DANSILI CROWNED TOP SIRE IN FRANCE
Leading Sires in France 2006
|
Winners |
Wins |
Total Winnings |
| DANSILI |
14 |
24 |
€
2,152,630 |
| Monsum |
17 |
36 |
€ 1,564,835 |
| Linamix |
38 |
58 |
€ 1,543,290 |
| Peintre Celebre |
17 |
23 |
€ 1,477,285 |
| Anabaa |
43 |
63 |
€ 1,384,695 |
| Danehill |
16 |
20 |
€ 1,283,370 |
| Poligote |
45 |
64 |
€ 1,255,045 |
| Verglas |
30 |
47 |
€ 1,232,640 |
| Kendor |
29 |
46 |
€ 1,195,932 |
| Montjeu |
9 |
11 |
€ 1,185, 975 |
By Tony Morris
It is not unusual for France's champion sire to be a resident of
another country; in fact, it has been quite a regular occurrence.
Over the last 20 years, the title has gone to the US three
times, with Nureyev (1987, 1997), and Green Dancer (1991), and to
Ireland seven times, with Sadler's Wells (1993, 1999), Fairy King
(1996), Danehill (2001, 2002), Darshaan (2003) and Montjeu
(2005).
In 2006 the championship again went abroad, but this time there
was an unusual feature, in that it was won by a horse based
in Britain. To say that DANSILI 's achievement is rare would be
an understatement. The last time that Britain had any sort of
claim to the French sires' title was in 1935, and then it was
bogus, because the stock that made Blandford champion had all been
conceived in Ireland before his move to Whatcombe, where he died in
April of that year.
Blandford got virtually all of his best stock, including his
four Derby winners, while based at Cloghran, the 2000 Guineas and
Eclipse victor Pasch (foaled just over three weeks before his sire
died) being the only real celebrity he got in Britain.
DANSILI, though
conceived at Coolmore, was British-foaled and his home as a
stallion is Banstead Manor, the stud, incidentally, where Pasch
stood his only season in 1939.
DANSILI notoriously never won in
Group 1 company, but he proved a runner of that calibre as
both three- and four-year old, ending his career as a
desperately unlucky runner-up in the Breeders Cup Mile. In his
first two seasons at Stud his fee was only £8,000, and among the
products of his second crop were Rail Link, whose Grand Prix de
Paris and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victories were chiefly
responsible for his sire's elevation to champion status, and Price
Tag, deprived by the Longchamp stewards of a European Group 1, but
more recently successful in the Group 1 Matriarch Stakes in
California.
From a smaller crop conceived at £12,500 in his third
season, DANSILI
got three smart youngsters in Passage of Time (already successful
in Group 1), Strategic Prince and Thousand Words, and it is
unsurprising that for the 2007 season he will cover for £30,000.
His profile can surely only go higher.
Date: 18 January 2007