
and distance back at the 1977 Royal meeting, when she came through
to catch the future Gimcrack winner Tumbledownwind. Sookera had
already demonstrated her precocity by winning the first
two-year-old race of the season on March 17, over eight weeks
before her actual second birthday on May 15, and she trained on so
well that she ended her first season with victory in the G1
Cheveley Park Stakes. Her G1 win confirmed that she possessed the
ability to quicken - a very valuable asset which she has passed on
to many of her high-class descendants.
Although she was by a Derby winner, Sookera had every right to
be fast and precocious. Her sire, Roberto, had established himself
as Ireland’s champion juvenile of 1971 by a margin of no less than
8 lbs, following two wins over 6.3 furlongs and another, in the
National Stakes, over 7 furlongs. And then there was Sookera’s
broodmare sire, the explosive Young Emperor. This son of Grey
Sovereign started favourite for the 1965 Coventry Stakes and put up
a performance similar to THREE VALLEYS’. Always up with the
leaders, Young Emperor forged away inside the final quarter mile to
win by six lengths. Young Emperor was similarly impressive in the
Gimcrack Stakes, showing blistering speed from the start to win by
six lengths and four. As a result, he headed the English Free
Handicap by 4 lbs and the Irish version by no less than 10 lbs.
Timeform rated him 133 – a tremendous figure for a
two-year-old.
The speed shown by Sookera and Young Emperor has proved very
dominant down the generations, with only one of Sookera’s foals
ever winning at a distance longer than a mile. Two of Sookera’s
sons by the 2,000 Guineas winner Known Fact inherited a full
measure of her swiftness. So Factual demonstrated his talents at
the 1995 Royal meeting, when he defeated the champion sprinter Lake
Coniston in the Cork and Orrery Stakes, and he later became a G1
winner over 5 furlongs in the Nunthorpe Stakes. Two years later So
Factual’s brother Bold Fact was unlucky not to win the Coventry
Stakes. After taking the lead with two furlongs to run, Bold Fact
started to hang badly right but he still nearly managed to win. The
Form Book records that he was only “headed near finish” by Harbour
Master and Desert Prince. Bold Fact made amends by winning the G3
July Stakes and became a stakes winner in each of his four seasons
in training, his last victory coming in the Aegon Turf Sprint
Stakes, in which he went close to Churchill Downs’ record for 5
furlongs.
Even that excellent middle-distance stayer High Line, whose
stock had the high average winning distance of 12.8 furlongs, could
not buck the trend. Kerali, his daughter out of Sookera, started
her three-year-old career with a race over 1¼ miles but was
immediately dropped back to 7 furlongs, showing a good turn of foot
to win at Kempton. Only one of High Line’s many winners ever won at
a shorter distance than 7 furlongs after the age of two in Britain
or Ireland.
The family’s speed again emerged when Sookera’s Godswalk filly
Resooka visited Thatching, the result being Thousla Rock, a G3
winner over 6 furlongs. It has been Kerali, though, who has played
the main role in extending Sookera’s influence.
Kerali was mated several times to stamina-packed members of the
Nijinsky male line. Her first mating with Kahyasi, a stallion with
a stamina index of 12.5 furlongs, resulted in Hasili, a filly who
again proved true to the Sookera tradition. Precocious enough to
race eight times at two, Hasili won over 5 furlongs, 6 furlongs and
twice over a mile, notably winning the Prix des Sablonnets
(Listed). Her speed and toughness were again evident at three, when
she was second in Listed races over 7 furlongs and a mile, notably
running the G1 winner Coup de Genie to 2 lengths in the Prix
Imprudence.
Hasili, of course, has helped take this family to even greater
heights, with her first four foals, Dansili, Banks Hill, Heat Haze
and Intercontinental, all proving good enough to contest a Guineas
race in England or France. The first two also did very well at
Royal Ascot. Dansili contested the Queen Anne Stakes in 2000 and
did very well to finish a half-length second to Kalanisi when set
to concede 3 lbs to the future winner of the Champion Stakes and
Breeders’ Cup Turf. Banks Hill did even better, quickening
impressively to win the G1 Coronation Stakes in 2001.
To return to Kerali, she produced THREE VALLEYS’ dam Skiable to
Niniski, an Irish and French St Leger winner whose stock had an
average winning distance of 12.6 furlongs. Only 17 of the 226 races
won by Niniski’s mature stock in Britain and Ireland to the end of
2002 (a mere 7.5 per cent) were over distances of a mile or less,
yet Skiable won over 7 furlongs at two and a mile at three (when
she also won over 9 furlongs). Her record of three wins from four
starts in France earned Skiable the chance to race in California,
where she again won over a mile and was second, beaten only a head,
in the Matching Stakes over 9 furlongs on a firm track at Del
Mar.
THREE VALLEYS is Skiable’s fifth foal and fifth winner. He has
several things in common with that very good horse and successful
sire Halling (Timeform 133). Both were sired by Diesis from
grand-daughters of Nijinsky which won over 7 furlongs at two.
Remarkably, both THREE VALLEYS and Halling descend from champion
Irish fillies which won the Chesham Stakes, Halling’s fourth dam
being the 1963 winner Mesopotamia. Diesis also had the attraction
of having a pedigree which included the Tudor Minstrel mare Mixed
Marriage, whose grandson Known Fact did so well with
Sookera.
Date: 19 May 2003