Oaks heroine by low fee sire and from $1,500 mare
Brian Russell - Bloodstock Media Service - 3 June 2008
RIVA SAN, winner at Eagle Farm on Saturday for the Peter Moody, Caulfield stables, of the Queensland Oaks is from the small single crop of foals got by the prematurely deceased Any Given Sunday, an unraced Australian bred Sunday Silence sire who stood at the Mountmellick Stud at Tallarook in Victoria on a fee of $3,850, from a Best Western mare, Best River, who was bought at anInglis sale at two for $1,500.
Raced by some of the members of the syndicate that own Riva San, Best River was a modest performer, winning only once, a1100m maiden at Ararat in Victoria by a half-neck, in 21 starts. She showed promise, however, in her only two Melbourne outings, finishing third at Moonee Valley and fourth at Caulfield.
Also winner of the Morphettville Guineas and second in the VRC Wakeful Stakes, Riva San is the only good performer among the 28 foals produced between them between by the first four dams.
Riva San’s mother was from Santa Rosa River, an unraced daughter of Gypsy Kingdom (by Planet Kingdom) and Cicinnati Girl, winner of one race and earner of $950. She was by the Bold Ruler sire Speculating and from Emerald Cut, a Baguette mare who did not earn any prize money in a six start career.
The only inbreeding in a five generation pedigree of Riva San is a 5×5 of Star Kingdom maternally. In addition the only inbreeding in a similar extension of the pedigree of her sire Any Given Sunday is a 4×5 of Almahmoud, appearing through her grandsons Halo, the sire of Sunday Silence, and Northern Dancer. The latter’s son Nureyev is the sire of Any Given Sunday’s dam Tamari, an American mare who raced twice without success and who is also dam of the Flying Spur QTC Grand Prix Stakes winner Spuruson.
The sire Any Given Sunday had a book of only 20 mares in his only season, resulting in18 foals from which have come to date 12 named progeny for nine runners, three winners and six other money earners.
He is one of 25 live foals resulting from four seasons of use of Sunday Silence in Japan to southern hemisphere time over mares supplied by the John Messara guided Arrowfield Stud near Scone. Two of those foals became Sunday Joy, winner of the AJC Australian Oaks, and the lightning fast Keep the Faith. He ran 12 times for five wins, the MVRC Schweppervescence Cup (by 2.8 lengths), events in Adelaide by margins of 6.9 lengths, 5.7 lengths and 3.7 lengths and one at New York’s Belmont Park by 2.5 lengths in new American 1200m turf record time.
Out of a mare by a very fast Danzig sire, Keep the Faith is tipped to become a brilliant sire for Adam Sangster’s Swettenham Stud at Nagambie in Victoria. He had 131 mares in his first season in 2006 and followed with 145 last year.
Any Given Sunday is one of two Sunday Silence sires bred by Arrowfield to have winners from restricted opportunity. The other is the eye-catching near black 16.2 hands Sunday Knight, a son of the champion Bletchingly sprinter Wrap Around and he is available on a modest fee at Heather Pascoe’s Plaintree Farms Stud in the Toowoomba district.
Like Any Given Sunday unraced, Sunday Knight has his oldest current 3-year-olds. So far he has had 18 runners for six winners, including the promising Perth performer Marunouchi and the smart Gold Coast performers Wullkuraka and Punch Up. He has also had a placegetter in Melbourne.