Portland Sky Turf Monthly October 2022

PORTLAND SKY

A CHOICE FOR THE FUTURE

Portland Sky is this season’s newcomer at Widden Stud in NSW. The stud continues to expand its impressive list of largely unproven stallions across their two State operations. The stallion becomes the second son of Deep Field to go to stud with the other being the Newgate stallion Cosmic Force who is approaching his third season at Newgate this year. It will be interesting to see if the first foals of that stallion, who stands for $11,000 will have an impact on the future of Portland Sky. Such can be the fickleness of the breeding industry, and the misleading nature at times of tools such as Nicking theories, that some ideas will be tempered by such comparisons. That is not to say that lessons cannot be learned from similar sirelines, but rather we should be careful in how we use that information. But on to Portland Sky.

The stallion did not start his racing career until an early 3yo, winning his first start in a maiden on the synthetic track at Ballarat. He started at odds-on but was made to work hard before getting the upper hand near the finish, drawing away to win by over a length from the I Am Invincible filly, Baaqyah who had actually

finished second in the Maribyrnong Plate as a 2yo at her first start, beating Tagaloa. Taken to Caulfield for his second start, he had little luck in running fifth behind Muntaseera. He gave a good sight in finishing fourth behind September Run in the Listed Poseidon Stakes over 1100m at Flemington at his next start. Portland Sky then won the Group 3 Red Anchor at Moonee Valley when well rated in front by jockey Ben Melham defeating Bella Nipotina. Portland Sky then had a ten week break before going to Brisbane where he raced wide and struggled over the 1400m of the Group 3 Vo Rogue Stakes at Eagle Farm finishing last behind Apache Chase.

B ack in Melbourne a month later and Portland Sky won the Group 3 Manfred Stakes over 1200m at Caulfield beating Aysar and Tagaloa. Then, almost six months to the day since his first start, the 3yo colt had his finest moment winning the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate over 1100m at Caulfield. He again settled near the lead and kicked clear in the straight, winning narrowly from Celebrity Queen and Kemalpasa. A month later he lined up in the Group 1 William Reid over 1200m at Moonee Valley where he sat behind the leaders before shifting off their heels and taking the lead as the field entered the straight. His lead was short lived as Masked Crusader got a run on the inside to kick clear, with Portland Sky holding on for second, 2.5 lengths from the winner. After a spell, Portland Sky returned with a second in the Group 2 McEwen Stakes over 1000m at Moonee Valley before failing three weeks later over the same course and distance in the Group 1 Moir Stakes won by Wild Ruler. The stallion was then retired and given plenty of time to let down heading into his stud career.

P ortland Sky is the only Australian Group 1 winner by Deep Field in Australia. Deep Field has also sired the Hong King Group 1 winner, Sky Field. Deep Field who stands at Newgate for $88,000 is the sire of 12 stakes winners to date including Isotope, Big Parade, Chat and Fiteuse. In turn, he is a son of the ill-fated Northern Meteor. He was a son of Encosta De Lago who had won the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes and died after only four seasons at stud. During this time, he sired 21 stakes winners including Group 1 winners, Amanpour, Cosmic Endeavour, Romantic Touch, Shooting To Win who was the full brother to Deep Field, Speak Fondly and boom sire, Zoustar. Portland Flyer might be unique in modern Australian breeding in that he was sold at the Magic Millions Perth Yearling sale. He went through the ring in WA in 2019 making a moderate $85,000 when purchased by Matt Laurie Racing. Portland Sky was a son of the Shrewd Rhythm mare, Sky Rumba. Shrewd Rhythm is a son of Danehill Dancer who won the 2007 Blue Diamond Prelude. He went to stud in 2010 with limited success but is perhaps worthy of some more discussion shortly being out of a daughter of Canny Lad in Balcanny who traces back to the great mare, Selene. In turn, Sky Rumba was out of Line Of Flight by the top WA stallion, Bletchley Park. She produced the stakes winning London Line by Blackfriars who was to race in Hong Kong as Most Beautiful. Interestingly Line Of Flight who was out of the stakes placed Sweepshot by Dr Grace, was a half-sister to one of WA’s best gallopers in recent times in Scenic Shot who won 17 races from 1000m to 2400m including the LKS Mackinnon Stakes and two Doomben Cups at Group 1 level.

Portland Sky offers an interesting pedigree puzzle for breeders. The initial appeal to many will be the presence of Deep Field, and of course his sire, Encosta De Lago. These will no doubt play a role, but as to how important they will prove to be is a question for the ages. Encosta De Lago was one of our great stallions of recent times, but despite his success, his sons never really established themselves at the top level. That is not to say that they could not produce good runners, but it was Northern Meteor who appeared as if he was the stallion who was going to ensure the legacy of Encosta De Lago. While this seems to be the case, it is a matter of what might have been. Arguably, it is Zoustar that looks to be the stallion that is carrying on this line at the highest level, but he is perhaps not in the mould of Encosta De Lago being more noted as a sire of precocious speedsters. This brings us to Deep Field who also looks to be more noted as a sire of speedier types although perhaps not with the ability to get as many of the early 2yo types. We also see his full brother in Shooting To Win as a source of speed, but again without the ability to get the successful youngsters that the market craves. Portland Sky appeared to have followed in these footsteps and, as we saw, did not appear at the races until an early 3yo. He made an early impact at that age, but he certainly did not fit the early 2yo type. Deep Field, it is worth noting has Elusive Quality as his damsire and he certainly is another source of speed by and large. His second dam is Announce who is by Military Plume by Sir Tristram out of Theme Song, a granddaughter of Eight Carat and a half-sister to Danewin and Commands.

