Strategic Prince to Coolmore
15th August 2007
Strategic Prince, one of last year’s leading two-year-olds, is the latest recruit to Coolmore’s all-conquering stallion team.
The son of Dansili showed he possessed those invaluable assets of precocity and a turn of foot in winning three of his first four starts. After a winning debut over five furlongs in May, he gained his first Group victory in the Gr.2 TNT July Stakes, where the opposition included such smart colts as Dubai’s Touch and Hoh Mike.
“The jockey thinks he has loads of speed for six furlongs but I am sure he will get seven furlongs,” trainer Paul Cole reported, before adding: “He has legs like steel.”
Strategic Prince fulfilled his trainer’s prediction when he tackled seven furlongs in the Gr.2 Veuve Clicquot Vintage Stakes. Although set to concede 3lb to his nine opponents, Strategic Prince won again, holding on well by a neck from Duke of Marmalade, with the future Gr.1 winner Kirklees in third. The quality of this performance has been underlined by Duke of Marmalade’s achievements this year, which include a neck second to Excellent Art in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
“He’s a very mature horse, there’s nothing backward about him and there’s never been anything to say he’s needed more time,” Paul Cole commented. “We’d have to look on the bright side - things were against him today and he overcame them and the second horse is obviously very good.”
These fine efforts earned Strategic Prince the right to tackle the best of his generation in the Gr.1 Dewhurst Stakes. Although the ground was on the soft side for him, he put up another very smart display in finishing third to Teofilo and Holy Roman Emperor, accounting for such as Haatef, Vital Equine and Adagio.
Strategic Prince has strong claims to being the fastest son of the up-and-coming Dansili and will be his first son to stand in Ireland. Dansili’s achievement of siring four Gr.1 winners in his first three crops has earned comparisons with his exceptional sire Danehill and he has also been champion sire in France. Choisir, who stands second among this year’s first-crop sires, is another grandson of Danehill and Strategic Prince represents the potent Danehill-Sharpen Up cross, also responsible for the tremendously successful Danehill Dancer and this year’s King George winner Dylan Thomas.
Strategic Prince’s pedigree suggests that, like Dansili, he will sire everything from precocious two-year-olds to high-class middle-distance performers. His dam Ausherra, winner of the Lingfield Oaks Trial, is a sister to Ramruma, a champion filly who completed a Gr.1 treble in the Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks.
“We have a long-standing relationship with HRH Sultan Ahmad Shah and we are delighted to have acquired Strategic Prince for Coolmore. He’s a gorgeous-looking individual, I couldn’t believe it when I saw him,” declared Coolmore manager Christy Grassick. “I have no doubt that breeders are going to love him.”