Danehill Dancer
Few stallions, in recent years, deserve the title of “rags to riches success” more than Danehill Dancer. The stallion, who began his stud career for just 4,000 guineas, enjoyed so much success that his stud fee eventually rose to 60,000. Now 20 years old, Danehill Dancer stood the 2013 season for EU 40,000 (a stud fee ten times higher than he started). Champion Sire in 2009, Danehill Dancer has headed the UK juvenile sires log on three occasions – 2006, 2008 and 2009 respectively.
He has enjoyed another profitable season in 2013 – being represented by no fewer than ten stakes winners, including the G2 King Edward VII Stakes hero Hillstar and French 1000 Guineas runner up Esoterique.
However, it is through his sire sons that Danehill Dancer has been in the news this year. Son, Fast Company, was in the news as the sire of a colt who was the second top priced lot at the recent Doncaster Premier Yearling Sales. Another son, the four time Group One winner Mastercraftsman, is one of Europe’s leading first crop sires, with his first juveniles including G3 Prestige Stakes heroine Amazing Maria.
Another Danehill Dancer son, Monsieur Bond (sire of former Prix de’l Abbaye heroine Gilt Edge Girl), is represented by the high-class stakes winning filly, Ladies Are Forever, in 2013.
Danehill Dancer’s cham-pion son, Choisir, has also done well, with his offspring including no fewer than six group one winners. To date, the star sprinter has been represented by 10 stakes winners including the top –class US miler, Obviously, (winner of the recent Gr2 Del Mar Mile and nearly $1 000 000 in prize money), and 2000 Guineas runner up Glory Awaits.
Choisir was also represented in SA by the quick juvenile, Royalsecuritybaby, who won the Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes in 2013.
While initially thought of as a sire of fast quick juveniles, Danehill Dancer has proven himself much more versatile than critics originally predicted. Rather like his sire Danehill and broodmare sire Sharpen Up, Danehill Dancer is a stallion capable of siring Grade One winners from 1200m to 2400m, although his stock’s average winning distance remains just short of 1600m.
Looking at the quality of Danehill Dancer’s first book of mares, underlines his quality as a stallion.
His first book of mares included daughters of sires such as Pas De Seul, Beveled, Digamist, Tender King, Jareer and Statoblest – none of whom were the height of fashion.
One of his first stakes winners, Bright Edge, was the only stakes winner in two generations of a very average family. Another of Danehill Dancer’s initial black type winners, Lady Dominatrix, is the only group winner ever produced by a daughter of failed sire Flash of Steel.
Danehill Dancer’s first Northern Hemisphere crop, which included five stakes winners, also produced his first top flight winner in Britain, in the form of son Where or When (Queen Elizabeth II Stakes).
Since then, Danehill Dancer has produced another 16 Group/Grade One winners. His offspring have won top-level races in eight different countries.
Danehill Dancer offspring include no fewer than eight classic winners – quite a record for a stallion who never won over further than 1400m and who began his career at such a low fee.
While not as prolific in Australia as in the Northern Hemisphere, the sire has produced five Group One winners including champions Choisir and Private Steer to date.
In South Africa, Danehill Dancer has been represented by the classy filly Crimson Blossom, whose wins included the Final Fling Stakes and the gelding Destined to Be – who went unbeaten in his first two starts, winning them by an aggregate of 13.5 lengths. Another smart local performer is the talented, but frustrating, filly Berry Blaze. (The latter holds strong claims to being one of the best bred fillies in South Africa – her dam is a full-sister to Epsom Oaks winner Imagine, and a half-sister to champion Generous).
As a high-class juvenile himself (Danehill Dancer had a Timeform Rating of at two), it was always to be expected that Danehill Dancer would get fast stock. He has duly done so, and has a fine record in Ireland pattern races for juveniles. Two of his sons won the G1 Phoenix Stakes, while two daughters of the sire have won Ireland’s premier event for juvenile fillies, the Moyglare Stud Stakes. Danehill Dancer’s offspring have won the G2 Railway Stakes four times, and the G3 Anglesey Stakes once.
What is also impressive about the stallion’s overall record, is that, even at the age of 20, Danehill Dancer is getting an impressive 7% stakes winners to foals – a smart achievement.
His record in the Northern Hemisphere has seen Danehill Dancer sire 107 stakes winners from just over 1300 foals (or 8% stakes winners to foals, which is impressive, given the poor quality of mares he covered during the first part of his stud career).
This tally includes 12 Group/Grade One winners. Remarkably these 12 top-flight winners are all out of mares by different sires!
Down Under, Danehill Dancer has sired 42 SW from 758 foals (5%), suggesting he is slightly more effective in the Northern Hemisphere – but not by much.
In total, his 149 stakes winners (of which 79 are group/graded winners) makes Danehill Dancer his sire’s most prolific sire, in terms of stakes winners. He is clear of Redoute’s Choice (105), Flying Spur (89) and Dansili (82) – another testament to his talent when considering the start he had.
The one area that this former Irish Champion 2YO has fallen short is as a broodmare sire. Despite his now being 20, Danehill Dancer’s mares have yet to breed anything better than a Group Three winner. However, with his better bred daughters still relatively young, this stat could still improve.
While Danehill Dancer started his stud career with considerable more opportunities than did his broodmare sire Sharpen Up, it is still remarkable quite what he has achieved during his 16 years at stud. His record could yet improve still further!
