If anyone needed a reminder of the Danzig male line’s dominance of Britain’s speed events, one was provided by the latest edition of the historic Middle Park Stakes. All six runners were by Danzig line stallions and the first four all descend from Green Desert.
It was the 2002 Middle Park winner Oasis Dream who was responsible for the unexpected winner Charming Thought, as well as the Gimcrack winner Muhaarar, who filled third place. Showcasing, another Gimcrack-winning son of Oasis Dream, supplied the fourth-placed Cappella Sansevero, but Oasis Dream was denied a clean sweep of the first four places by Invincible Spirit. His son Zebedee sired the narrowly-beaten second, Ivawood.
Showcasing had appeared assured of ending the year as leading first-crop sire until Lope De Vega’s Group-race double on Future Champions Day helped the Ballylinch stallion snatch the lead. Showcasing is one of three sons of Oasis Dream to have sired at least one Group-winning two-year-old in 2014, but it is not his stallion sons which interest me here, but his broodmare daughters.
Showcasing is one of three sons of Oasis Dream to have sired at least one Group-winning two-year-old in 2014
Oasis Dream’s eldest daughters are nine. Any filly which raced at three will not have a runner until she is seven, so we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg where his broodmare daughters are concerned. Equineline credits them with 174 foals of racing age, of which 100 are two-year-olds of 2014, so few have had a chance to prove themselves. They have done well to produce 73 winners from 114 runners. More importantly, they have produced seven black-type winners, of which five have won at Group level. Another five have earned black-type, to make the totals 12 black-type performers from 114 runners – more than 10%.
It will surprise no-one that three of the Group winners have scored at the age of two. All three are juveniles of 2014 and two of them enjoyed Group success on the same day. The Equiano filly Dark Reckoning landed the Firth of Clyde Stakes to improve her record to three wins from six starts. In France, Evasive’s First scored for the fifth time in seven starts when he defeated Oasis Dream’s high-priced son De Treville in the Prix des Chenes. It is worth mentioning that Dark Reckoning’s dam Impressible was just a fairly useful sprint handicapper, while Evasive’s First’s dam Zalia never finished closer than fourth in five starts.
This trend continues with the two three-year-old Group winners out of daughters of Oasis Dream. Extortionist, the fast Dandy Man colt, is out of a dual all-weather winner with a Timeform rating of 78. And Lacy, the Authorized filly who failed by only a nose to add the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio to her German Group 3 success, is out of an unraced mare. Lacy acts as a reminder that Oasis Dream’s career as a broodmare sire is unlikely to be all about speed – his first three dams were all sired by outstanding mile-and-a-half winners, so his daughters will probably also produce good performers beyond a mile when mated to the likes of Galileo or Authorized.
The latest of the five Group winners out of Oasis Dream’s daughters, Zamindar’s Group 3 Autumn Stakes winner Commemorative, has a more blue-blooded dam in Revered. She is a winning daughter of Arrive, a Broodmare of the Year whose other claim to fame is that she is a sister to the celebrated Hasili. Arrive earned her title by producing the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Promising Lead and Revered’s very smart but diminutive sister Visit.
Revered has produced foals by Dubawi and Frankel, and it will be fascinating to chart the progress of Oasis Dream mares over the next few years. For example, five of his stakes-winning daughters have 2013 foals by the mighty Galileo. Bearing in mind that Galileo has sired an Oaks winner from a Green Desert mare and a Derby winner from a grand-daughter, his alliance with Oasis Dream’s daughters should be very fruitful. One of these Galileo youngsters is the first foal of the six-time Group 1 winner Midday, who went so close to winning the Oaks.
Naturally, many daughters of Oasis Dream have been mated to reinforce his speed, with the likes of Acclamation, Equiano, Kyllachy, Pivotal and Royal Applause all being popular choices. I shall be watching the filly by Zoffany, out of Oasis Dream’s winning daughter Sioduil, which sold for 260,000gns as a yearling. There should also be some quick returns from the Bahamian Bounty colt out of the speedy Mullein which was bought by Shadwell for 100,000gns, and from the Dark Angel colt out of the Listed-placed Glisten, which went to Barry Hills for 100,000gns.