The dominance of the great stallion Northern Dancer, one of the most influential sires in history, can be well and truly felt in the field for the Sun Met.
Northern Dancer
Every single runner has at least one strain of Northern Dancer in his or her respective pedigrees, with a large number inbred to the sire.
Eagle Flies
Legal Eagle (Greys Inn) is inbred to Northern Dancer with his grandsire Zabeel produced by the Nureyev mare Lady Giselle, and Legal Eagle being out of the National Emblem (by Danzig son National Assembly) mare Young Sensation. The latter is inbred to Northern Dancer through Danzig and Lyphard.
Multiple champion broodmare sire Fort Wood (by Northern Dancer son Sadler’s Wells) is damsire of Met contenders Captain America (Captain Al), Elusive Silva (Silvano), Nightingale and Marinaresco (Silvano), while Fort Wood sons Dynasty and Elusive Fort are sire of 2018 Sun Met runners African Night Sky and Horizon, and Safe Harbour respectively.
Horizon
Sadler’s Wells has another deceased son represented in this year’s Met with six time Gr1 winner High Chaparral responsible for the Gr3 London News Stakes winner Cascapedia. The latter is yet another inbred to Northern Dancer, with her dam a daughter of the Danehill sire Dansili.
Female Line
Oh Susanna is not descended from Northern Dancer in her male line – her late, outstanding sire Street Cry being a son of the Mr Prospector son Machiavellian – who, ironically, was from the same family as Northern Dancer, but she is out of a mare by Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold (by Northern Dancer grandson Deputy Minister).
Another from the Mr Prospector male line, but containing strains of Northern Dancer in his pedigree is former Selangor Cup winner Gold Standard. The son of champion sire Trippi (whose sire End Sweep contains Northern Dancer in his pedigree) is out of Olympic Dam, who is inbred to the sire through Lyphard and Nijinsky II.
Gold Standard
Reigning champion sire Silvano, sire of 2013 surprise Met winner Martial Eagle-whose full brother Nebula contests Saturday’s race, descends in male line from Northern Dancer’s Triple Crown winning son Nijinsky II. The son of Lomitas is responsible for four runners in the Met (Marinaresco, Nightingale, Elusive Silva and Nebula), and Silvano also features as broodmare sire of leading hopeful Last Winter (Western Winter). The latter’s pedigree contains three lines of Northern Dancer through Vice Regent (damsire of Western Winter), Nijinsky II and Northfields. The latter, also broodmare sire of Met runner Sail South, is broodmare sire of Cape Fillies Guineas winner Field Flower, dam of Last Winter.
Silvano’s own sister Shina, in turn, is the dam of Bass-Robinson runner, Horizon.
Inbreeding to one of Northern Dancer’s greatest grandsons, Storm Cat, is a trend enjoying increasing success. This pattern has also resulted in notable international Gr1 winners Harmonize (Scat Daddy) and Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy), as well as high class filly Pretty N Cool (Scat Daddy) and Sun Met hope Nother Russia (Tiger Ridge) is yet another inbred to that multiple champion sire. By a son of Storm Cat in Tiger Ridge, Nother Russia’s champion dam Mother Russia was sired by Windrush – whose dam was sired by Storm Cat.
Nother Russia
True Blue
However, one of the best adverts in the 2018 Sun Met field for inbreeding to the legendary Northern Dancer has to be Heavenly Blue. The son of champion Australian sire Snitzel has no fewer than five lines of Northern Dancer through all of Danehill, Nijinsky II, Sadler’s Wells, Storm Bird and Nureyev. Both Redoute’s Choice and Snitzel are closely inbred to the 1964 Kentucky Derby winner and no doubt there will be plenty more horses with such an inbred pedigree as Heavenly Blue in years to come.
River Jetez – 2010 Met winner
Since 2007, the Met has been won by a direct male line descendant of Northern Dancer on nine occasions, with the Kenilworth feature being dominated by offspring of Northern Dancer grandson Jet Master. The latter, now making his mark as a broodmare sire and sire of sires, was the sire of the Met winner five year’s running, with Jet Master son Pocket Power and the latter’s own sister River Jetez winning from 2007 to 2010. Subsequent Equus Champion Past Master gave Jet Master a rare five timer when saluting in the 2011 Met.
Heed The Call
Even when the Met went the way of a horse not descended in male line from Northern Dancer, ie Smart Call – from the powerful Mr Prospector male line or Captain Al’s Hill Fifty Four, the winner inevitably had at least one strain of “The Dancer” in their make –up. Hill Fifty Four being out of a mare by Sportsworld, whose damsire is Nureyev (Northern Dancer and his second dam is by the Nijinsky II sire Dancing Champ.
Smart Call
Both Smart Call and Whisky Baron, winners of the last two runnings of the showpiece race, are inbred to the diminutive Canadian. Smart Call’s sire Ideal World is inbred to Northern Dancer, through Nureyev, Nijinsky II and Danzig, while Whisky Baron’s Gr1 winning sire Manhattan Rain -whose half-brother Redoute’s Choice is the sire of Snitzel, sire of Heavenly Blue, is inbred to the former Kentucky Derby winning Northern Dancer through the latter’s sons Fairy King and Nijinsky II.
