International Spread of Northern Dancer/Danzig

Last week we published a story highlighting the rise of Danzig/ Danehill in Australia over the last 15 years and the response to that story prompted us to do some more research and look at the corresponding time period in North America and also for Great Britain and Ireland.

The findings reveal GB/Ireland with 53% of their Group One winners in 2007 from the Northern Dancer sireline, 33% in North America as compared to us with 63% for the 2007/2008 season.

The Northern Dancer domination in GB/Ireland has been consistent going back to 1993 when the all powerful sireline line accounted for 58% of Group One winners and this saturation of the one bloodline does not appear to have had a detrimental effect on their industry up to this point.

“There are some very good racehorses currently that carry three or even four lines of Northern Dancer blood and provided it’s far enough back and blends different lines that have developed different characteristics it’s not a bad thing at all,” said respected bloodstock agent and pedigree expert Les Young on TVN’s Thoroughbreds program.

While Danzig dominates the Australian Northern Dancer phenomenon, in GB/Ireland the major expansion of the sireline has been split between Danzig and Sadler’s Wells, who has now passed his rival with sire sons Galileo and Montjeu emerging as world class sires in their own right.

The Mr Prospector sireline has also gained quite a foothold in Europe where it has risen from 7% in 1993 to nearly 17% in 2007.

Our look at the North American Group One winners offered a far more diverse picture, which is kind of ironic given that Northern Dancer raced in America on dirt and stood there for his entire stud career, yet has proven more dominant offshore than in his continent of origin.

In 1993, Northern Dancer was the leading Group One sire influence in North America with 21% and Mr Prospector next on the list with 14%, the remainder made up of a great many sirelines representing a very diverse gene pool.

Mr Prospector has made rapid strides over the years and is pretty much on a level pegging with Northern Dancer these days, albeit his 28% is a whisker behind his rival on 33%.

Interestingly it is the Storm Cat branch of the Northern Dancer line that has emerged the strongest with 32% of American Northern Dancer Group One winners in 2007 as opposed to Danzig with 28%.

There is one common denominator for the international expansion of the Northern Dancer line and it’s Danzig who has had a massive impact in all three centres that we have looked at and he was by no means the obvious choice to lead the way forward for his legendary sire.

Danzig did not win a stakes race, although he did retire unbeaten winning each of three starts before unsoundness caught up with him and then got a golden opportunity in retiring to a major stud in Claiborne Farm in Kentucky.

“Northern Dancer had many far better performed sons than Danzig go to stud, horses like Sadler’s Wells and Nijinsky for example, but historically it’s often been the lesser lights that have proven the influential stallions long term, going back to a horse like Stardust, the son of Hyperion that gave us Star Kingdom,” Young added.

So what does all this mean?