The female line of Portland Sky, as we mentioned, sees Scenic Shot as one of the recent stars of the family. While he was a talented and versatile racehorse, arguably he was at his best over more of a middle distance which does not introduce this precociousness that we might be looking for in the stallion. The direct female family did not arrive in Australia until the 1970’s and one of the first successes was the Lord Ballina son, Lord Regent who won a stakes race in NZ over a mile. As the line that gave us Portland Sky was sent to WA, we see the very good stallion, Beau Sovereign, a son of Sovereign Edition, appear close up in the pedigree. He was quite a remarkable stallion from his WA base producing horses like Dark Beau who was able to win the Stanley Wootton Stakes at Moonee Valley, Polo Player who won the VATC Schweppes Cup, and Palace Reign who won the Feehan and Memsie Stakes and Caulfield Guineas in the early 1990’s. We should also acknowledge that we see the presence of Dr Grace, the outstanding son of Sir Tristram who won eight stakes races including the AJC Derby and three other Group 1 races. At stud he had success with the likes of Stradbroke winner, Crawl, Doncaster winner Over, and George Ryder winner, Referral. Again though we see a lack of 2yo’s sired by the stallion and we should also note the additional line of Sir Tristram that we also saw through Deep Field.

The key then to the future of the success of Portland Sky may then lie quite surprisingly through the more moderate stallion in Shrewd Rhythm who many breeders would see as perhaps a weakness in the pedigree. The ability of Portland Flyer to produce top line 2yo’s may well lie in the ability to bring out the speed influences of Danehill Dancer and Canny Lad that we see in this sector of the stallion’s pedigree. Recently we looked at a new stallion joining Coolmore this

season in Home Affairs, and it is interesting to see that he shares both Canny Lad and Danehill in his pedigree that is somewhat reminiscent of those influences in the pedigree of Shrewd Rhythm. Canny Lad will be found in mares carrying I Am Invincible, and it could be these types of mares that allow Portland Flyer to produce the market topping early 2yo types. The other notable source of Canny Lad is through the pedigree of Redoute’s Choice. While this of course brings in another male line of Danehill, it is unlikely to be a negative especially if we can look for mares from that stallion’s sons and grandsons. While not yet in large numbers, stallions like Shamus Award, Wandjina, Sizzling, Sooboog and Russian Revolution may well represent interesting options in the quest for early 2yo’s. If we look at this in the greater Danehill picture, again it would seem likely that best successes may come from pushing that stallion further back in pedigrees but these opportunities are becoming more common.

Early speed is only one aspect of a stallion’s career, and as we saw with Encosta De Lago, is not critical to long term success. It is these other aspects though that would be instrumental in the long-term success of Portland Sky. Perhaps the first of these to be addressed should be Encosta De Lago himself. It would be interesting to find mares that have Encosta De Lago through a female. One particularly interesting broodmare sire would be the young stallion Impending who is out of the star daughter of Encosta De Lago in Mnemosyne. Mares tracing to Mnemosyne may be interesting prospects, but Impending is of particular interest in that he sees his sire as Lonhro which brings us to another factor in Portland Sky’s pedigree. Lonhro is a son of Sir Tristram and while there would be a risk in introducing another male line of that stallion, the influence is hardly a dominant one. We must also balance this potential negative with the presence of Eight Carat who we saw in the direct female line of Deep Field. Whether this presence is now being pushed too far back in the pedigree of the stallion to have any significant impact is another question though. Returning to the issue of Encosta De Lago, there also remains the possibility of introducing Flying Spur into a mating with the stallion as he also traces to the top mare, Rolls although of course brings in potentially a closer line of Danehill.

Overseas lines will again be important to the stallion, and again we come back to many of the standard lines. In particular Japanese lines could be of interest with the stallion. While I have mentioned a lack of precocious 2yo speed in the pedigree of the stallion, that is not to say that the pedigree lacks speed. In fact, speed abounds, and this was witnessed by the on-track performance of Portland Sky. It does however suggest that there could be a weakness in his progeny by continually breeding to additional speed lines. This is the strength of the Japanese thoroughbred in that they have strong classic and stamina lines, and of course this is what Australia sources from overseas including New Zealand. It includes the likes of High Chaparral, So You Think, Galileo, Dubawi, Street Cry and a host of these wonderful lines. Portland Sky of course is a great example with the reliance in his pedigree on influences like Danehill and Sir Tristram. There are a host of wonderful influences that the stallion offers breeders, who, if they get the balance of their mating right, will be able to breed solid 1000m to 1600m horses that should train on past their 3yo seasons.