Thoroughbred Sire Review
Brian Russell - Bloodstock Media Service - 20 June 2007
Unraced son of Sunday Silence heard
One of the smartest current winter two-year-olds in Australia is the Peter Moody Caulfield trained Riva San and she is further proof that good racing ability can be achieved using sires who have not demonstrated class themselves. A winner by 1.3 lengths at Mornington at her second race start on May 27 and then successful by an easy four lengths at Moonee Valley on June 9, she is one of only 18 foals in the only crop of the Arrowfield Stud, Scone, Hunter Valley bred Any Given Sunday, an unraced son of deceased Japanese super sire Sunday Silence
He has only had four runners, one of the others being Oh Very Young, a spectacular two-year-old in Tasmania. His three starts, all on Launceston’s Mowbray track, in order have resulted in a win by 4.3 lengths on May 5, a second in the Sires’ Produce Stakes on a heavy track on May 19 and then victory by 4.5 lengths and 6.5 lengths on June 2.
Deceased at the Mountmellick Stud, Tallarook, Victoria after one season, Any Given Sunday was an impressively bred son of Sunday Silence and Tamari (USA), a three-quarter sister to Lit de Justice (an El Gran Senor American Champion Sprinter whose10 wins included the Breeders’ Cup Sprint-Gr.1), Colonel Collins (also by El Gran Senor, third English Derby-Gr.1,Two Thousand Guineas-Gr.1, Irish Derby-Gr.1) and Commander Collins (by Sadler’s Wells; Group 1 England at two).
Any Given Sunday was one of 28 foals by Sunday Silence produced here following a ground breaking arrangement by Arrowfield Stud boss John Messara with the great sire’s owners that saw a small number of Australian owned mares put to him in Japan to southern hemisphere time in four successive seasons.
Besides Any Given Sunday, the progeny have included Sunday Joy, a product of the Danehill Queensland Oaks-Gr.1 winner Joie Denise, whose efforts included a win in the AJC Australian Oaks-Gr.1 and a third in the STC Rosehill Guineas-Gr.1, and the awesomely fast Keep the Faith.
His 12 starts included a 4.0 lengths win at Adelaide’s Cheltenham Park (1000m in 0:57.04) at his only outing at two and three successive wins by big margins at three, two in Adelaide and one in Melbourne.The sequence kicked off with a win over 1300m at Victoria Park by 5.8 lengths and followed with two successes at 1600m, scoring by 7.0 lengths at Morphettville and then by 2.8 lengths in the Schweppervescence Cup-LR at Caulfield. In addition at three he finished third in the MRC Vain Stakes-LR and fourth in the STC Canterbury Guineas-Gr.1.
A further demonstration of Keep The Faith’s superior speed was provided at New York’s BelmontPark, a track on which he won a six furlong (1200m) sprint in North American turf record time of 1:6.82s. Also third at the same venue in the Kelso Stakes-Gr.2, he had three American starts.
Retired last year to the Sangster’s Swettenham Stud at Nagambie in Victoria, where he appears to be great value at his fee of $8,800 and where he was used over a book of 131 mares, Keep The Faith has a lot of speed close up maternally, his dam Duelling Girl (USA) being by the Danzig champion European sprinter Dayjur and from a Buckpasser mare, Carduel.
Keep The Faith is one of two Australian bred sons of Sunday Silence in the 2007 edition of Stallions, a bible of breeding now available to subscribers to the Australian Bloodhorse Review, phone (02) 4588 5355.
The other is the eye-catching near black 16.2 hands Sunday Knight, a young sire who like Any Given Sunday was unraced but who also has impressive maternal credentials.
Based at Heather Pascoe’s quality young Toowoomba, Darling Downs Plaintree Farms Stud on a fee of $4,400, he is half-brother to the dam of the Redoute’s Choice champion Fashions Afield and from the Bletchingly mare Wrap Around, one of the best fillies of her time. She won seven races, including the MVRC William Reid Stakes-Gr.1 and VRC Linlithgow Stakes-Gr.2, finished second in the MVRC Manikato Stakes-Gr.1 and third in the MRC Futurity Stakes-Gr.1 and VRC Lightning Stakes-Gr.1.
Wrap Around is a half-sister to the dual Group 2 winner Rose of Danehill and from the Cerreto (IRE) multiple stakes winner Beach Gown, a half-sister to Doomben10,000-Gr.1 third Beach Boy and a relation of a winner of this big sprint, Blue’s Finito.
There are only 22 named foals in Sunday Knight’s first crop, current two-year-olds, and so far only seven have appeared in races, including Knight in Tights (third in the MVRC Dual Choice Plate), Mythical Memory (second Toowoomba) and Wullkuraka (third Ipswich).
He has also had trial winners and Heather Pascoe is confident there will be good results from his three-year-olds.
Another recent winner in Melbourne by an unraced sire has been Semper Paratus, a gelding who was recording his seventh win when successful over 3000m at Moonee Valley on June 11. He is by another unraced Danehill in Croatian Hill, a Victorian bred son of Preciosura (ARG), a champion sprinter in Argentina produced by an American winner by Pieces of Eight, also sire of the famous Australasian producer Eight Carat (USA).
This report submitted to the Australian Bloodhorse Review for July issue