BEST STILL TO COME FROM DARAMSAR
We were aware at the time that the 1984 Prix du Jockey-Club was
a pretty good race. The first three home had all displayed solid
form on fast ground before the race and by separating themselves
from the pack, ultimately finishing five lengths clear on the soft
Chantilly turf they confirmed impressions of their high
quality.
As it turned out, France’s premier Classic proved to be the high
point of the winner’s career, whereas the runner-up went on to
collect the Eclipse and Irish Champion later that season and the
third waited until the following year for his Group 1 successes in
the Coronation Cup and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. As 3yos the trio
were rated by Timeform in accordance with their Jockey Club form –
133,132 and 131- and those marks indicated that it had been a
strong renewal.
What we could not know in 1984 was how influential those three
horses –Darshaan, Sadler’s Wells and RAINBOW QUEST-would become in racing and
for the breed in Europe. In fact, we still will not know the full
extent for many years to come, but we can present an interim
report.
Between them they are responsible as sires for 230 individual
winners of 428 pattern races. As broodmare sires they are
responsible for 109 daughters who have produced 131 individual
winners of 250 pattern races.
The order of precedence in their 3yo days has not been preserved
in their stud careers, as Sadler’s Wells, aided always by higher
quality and quantity in his mare books, leads both categories, by a
wide margin over RAINBOW
QUEST (277 wins against 89) in the sire’s table,
and more narrowly (106 wins against 97) over Darshaan in the
broodmare sires’ list.
The 52nd individual Pattern-winning product for
RAINBOW QUEST came at
Longchamp on Sunday when Daramsar made all the running to land the
Gr.2 Prix du Conseil de Paris in good style for his owner-breeder
the Aga Khan, at the same time rounding off a great weekend for
trainer Alain de Royer Dupre.
Rainbow Quest, the first horses since Mill Reef and Brigadier
Gerard to be accorded a Timeform rating in the 130s as a 2,3 and
4yo had a fabulous start to his stud career, which began at the
Wargrave division of the Juddmonte operation. Among his first crop
of 37 foals were six pattern/graded winners, including Quest For
Fame (Derby), Knight’s Baroness (Irish Oaks) and Saumaurez (Grand
Prix de Paris and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe). Since then we have
always known what to expect from the typical Rainbow Quest product
– a lack of precocious speed, improvement with time and distance
and honest endeavour. Many have waited until four or five to reach
their peak, and a number have held their form over long periods,
the most notable being St Leger winner Millenary, whose 11 pattern
successes were registered between the ages of 3 and 8.
Resident at Banstead Manor since 1988, and now back at his
original fee of £25,000, RAINBOW
QUESThas never covered huge books, his highest
quota being 77 in 2002. That was the season he got Daramsar, whose
steady improvement this year bodes well for 2007. The fourth of the
colt’s wins came in Listed company at Clairefontaine, and after his
close third in Best Name’s Group 3 Prix du Prince d’Orange (1m2f),
the rise in grade for the Conseil de Paris seemed less
consequential than the opportunity to tackle a longer distance. It
will be surprising if he does not prove competitive at the highest
level as a 4yo, at 1m4f and perhaps beyond.
Daramsar is the second major winner from his family for the Aga
Khan this season, as he shares his third dam Darazina with Darsi
(Polish Precedent-Darashandeh, by Darshaan), successful in the Prix
du Jockey-Club. The family had its origins in the Boussac stud, but
it was the 1941 mating of the textile tycoon’s mare La Moqueuese
(winner of the Prix de la Foret and runner up in the Poule d’Essai
des Pouliches) with Umidwar, a stallion owned by the Aga’s
grandfather , which was the key to its rise to prominence after
World War II.
La Moqueuse’s Umidwar foal was Pretty Lady, whose brood included
Dynamiter, twice winner of the Champion Stakes in the Boussac
colours, and Abdos, an unbeaten juvenile regarded by his breeder as
the best horse he had owned since Pharis. Boussac just might have
been right, as Timeform rated Abdos 134p at two, but sadly the colt
did not reappear, and he is remembered best now as Darshaan’s
maternal grandsire.
One of the half-sisters to Dynamiter and Abdos was Dalama, who
won the Coupe de Maisons-Laffite and was third in the Prix
Vermeille, and her branch of the family was extended through her
daughter Djebellina, sired by Charlottesville, the present Aga
Khan’s first Jockey-Club winner.
Djebellina’s daughter Darazina (by Labus) had two stakes-winning
daughters, the first being Daralinsha, who clicked in the Group 3
Prix de Minerve. Darashandeh was probably the pick of her foal,
with a second in the Group 3 Prix de Penelope and a fourth at the
top level in the Prix Saint Alary the best of her runs as a 3yo,
and she was already dam of winners by Barathea and Night Shift
before Darsi came along to maker her a Group 1 producer.
Daralinsha’s half-sister Darata, sire by the Aga Champion Stakes
winner Vayrann, had a Listed victory to her credit, and in addition
finished in the frame in three pattern events. A prolific
winner-producer, she registered her biggest hit to date as dam of
Daryaba, a mid-May foal by Night Shift who saw no action at two but
made up for lost time in her second season with three victories,
most notably in the Prix de Diane and Prix Vermeille.
With just four races behind her, Daryaba-the best daughter of
her sire after In The Groove- was sent off fourth favourite for the
Arc, but the venture was doomed to disappointment. She bled and
returned with mucus in her lungs. And although there was talk of
her looking for compensation either at the Breeders’ Cup or in the
Japan Cup nothing came of either suggestion.
Retired to Stud and booked to Machiavellian, Daryaba produced
the smart Listed-placed winner Daryamar, but there was better to
come in Daramsar, her second produce. The son’s 3yo career has
ended more happily than the mother’s and there will surely be
further triumphs before he is retired to stud.
Date: 19 October 2006