Glenfiddich Turf Monthly November 2022

GLENFIDDICH AN ACQUIRED TASTE

Glenfiddich is another of our Freshman sires standing at the luxurious Aquis Park Stud in Queensland. The stallion comes to the stud with a career that could have been so much better had he not had the misfortune to run into some outstanding colts at the peak of their powers. His biggest win was at Group 2 level, but he was twice placed in Group 1 races. The son of boom stallion Fastnet Rock joins an amazing roster at Aquis and it certainly makes us wonder where he fits among such an expansive group.

The stallion had his first start in the time-honoured Maribyrnong Plate, finishing fifth behind Hard Landing. A ninth behind the good colt Hanseatic in the Merson Cooper followed before going for a spell. Resuming in the Blue Diamond Preview, Glenfiddich ran second to Hanseatic before finishing a good fourth to that same horse in the Prelude. He then failed behind Tagaloa in the Blue Diamond before heading to Adelaide to run second to Amish Boy in the Adelaide Magic Millions Classic. Back in Melbourne Glenfiddich won the Mornington Sires over 1500m at his first start past 1200m. A trip to Sydney followed which saw the colt

finish sixth behind King’s Legacy in the Group 1 Sires Produce on a heavy track. Glenfiddich then was a gallant second to that same horse in the Champagne Stakes having been headed in the straight by the short-priced favourite but fought back strongly to be beaten only 0.2 lengths. Glenfiddich returned as a Spring 3yo to run third in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes against the older horses beaten by Behemoth and Mr Quickie. He then impressively won the Group 2 Stutt Stakes over a mile beating Cherry Tortoni. He had only one more start in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes, but injury curtailed his career leaving him with only two wins from twelve starts and a little over $400,000 in prizemoney.

Glenfiddich is a son of the champion stallion Fastnet Rock by Danehill. As we regularly mention, the closeness of Danehill in a pedigree is becoming problematic in the thoroughbred. We often forget as time goes on just how good some of these stallions were and Fastnet Rock was a quality racehorse long before we knew him as a champion sire. As a 2yo he ran fourth in the Silver Slipper, second to Dance Hero in the Skyline, second in the Pago Pago behind Genius And Evil, fourth in the Golden Slipper and third in the Sires Produce, both behind the Triple Crown winner, Dance Hero. At three in the Spring, he won the Up And Coming Stakes beating Dane Shadow, the Roman Consul beating Charge Forward, and the L’Oreal and Lexus in Melbourne. But it was as an Autumn 3yo that he truly made his mark winning the Group 1 Lightning beating Alinghi, the Oakleigh Plate beating Segments, before running second to Alinghi and Shamekha in the Newmarket and TJ Smith respectively. At stud, Fastnet Rock has been outstanding winning the Australian Champion Sires crown twice and sired over 40 individual Group 1 winners internationally. Among his best progeny have been Atlantic Jewel, First Seal, Merchant Navy, and Mosheen while at stud we have seen quality sons like Foxwedge, Rothesay, Smart Missile, and Your Song continue his legacy. One interesting point in his pedigree is that while Fastnet Rock was a speed machine, his progeny have proven their quality over a range of distances with Oaks and Derby winners numbering among his offspring.

The dam of Glenfiddich is Nothin But A Dream, a mare by First Defence who won two races over a mile in the US. First Defence is a stallion we know little about locally, but he is a son of Unbridled’s Song out of a Seattle Slew mare. He won the Group 1 Long Branch Breeders Cup as a 3yo, while at four was to win the Group 1 Forego Stakes. He was also runner up in the Group 1 King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga twice. He originally stood at Juddmonte Farm in Kentucky but was later sent to Saudi Arabia. Glenfiddich’s second dam was the Listed winner, Darling Alice by Northern Flagship, a son of Northern Dancer. Darling Alice won the Ellis Park Audubon Oaks but was placed at both Grade 2 and Grade 3 level and ran fourth in the Grade 1 Keeneland Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. She has produced Quiet Alice who produced four stakes winners in Venezuela, but of more interest to us is a daughter called Smokin’ Alice by Smoke Glacken who came to Australia where she has produced Eleven Eleven by Fastnet Rock who has won nine races and almost $3 million in stakes courtesy largely of two wins in the Magic Millions Cup and a win in the Magic Millions 3yo Guineas. He was also third in the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup behind Apache Chase earlier this year. Darling Alice is out of Adarling by Alleged who was also a Listed winner who produced Afleetaffair, a Canadian bred son of Afleet who won the Grade 3 San Vicente and Listed Jim Hill Stakes in the US. He was to stand at stud in Queensland from 1999 but had limited opportunity producing only one stakes winner in My First Affair who won the Listed

Bright Shadow Quality. More importantly is likely to be a full-sister to Afleetaffair in Gainesville who came to Australia in the early 1990’s. She produced two stakes winners in Amah Rock who won the Listed Mitchell McKenzie and Mica’s Pride who won the Group 3 Research Stakes. Mica’s Pride was to go on to produce four stakes winners including Group 1 winners Comin’ Through by Fastnet Rock who won the 2018 Doomben Cup and the champion colt, Criterion by Sebring who won the Australian Derby, Rosehill Guineas, Caulfield Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. He also ran second in the WS Cox Plate, George Ryder Stakes, Spring Champion Stakes, Australian Guineas, Caulfield Stakes, and third in the VRC Melbourne Cup, HKJC Queen Elizabeth II Cup, Hong Kong Cup, Ranvet Stakes and Canterbury Stakes all at Group 1 level. At stud he was sadly to prove infertile. Another daughter of Gainesville is Rose Of Cimmaron who produced Siege Of Quebec by Fastnet Rock who won the Group 3 Bill Ritchie and was placed in the Group 1 All-Aged Stakes, and his full brother Bull Point who won the Group 3 Manfred Stakes and was placed in the Group 1 Golden Rose and Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.

