June 29th, 2008

In winning the Group I Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, Haradasun, earned himself immediate retirement.

A dual Group One winner in Australia he added a third victory at the top level, taking out the Queen Anne Stakes (1600m) at the race meeting universally regarded as the world’s best.

Haradasun won the Queen Anne showing courage and class, in a race that proved a tactical triumph for the stable, Haradasun trailed his pacemaker Honoured Guest and in a slogging finish he held off the French mare Darjina to score by a head.

Last spring Coolmore had purchased a half share in Haradasun for $22.5 million, an amount that made him the most valuable horse ever to have been sold in Australia.

Within minutes of him crossing the line, his Coolmore owners along with Frank Tagg and his partners who bred the horse, announced he had run his last race.

The timing of the retirement allows Coolmore’s Australian base in the Hunter Valley to stand him for his first southern hemisphere season this spring. 

After a luckless Victorian spring campaign where Haradasun only missed picking prizemoney up in one race from his six-start preparation he was taken to Ireland by new trainer Aidan O’Brien, in the middle of Australia’s summer straight into Ireland’s winter and resumed racing in May when he raced on the fresh side in the Group I Lockinge Stakes (1600m), finishing sixth.

O’Brien said he had learned a lot more about Haradasun from that run and went into the Group I feature full of confidence, as did punters who supported the horse strongly.

While the result turned out to be clear cut, it looked problematical 400m out when Haradasun was off the bit and struggling to go with the leaders. But jockey Johnny Murtagh got to work and the son of Fusaichi Pegasus responded and went through a gap near the grandstand rail to get the better of his rivals.

In recording his seventh victory, on top of his excellent record in Australia, Haradasun’s stud prospects have escalated to the world stage and his services may well be in demand in Ireland as well.

He is out of Circles of Gold a daughter of Marscay. A high-class mare who won the Group I AJC Oaks and Coongy Handicap. Along with victories in the Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes and the Listed Ansett Australia Stakes, she was also second in the Caulfield Cup, Queensland Oaks and Fruit ‘n’ Veg Stakes, all at the elite level. 

Circles of Gold is not only dam of Haradasun, but also of that of another international warrior, Elvstroem (Danehill), hero of the Group I Caulfield Cup, Dubai Duty Free, Victoria Derby, Underwood Stakes and C. F. Orr Stakes, and those are just his group one successes. 

Circles of Gold is a half-sister to Barathea’s group winning daughter, Gold Wells. The second dam, the New Zealand-bred Olympic Aim, a daughter of Zamazaan, is a half-sister to three black-type winners, the most notable of which was Bit of a Skite, who was victorious in the Group I George Adams Handicap and All-Aged Stakes. The third dam, Gold Vink also features as the third dam of the Group I Golden Slipper winner Polar Success, who like Haradasun is out of a Star Kingdom line mare. 

For good measure, in the fourth generation, Gold Vink traces to that most famed of New Zealand tap-roots, Eulogy.

Haradasun is by the American classic winner, Fusaichi Pegasus, a son of Mr. Prospector, who has compiled an interesting profile siring 32 stakes winners, 14 of those in the southern hemisphere, and although a lot of his success has been achieved when crossed back over imported mares, or daughters of shuttle horses, his best horse, Haradasun, is out of a daughter by Marscay, from a distinctly Australian and New Zealand background.

Haradasun’s fee this spring at Coolmore is $55,000 (inc gst).