Sunday success
Phillip Bate - Queensland Country Life - 12 June 2008
THE international influence of former Japanese-based sire Sunday Silence has been demonstrated yet again through two grand daughters racing in Queensland and Europe which almost accomplished a rare Derby double.
The grand daughters are three year old fillies Riva San which has just become the fourth filly to win the Group 1 double of the Queensland Oaks and the Queensland Derby – both run over 2400m at Eagle Farm – and the French-bred Natagora which won the 1600m English One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket and then ran third in the 2000m French Derby at Chantilly in Paris.
Champion European Two Year Old Filly of 2007 when her victories included the Cheveley Park Stakes-G1 on English soil, the French-trained filly is the only known stakeswinner by the Sunday Silence stallion Divine Light, a sprinter/miler now in the ownership of the Jockey Club of Turkey, and is easily the best foal of her dam, Reinamixa, a winner at Saint-Cloud over 2000m and a daughter of the Champion French sire Linamix. Natagora now has the outstanding record of 10 starts for seven wins, two seconds and a third.
The Group 1 wins by Riva San and Natagora come hard on the heels of the outstanding Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic victory of the Australian-bred mare Sun Classique – another grand daughter of Sunday Silence through his shuttle son Fuji Kiseki.