Mine and Refine – How to Build a Champion Sireline in 30 Years

When you go to the Hunter Valley on a trip looking at stallions you see a lot of them and sometimes (although you don’t know it at the time) you may well see a horse that will change the course of breeding history as the waxing and waning of sirelines over time is rarely straight forward and frequently delivers the unexpected.

How does a dirt track speed sire line built on juvenile speed evolve to deliver the best classic three year-old in Europe on turf up to 2400m?

If you’ve been going to the stallion parades for the past 30 years you will have seen quite a few pieces in this fascinating puzzle.

The most exciting racehorse in the world right now is three year-old Justify colt City of Troy, who was last year’s Champion European 2YO and is well on his way to being this year’s Champion European 3YO and possibly Horse of the Year with a string of recent wins in the Group I Epsom Derby, Coral Eclipse Stakes and Juddmonte International in course record time.

A homebred for the Coolmore partners he is the result of a sireline they have mined and refined over the past 30 years going back to Hennessy (USA), who first shuttled to Coolmore Australia in 1997.

A speedy Group I winning juvenile with a lengthy, muscular sprinter’s physique, Hennessy was by the legendary breed shaping US sire Storm Cat, who produced a champion for Coolmore in Giant’s Causeway. European Horse of the Year in 2000, Giant’s Causeway went on to become a champion sire in North America for Coolmore and shuttled to Australia for three seasons, but it is Hennessy that has spawned the sireline to deliver their current superstar City of Troy.

Hennessy sired 72 stakes-winners worldwide with the best of his offspring being Australian bred seven time Group I winner Grand Armee, while his best in the Northern Hemisphere was World Champion 2YO Johannesburg, who won four Group I races at two in four different countries on turf and on dirt.

Hennessy shuttled to Australia for five seasons between 1997 and 2001 and was then followed by Johannesburg, who also came for five seasons from 2002 to 2007.

Johannesburg was not as good a sire as Hennessy, who was nowhere near as good a sire as Storm Cat, so you can understand why Australian breeders said no thanks to Scat Daddy when he was mooted as a potential visitor and he was sent to South America instead.

Scat Daddy died prematurely at age 11 when he was just starting to get the serious recognition he deserved and in his penultimate crop produced Justify, an unbeaten Triple Crown winner, that was raced by China Horse Club and partners and purchased by Coolmore on retirement.

Justify has also come to Australia for Coolmore and his top class colt Storm Boy is resuming in the Group III ATC San Domenico Stakes on Saturday.