Descendants of Danzig’s July Cup winning son Green Desert shone on both the international and South African stage this past weekend.
In South Africa, daughters of Querari (a son of Green Desert’s champion sprinter son Oasis Dream) in the form of Maria Querol and Fleeting, ran first and second respectively in Saturday’s Listed World Sports Betting Stormsvlei Stakes, while Green Desert sire sons and grandsons made their mark overseas on the same day.
Maria Querol (Craig Zackey) is led in by Jonathan Snaith and Zain Momelezi (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Oasis Dream made headlines in Ireland on Saturday when his champion son Native Trail ran out a convincing winner of the Gr1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas. Cartier Champion 2YO Colt last year, and runner up in the Gr1 Qipco 2000 Guineas earlier this year, Native Trail is a second Irish 2000 Guineas winner for Oasis Dream, whose son Power won that Irish classic back in 2012.
Oasis Dream’s consistently successful sire son Showcasing is broodmare sire of another top-class three-year-old in El Caballo (Havana Gold) who made it six wins in a row when landing Saturday’s Gr2 Cazoo Sandy Lane Stakes. El Caballo is inbred to Green Desert, with his Gr1 Prix Jean Prat winning sire out of a daughter of Green Desert’s son Desert Style.
Prominent Australian stallion I Am Invincible (a son of Green Desert’s Gr1 Haydock Sprint Cup winning son Invincible Spirit) came up with his 13th Gr1 winner, and fourth Gr1 winner for the current season, when his son Lombardo captured Saturday’s Gr1 SAJC Goodwood Handicap at Morphetville.
Ironically, I Am Invincible had finished second in the Gr1 Goodwood Handicap of 2009. His consistent success this season has seen I Am Invincible currently head the Australian General Sires List for 2021-2022.
Another son of Invincible Spirit, Kingman, also made his presence felt on Saturday, with his four-year-old daughter Technical Analysis capturing the Gr3 Gallorette Handicap at Pimlico on the Preakness Stakes undercard.
Technical Analysis, who vanquished Crystal Cliffs, a daughter of Ridgemont Highlands’ inform sire Canford Cliffs, into second place on Saturday, has now won a trio of graded races and was also second in the 2021 G1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. She is one of 45 stakes winners for the once beaten Kingman, whose son Kingentleman captured the Gr3 Prix Texanita last Monday.
Yet another son of Invincible Spirit, Cable Bay, provided Royal fans with some joy with his son King’s Lynn capturing Saturday’s Gr2 Cazoo Temple Stakes for Her Majesty The Queen. Remarkably, Invincible Spirit is either sire or paternal/maternal grandsire of each of the first three finishers past the post in the 2022 Temple Stakes.
Green Desert (photo by Shadwell)
However, perhaps the best flagbearer for the Green Desert male line is another once beaten superstar in the form of Sea The Stars. The latter, a half-brother to Galileo and son of Green Desert’s Gr1 Lockinge Stakes winning son Cape Cross, is having a wonderful spell this season with his current star performers headed by unbeaten star miler Baaeed, current Oaks favourite Emily Upjohn and legendary stayer Stradivarius. Between them, that trio has already captured the Gr1 Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes, Gr3 Tattersalls Musidora Stakes and Gr2 Paddy Power Yorkshire Cup Stakes this season – and they are unlikely to stop there!
The Green Desert male line also looks to be alive and well in South Africa. His grandson Querari consistently comes up with stakes winners (he also heads the Leading Sires of 2YOs List at the time of writing), while his half-brother Quasillo (by Sea The Stars) is the sire of this season’s Ge3 Strelitzia Stakes victress Ameena, despite having a small number of runners representing him.
Invincible Spirit is also set to make his mark in South Africa with the consistently top-class stallion’s Gr1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes winning son Digital Age set to make his debut at stud this season.
