GREAT DOUBLE FOR DANSILI

One of Europe’s top stallions, Dansili, was represented by a pair of group winners yesterday. His sons Zoffany and Famous Name won the Gp3 Tyros Stakes and Gp3 Meld Stakes respectively. The Aidan O’Brien trained Zoffany, who ran out a comfortable winner, has now won three of his four starts to date. Interestingly enough, the runner up, High Ruler, is a half-brother to South African stallion Indigo Magic.

Famous Name, runner up in the Prix du Jockey Club in 2008, was winning his fifth group race. Remarkably, he has been unplaced just once in 18 starts.

Dansili, who is a full brother to the dam of new SA sire Ideal World, has been represented by 11 individual stakes winners. This tally includes the multiple Gr1 winning filly Proviso, the first filly ever to win the Gr1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap.

The weekend could get better still for Dansili, as his son Harbinger is a fancied runner in Saturday’s Gp1 King George and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot. Harbinger is unbeaten this year, and the form of his win in the Gp2 Hardwicke Stakes has worked out extremely well.

Dansili, champion sire in France in 2006, currently stands at Juddmonte Farms for a stud fee of 65, 000 pounds (or slightly over R742,000). A multiple group 2 winner, Dansili was a desperately unlucky loser of the 2000 Breeders Cup Mile, where he flew up late for third.

By Sarah Whitelaw