It's Danehill Dancer again
17th August 2008
Danehill Dancer can currently do no wrong but even by his own standards he had an amazing achievement at Leopardstown on Sunday when pulling off a Group-race treble. He had a smart two-year-old winner when the David Wachman-trained Again (2f Danehill Dancer-Cumbres, by Kahyasi) took the G2 Ballygallon Stud Debutante Stakes on the same card that the Dermot Weld-trained Carribean Sunset (3f Danehill Dancer-Bonheur, by Royal Academy) won the G3 Desmond Stakes and Snaefell (4g Danehill Dancer-Sovereign Grace, by Standaan) captured the G3 Patrick P O'Leary Memorial Phoenix Sprint.Again is rated a 10/1 chance with sponsor Stan James for next year's 1,000 Guineas after coming home three lengths clear of her rivals under Johnny Murtagh. "Again is in all the big fillies' races, including the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and the G1 Fillies' Mile at Ascot," Wachman told the Racing Post. "She's coming forward all the time." Murtagh added: "The Moyglare is in a couple of weeks and she seems ideal
for that. She might develop into an Oaks filly next year. She's a big, scopey filly and there's no end to how far she could go."
Carribean Sunset had finished a close third in the G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas and went on to fill the same position in the G1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot before coming fourth in the G1 American Oaks Invitational at Hollywood Park on her latest start. "She's a very adaptable filly. She was unlucky not to win the Irish Guineas and I'm pleased to win another Group race with her," said Weld. "She ran an excellent race in America despite having a lot of travel problems. The plane broke down in France so she had to go via Amsterdam and obviously that didn't help her. It'll be the G1 Matron Stakes next and the Breeders' Cup is the long-term target."
Meanwhile Lady Clague's home-bred Snaefell relished the testing underfoot conditions to land his six-furlong G3 victory and give a 1-2 for Danehill Dancer with Georgebernardshaw (3c Danehill Dancer-Khamseh, by Thatching) in second. "He deserves that and I'm delighted for Lady Clague," said Snaefell's trainer Mick Halford. "He's a genuine G3 horse in these conditions and he'll probably go next for the G3 Flying Five."
Remember Danehill Dancer - also sire of next year's 2000 Guineas favourite Mastercraftsman and other smart two-year-olds including Westphalia - has his best-bred yearlings yet for sale in the next few weeks. They were certainly well received at Deauville over the weekend with prices of 380,000 euros, 280,000 euros etc.