It would seem then that the family certainly has done well with Fastnet Rock under local conditions, which should make us comfortable about the US nature of the pedigree of Glenfiddich seeing as it has been proven consistently under local conditions. His pedigree sees relatively close inbreeding, but the close duplications are some that are common among pedigrees. Northern Dancer can be found through Danzig, Nijinksy, El Gran Senor and Northern Flagship. Two of these are rarely seen in local pedigrees, so we can likely introduce other lines of Northern Dancer without issue. Naturally we see the duplication of Natalma which we see in all cases with Danehill in a pedigree with another line of Northern Dancer. We also see multiple lines of her sire, Native Dancer as well as Buckpasser and his sire, Tom Fool. The importance of these is that mostly they are found in the pedigrees of Danehill and Northern Dancer who are influences that largely write their own rules in any case. On face value this would suggest that there should be a range of mares that will suit the stallion.

With so many statistics available for Fastnet Rock, perhaps that is a good place to start when looking at the future of Glenfiddich. Among the broodmare sires

that have had success with Fastnet Rock are stallions like Galileo, Zabeel, Stravinsky, Snippets, Woodman, Encosta De Lago and More Than Ready. We see that many of these have been based internationally or else in the Hunter Valley in NSW making it questionable as to where we will find a lot of these types of mares in Queensland. While we are not expecting to find too many of these, we should note that these are more stamina line stallions and if nothing else, we should take away a possible need to introduce stamina into the matings for Glenfiddich. Perhaps then we should look at the most successful son of Fastnet Rock in Queensland in Rothesay. That stallion has had seven stakes winners and if we look at the broodmare sires of these, we see that they include Show A Heart, Sequalo, Dodge, Hussonet, Deputy Governor and Perugino. Largely we see that these would be considered speed sires and the difference here is that Rothesay is out of a Woodman mare, with that stallion being more of a noted stamina influence. Ideally it is likely that mares by these local Queensland stallions will suit Glenfiddich, especially if we can find additional stamina influences in their pedigrees. One of the local Queensland stamina influences was Semipalatinsk, and while his daughters are few and far between now, Real Saga was a successful stallion who features this sire in his pedigree and might well have some quality daughters that could be suited to Glenfiddich.

Two of the names from the Rothesay list that stand out are Show A Heart and Sequalo. While Show A Heart mares continue to do well, they are becoming much harder to find. Similarly with Sequalo but importantly with that stallion we see that his influence is carrying on through his brilliant son, Spirit Of Boom. While his pedigree does feature another line of Danehill through Special Dane, it is unlikely to be too much of a troubling occurrence and this stallion may well be a good prospect for this new sire. Again, it may prove important to try and find additional stamina lines in some of these pedigrees. Overall though it would seem that Glenfiddich will suit quite a range of mares, giving him a good chance of performing at his best should he attract sufficient numbers. To increase our chances of breeding higher class horses, we can look at some of the particular influences within the stallion’s pedigree. One such influence is Twig Moss who appears not only in the pedigree of Fastnet Rock, but also in the pedigree of Mossman. Mossman stood at stud in Queensland though is becoming difficult to find in pedigrees. Perhaps a stallion called Love Conquers All might represent an interesting option for Glenfiddich. We also see the good stallion Marauding appear in the pedigree of Fastnet Rock, and this Golden Slipper winning son of Sir Tristram may be important. Owners with mares carrying Sir Tristram should certainly consider the possibility of Glenfiddich and an interesting stallion along those lines would be Dundeel who also introduces Sadler’s Wells who we saw as the sire of Galileo. Another factor that should be considered is the US influences in the pedigree. We have seen how well the family has adapted to local conditions, so we should not necessarily shy away from these overseas factors which have shown their importance. Unbridled’s Song is one such influence, although we struggle to find him in many local pedigrees. Stallions like Puissance De Lune, Frosted and American Pharoah fit the bill but are going to be hard to find in the local population. An interesting relationship in the pedigree of American Pharoah is that his grandsire, Empire Maker is closely related to First Defence. One final US influence to highlight is that of Alleged, the US bred dual Arc de Triomphe winner. He is still able to be found in pedigrees, and one interesting stallion carrying that influence is Drumbeats who stood at Lyndhurst Stud for many

years. His pedigree shows some similarities with that of Glenfiddich and he could be another surprising prospect with his daughters. Alleged can also be found in the pedigree of The Mission who stands at Aquis Farm. His daughters are now reaching the age when they will be going to stud, and he offers another interesting mating for Glenfiddich. Not only do we see Alleged, but also More Than Ready who has been so successful with Fastnet Rock. Interestingly we see two lines of Danehill through Choisir and Redoute’s Choice which will no doubt be worth introducing at some point. On a final note, Snippets is another stallion we have mentioned who had success with Fastnet Rock. That stallion has a wonderful connection with Queensland having won the Magic Millions, and he is found through the pedigree of Snitzel, the champion son of Redoute’s Choice. He is another of the Danehill line stallions that may well mix with the Fastnet Rock line in Glenfiddich.

At a relative budget fee, we would like to think that Glenfiddich will get good numbers of mares early in his career. While we have suggested some factors in pedigrees to look for, there appear to be a wide range of mares that have a lot to offer a mating with the stallion. Hopefully we will see that the stallion can make a name for himself in Queensland, and to reach a level above what he was able to achieve on the track.

many of our regular breeders is that we see the same names repeated in this pedigree as we have seen in so many types of sons of that stallion is the strategy that has most success.