Tag Archives: Delta Cross

Inglis Easter Yearling Sale 2021

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The time honored Inglis Easter Yearling Sale 2021 will soon be upon us. The old tree may no longer be there, but the social comradery certainly will be. The Sale is skewed towards the Australian sires currently at the top of the premiership list. Of the 466 lots on offer, 55% come from the first 15 sires in the 2021 premiership table. Even though there isn’t a lot of variety, there are some interesting horses to look at. A contractual obligation limits the comments I can make in certain areas but I am free to report on some of my observations.

Japanese bred horses have a great record in Australia from very limited opportunities. Melbourne and Caufield Cups, Blue Diamond Stakes and a couple of Toorak Handicaps aren’t a bad record.  I have selected a Japanese bred horse by Deep Impact, and a yearling by More Than Ready as horses worth looking at.

Lot 103 (b or br c More Than Ready – Street ‘Em Shelia)

More than Ready is a remarkable sire and I have made comments about him before. He now ranks 43 in the world sire list and his sire line has 316 SW with 42 G1.  His progeny can win at any distance between 1000-2500m, depending what genes the dam brings to the table. The cross between sire lines More Than Ready X Street Cry has already produced three SW.

More Than Ready-Champion Sire for many years

  • Sesar (G2 Roman Consul Stakes 1100m and G3 Ken Russel Memorial 1200)
  • Miss Admiration (G3 Colin Stephens Stakes 2400m and G3 Japan Racing Assoc 2500m)
  • Mokarris (L Rose Bowl Stakes GB 6f)

Street ‘Em Shelia is part of a strong female family with a 6G female index of 11.9%. Green Dancer (3 G1, sire of 90 SW) and Authorized (joint world champion 3yo of 2007) are part of the female family. A PRI score of 96.0 points to a winner.

Lot 180 (b c Deep Impact – Admire Pink)

Deep Impact-World’s Number One Sire

Deep Impact is currently the world’s leading sire, a position he occupied in 2020. The cross between the sire lines of Deep Impact and King Kamehameha has a SW/R ratio of 14.3% and G1W/R ratio of 3.6%.  (For comparison a contemporary Australian combination is Redoute’s Choice x Encosta de Lago with SW/R 6.59% and G1W/R 1.5%). The cross Deep Impact X King Kamehameha has produced four SW. The best is Wagnerian winner of the G1 Tokyo Yushun Derby.

Admire Pink comes from a high-class female family with a 6GFI of 12.6%. Her position in the female family is further away from the black type action than I would like. Nevertheless, she is still part of the family. With a PRI score of 92.1, Lot 180 is worth a look.

While you are at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale 2021, stop to have a look at Lot 257. This filly (Snitzel –Crystal Flute) is bred on a Delta Cross about which we have made comments before. Soon, a horse bred on this type of cross is likely to be a super star. The question is which one?

Inglis Easter Yearling Sales 2020

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Inglis  Easter Yearling Sales 2020 (Part1)

The famous Sydney Easter Sales of 2020 are about to get underway and as always there are some excellent colts and fillies in the 514 Lots on display. I have picked out the pedigree of three horses to examine. Another Delta cross producing a colt (lot 44) which is closely related to the Snitzel-Crystal Flute colt I made comments about in my December blog.  A filly from a Sunday Silence mare and a high PRI ranking Exceed and Excel Colt (Lot 342).

Lot 44:  Not a Single Doubt-Lucky Raquie

This colt has a 2×2 cross of a full brother to a full sister (Redoute’s Choice x Monsoon Wedding). The parentage of both horses is Danehill x Shantha’s Choice.  This cross is a type of Delta cross and is quite rare. Monsoon Wedding (Danehill- Shantha’s Choice) produced two fillies to Encosta de Lago and these are of course full sisters. Crystal Flute was mated to Snitzel and Lucky Raquie to Not a Single Doubt. Both colts had PRI scores in the mid 80’s so they should win races. Lot 44 should be a sprinter. A word of caution though, these delta crosses can be either very good or very bad..

Lot 230: More than Ready-Sunday Joy

Sunday Silence

         Sunday Silence

Sunday Silence is currently the most successful broodmare sire in the Northern Hemisphere. Last year he had score of 91.4% winners/dam. Any of his mares are worth looking at. I calculated a PRI score at 82.5 which is a little lower than expected.  Although Inbreeding to Halo doesn’t seem to be a problem, Hail to Reason doesn’t seem to like many of the stallions in the broodmare sires pedigree. Still with the powerful genes in Sunday Joy, this may be overcome.

Lot 342: Exceed and Excel-Bahia               

After my first run through of the Catalogue, I thought Lot 342 could be a bargain buy. However, after some research I now believe this colt is worth big money. His PRI score was very high and the 6GFI of his dam a respectable 6.2. More encouraging is the fact that Bahia is right in the middle of a golden vein of black type winners. Not only that, but the female family contains a number of high class sprinters. Brawny Spirit (3xG1, including a Newmarket Handicap), Reward for Effort winner of a Blue Diamond and Turrfontein (2xG1, with a William Reid Stakes) to mention a few. There is also a Victoria Derby winner Hit the Roof. A dosage analysis suggests this horse will be very quick

My examination is only at the pedigree level.  You need to look and make your mind up.

MM Yearling Sales Catalogue 2020 (Part 1)

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Well, everyone interested in the Yearling sales of 2020 has now got their catalogues. and the sales will soon be underway. There are undoubtedly good winning horses there-the problem for buyers is identifying them among those who won’t be winners. All you need is a bit of skill and plenty of luck. The 2020 sales kick off with the Magic Millions. I don’t propose to go through the whole catalogue but let’s look at what for me are a couple of highlights.

Delta Crosses are rare

The most interesting horse to me is lot 209, a colt by Snitzel out of a Encosta de Lago mare.This colt has a 2×2 cross of a full brother to a full sister (Redoute’s Choice x Monsoon Wedding). The parentage of both horses is Danehill x Shantha’s Choice.  This cross is a type of Delta cross and is quite rare. It is not often you find a proven highly successful stallion with his full sister in the female tail line. Of course to have a chance of success both sire and dam participating in the cross need to be of good quality. Mating low quality stallion and mare just to get a delta cross won’t achieve much. In this case no-one would argue about  Redoute’s Choice and Shantha’s Choice being of high quality.

Well does it work? Lando, probably the best German horse in the last 25 years, was a 3×3 Delta Cross (Liberat x Liberty). Both son and daughter being by Birkhahn out of Lis.  Lando raced successfully in the United States and Europe and won the 1965 Japan Cup in which two Aussies (Danewin and Stony Bay) finished down the track.

Lando-winner Japan Cup 1995

Lando-winner Japan Cup 1995

 Other examples are Habibti 5x G1, 1x G2 and one of the highest ranked sprinters in European racing history, that was a Delta cross; 5×4 Neraco to Sun Princess.

River Bay, 2xG1, 1xG2 was the winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup and was a Delta cross 5×5; Nearco to Mumtaz Begum. 

Is close inbreeding 2×2 a problem? Well it was common but fell out of favour many years ago. But if you want a view, here is a start:

 https://thehorse.com/160220/inbreeding-in-thoroughbreds-positives-and-negatives/