GRAND MARSHAL, the England bred winner of the million dollar Sydney Cup at Randwick on Saturday, is the first Group1 winner at 3200m (two miles) by Europe's leading Danehill sire Dansili (GB).
Now 19, Dansili has been located all his stud career at Juddmonte Farm at Newmarket, the England base for one of the world's leading breeders and owners, Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
In a long association with racing, Khalid has had the joy of owning two of the world's greatest performers of all time, Dancing Brave and Juddmonte produced Frankel.The latter is one of an elite band of seven sires, including Dansili, his Group1 winning younger brothers Cacique and Champs Elysees and also Oasis Dream, a son of Green Desert and a Dancing Brave mare, at Juddmonte.
Oasis Dream is a big rival to Dansili in the top ten European sires' list. For 2015, Dansili was fifth by earnings and Oasis Dream ninth and for 2013 they were third (Dansili) and fourth.
Unlike his four Group1 winning siblings, Cacique, Champs Elysees and fillies Banks Hill and Intercontinental, Dansili did not win at this level, but still earned ranking as joint top rated older miler in Europe for 2000. He ran for three years for five wins, including Group 2 and 3, and six Group1 minor placings - seconds French Two Thousand Guineas, Prix de la Foret, Goodwood Sussex Stakes and thirds Prix Moulin de Longchamp, Prix Jacques Le Marois and American Breeders' Cup Mile.
So far Dansili as a sire has been represented on Bloodhound Pedigrees statistics by 832 runners for 574 winners (24 countries),100 others placed, 96 stakes winners, 49 stakes placed,1583 wins (225 stakes) and $76.8million.
He has supplied 19 Group1 winners, including two in Australia, the Chris Waller trained imports Grand Marshal and Foreteller. Bred by Juddmonte Farm, Foreteller at this level in Australia has succeeded in the Ranvet Stakes, Makybe Diva Stakes and the Underwood Stakes, finished second in the Doomben Cup and Caulfield Stakes and third in the Australian Cup.
A lowly rated winner twice under the name of Magog in three starts in England, one at a mile at two and the other over 1 ½ mile at Goodwood at three, Grand Marshal has had five wins from 18 Australian starts, but the Sydney Cup was the first stakes win. However he was readied for a good Cup effort with a fourth in the Manion Cup-Gr.3 (2400m) at Rosehill Gardens on March 21 and a third in the Chairman's Handicap-Gr.2 (2600m) at Randwick on April 6.
He was one of eight northern hemisphere sired horses among the eleven runners in the Sydney Cup. One of these was Dominant, an Ireland foaled son of Dansili's brother Cacique who finished eighth. Trained by John Moore, he won the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase in 2013, chased home in second and third place by the visitors The Fugue (GB) and Dunaden (Fr).
A daughter of Dansili, The Fugue was ranked the second best mare in the World Ratings for 2014 and Dunaden is the visitor who won the Melbourne Cup in 2011 and the Caulfield Cup in 2012.
Also Europe's best mare in 2013, The Fugue was awarded 56.0kgs in the 2014 World Rankings, half a kg above the Dansili 4-year-old colt Flintshire. He won the Grand Prix de Paris in 2013 and last year followed a second in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on October 5 with a win in the Hong Kong Vase.
Other Group1 winners by Dansili have included Harbinger (won Ascot King George V1 & Queen Elizabeth Stakes), Rail Link (won Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Grand Prix de Paris), Dank (American Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf) and Zoffany (a leading Irish 2 and 3YO Miler). Zoffany is a visiting sire to Coolmore Hunter Valley.
Dansili had two winners in Australia on Saturday, the other being Nevis, a 5-year-old gelding successful over 1600m at Morphettville for the Lloyd Williams family and their trainer Robert Hickmott. A product of a mare by Dalakhani, the Aga Khan's prominent European sire who shuttles to Cornerstone Stud in South Australia, Nevis was having his sixth start and second win. The other was a massive nine lengths win in the Derby Trial at Lingfield in England in his only outing at three.
Dansili's latest Group1 winner Grand Marshal is the first black type earner among the four winners out of Margarula, an Irish Oaks winner by Doyoun, an Aga Khan English Two Thousand Guineas winner by Mill Reef. - Brian Russell Media