LEROIDESANIMAUX

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Tony morris

The horse who has everything

IN 1938 a champion racehorse who had done all his racing abroad was imported to take up stud duties in Newmarket. Part of his pedigree was familiar, part much less so, but breeders expressed their faith in him, and time would show that he was the most important horse brought to England since the Godolphin Arabian over two centuries earlier. That horse was Nearco.

Seventy-five years on, a male-line descendant of Nearco, also a champion abroad and with unfamiliar elements in his pedigree background, has been imported to Newmarket, and breeders should be no less confident about his credentials, as he is already the sire of an internationally acclaimed performer, successful in two of the most prestigious races on the planet. LEROIDESANIMAUX, sire of Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup hero Animal Kingdom, is now resident at Lanwades.

It is easy to recognise why this event has the potential to represent a major boost for the British breeding industry. An outstanding physical specimen, he proved himself a brilliant athlete and has shown he can get world-class progeny, but not the least of his attributes is a pedigree which makes him a superb outcross for the vast majority of mares in this part of the world.

A winner and Group 1-placed at two in his native Brazil, LEROIDESANIMAUX subsequently won eight of ten starts on grass from 6½f to 8½f in North America, three of them at Grade 1 level. He was named Champion Turf Male as a five-year-old and earned a Timeform rating of 127. He is one of ten champions sired by Blushing Groom's son Candy Stripes, who finished runner-up in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and became leading sire twice in Argentina. Others by Candy Stripes include Invasor, Horse of the Year in North America.

The dam of LEROIDESANIMAUX is Dissemble, an unraced Ahonoora half-sister to 'Blue Hen' Hasili, whose brood includes Dansili, Banks Hill, Intercontinental, Heat Haze, Cacique and Champs Elysees, all distinguished Group 1 performers. Dissemble herself produced another Group 1 winner in Uapybo, underlining this family's reputation as among the best of modern times.

In addition to Animal Kingdom, LEROIDESANIMAUX is sire of a Group 1 juvenile winner in Una Cabeza and of three individual Group 2 winners. He heads the sires' list in North America by world earnings in 2013.

When I embarked on my odyssey as a student of thoroughbred pedigrees, half a century ago, one of the most fascinating aspects of the exercise was the vast variety of successful bloodlines. How could anyone begin to guess where the next champion would come from when there were so many flourishing and influential lines, providing breeders with plenty of options?

That was an era characterised by diversity, with no single line reigning supreme, but the scenario is entirely different now. The male lines of such as Blandford, Djebel, Fairway and Hyperion have ceased to feature prominently, and Northern Dancer has become the dominant factor in pedigrees, often with multiple presences. LEROIDESANIMAUX has only one cross of Northern Dancer, way back in the fourth generation. He reintroduces to Britain the potent male line of Nasrullah through Blushing Groom, whose son Rainbow Quest proved so successful, and he has that essential difference from the norm to provide a much-needed radical outcross.

The descendants of such as Danzig, Sadler's Wells and Mr Prospector, all absent from LEROIDESANIMAUX's background, may well have acquired a natural mate. Inbreeding to the female line, with daughters of Dansili, may also prove successful.

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