Sometimes the karma gods smile on you and they did at Emirates Park on Sunday when by sheer good luck I happened to be there at the same time as Bob Thomsen and his son Jamie.
Emirates Park have had an open house over the weekend to showcase their
exciting young sires Dream Ahead (USA) and Harbour Watch (IRE), the former with
yearlings headed to the sales next year and the latter with foals on the ground
this spring.A five time Group I winning sprinter in Europe, Dream Ahead has been the leading freshman sire at European sales this year and from the just turned yearlings we saw, has the potential to be just as successful here.
Among those presented were half-brothers to Group I winners Almalad and Fat Al, who both have the athleticism and strength that made their sire the dominant sprinting champion of Europe.
"I could pull out 17 more that look just like that," said Nominations Manager, Bryan Carlson.
With the serious business out of the way it didn't take Bob Thomsen long to ask if we could go and visit Danewin, who has now been pensioned from stud duties.
Just turned 23, Danewin was retired to stud at Emirates Park in 1996, following a long and successful career under the care of Thomsen, who won 13 races and over $2million in prizemoney with the champion son of Danehill (USA).
"He won five Group I races in Australia, which is more than any other Danehill colt and he should have won another five," recalled Thomsen.
His overall record, 13 wins and nine placings from 31 starts, does not
accurately reflect the career of Danewin, which many believe could have been so
much better if not for owner Sunny Yam's preference for Hong Kong based jockey
Jackie Tse."I can't tell you how good this horse was. The things he could do were just amazing. He broke two minutes for 2000 metres when he won the Rosehill Guineas and was the first three year-old to do that and then Octagonal equalled that mark the year after," Thomsen recalled, although it was never smooth sailing.
"Jackie Tse cost him a lot of races, two Derbies for a start.
"Bart (Cummings) once told me the only reason he ran Ivory's Irish in the AJC Derby was because Jackie was on Danewin.
"Then there was the Epsom, when he ran second after drawing 18… he should have won that."
Standing in the paddock with his coat still thick and wintery and that faraway look in his eyes that old horses get, Danewin was only too pleased to receive visitors.
"He's always been a gentleman from the day he walked in my stables," said
Thomsen."You could lead him around on a head collar. In fact you didn't even need that a lot of the time, he'd just follow you around like a dog, just a lovely horse.
"The work riders were flat out getting him going at the start, you'd have to carry a whip to get him cantering he was that lazy."
At stud, Danewin proved a success, but again not the success he should have been as he was dogged by less than ideal fertility.
"You look at his statistics, he could have been as good as Redoute's Choice," Thomsen said and he's not far wrong.
Even with a fraction of the numbers and quality of mare afforded Redoute's Choice, Danewin achieved 8% stakes-winners to runners, his offspring headed by Group I stars such as Theseo, Country Tyrone, Vitesse Dane, Toulouse Lautrec, Excites and champion HK mare Elegant Fashion.
A legendary Randwick trainer, who also put the polish on champions such as Shogun Lodge and Slight Chance, Bob Thomsen is now retired, but his son Jamie is just starting out having gained his trainer's licence and set up shop at Hawkesbury.
"I've got eight horses at the moment and three of them are by Danewin!" said Jamie Thomsen, who is seeking to boost his numbers and develop his fledgling stable.
If anybody has an insight into how a Danewin should be trained it… it will be him!
