Date posted November 9, 2009 | Posted by Alan Porter | Filed under
Alan Porter - Pedigree Insights,
Feature PedigreeThis week Alan Porter takes a look at the pedigree of Melbourne Cup hero, Shocking.
We’ve mentioned before that Street Cry posed quite a question for breeders when he retired to stud. While there was no doubt about his ability, there was a quite a bit of conflicting evidence regarding the type of horse he might sire. He was by a very fast and precocious turf son of Mr. Prospector, out of a mare who won the Irish Oaks (Gr. I), and yet despite his grass pedigree raced only on dirt. He ran the fastest Beyer Speedfigure by a two-year-old of his crop when winning over 6½ furlongs on his debut, but subsequently captured the ten furlong Dubai World Cup (Gr. I) by 4¾ lengths., and the nine furlong Stephen Foster Handicap (Gr. I) by 6½ lengths.
Incredibly, all the facets of talent and aptitude expressed by Street Cry in his racing career, and latent in his pedigree, have come to the fore in a range of his offspring. The triumph of Shocking in the Group I Melbourne Cup, gives the remarkable record of siring (from his first three years at stud), group and grade one winners at 1200m., 1300m., 1400m., 1600m., 1800m., 2000m., 2400m. and 3200m. (6, 6½, 7, 8, 8½, 9, 10, 12 and 16 furlongs).
Shocking winning the Melbourne Cup
Shocking, who scored his first black-type victory in the Hotham Handicap (Gr. III), just three days before the great race, would have been a long-shot to get the trip on a first glance at his pedigree. His dam, is a daughter of Danehill – who has sired some top-class distance horses, but who is generally not a source of stamina, even though he can blend well with that attribute – and came nearest to winning when placed second over seven furlongs at two in England.
We do find some stamina in the second dam, Macrina Pompea. By Don Roberto, a Roberto horse who stayed 2400m., she was a stakes winner at two in Italy, but eventual won at up to 2400m., and took second in the Gran Premio Citti di Napoli (Gr. III). This is not an overwhelmingly powerful family, and until a few days ago Marcina Pompea was the only black-type horse in the firs three generations of Shocking’s female line. Strangely enough, the family then reverts back towards the faster end of the scale. Marcina Pompea’s dam, Morbella, was by Silly Season (sire of Lunchtime, and through him ancestor of Snippets), who was probably at his best at 2000m., and the next dam, Right Bank, is by the out-and-out sprinter Right Boy, and is half-sister to crack miler Sallust (probably best known in this region through his New Zealand sire son, Gaius). Incidentally, Sallust’s sire, Pall Mall, is also sire of the third dam of Street Cry. Go back two or three generations, and the family is an Irish one best-know for producing steeplechasers (a statement also true, around six generations back, for Street Cry).
Although Shocking’s distance capacity might have come as something of a….well, a shock, and his female family is not particularly inspiring, the pedigree still has plenty going for it. Street Cry and Danehill were always going to be interesting together: Street Cry is free of Northern Dancer, but his sire, Machiavellian has a double of Northern Dancer’s grandam, Almahmoud (once through Raise the Standard, a half-sister to Northern Dancer), while Danehill is inbred 3 x 3 to Northern Dancer’s dam, Natalma, through Northern Dancer, and another half-sister, Spring Adieu). There are three other stakes winners by sons of Machiavellian out of Danehill mares, including group one winner Nannina, while the reverse cross of Danehill and sons over Machiavellian mares has come up with five stakes winners, including Australian graded winner Shania Dane.
We can also note that Danehill is out of a mare by His Majesty, and there are at least four other stakes winners by Street Cry out of mares with either His Majesty or his brother Graustark in the pedigree (as noted first on the www.pedigreeconsultants.com tweets and twitters). Three of these are grade one winners, including the Kentucky Derby (Gr. I) victor, Street Sense. We wouldn’t be surprised if in part this isn’t due to some Gainsborough and Tracery combinations that are in Petition (in both Street Cry and Danehill), and Alibhai (broodmare sire of His Majesty and Graustark). There is more Tracery (sire of Papyrus) in Ribot, the sire of His Majesty and Graustark, and again in Princequillo (who is doubled here through Prince John) and we wouldn’t be surprised if it is the deep background here that is the source of Shocking’s stamina.
