Northern Dancer’s Birthday
Born on 27 May 1961, he was a small horse at 15.2 hands and was unruly and more interested in the fillies when at the races
27th May 2020
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Born on 27 May 1961, he was a small horse at 15.2 hands and was unruly and more interested in the fillies when at the races
It is interesting, although no doubt coincidental, how some years see more than one influential stallion born
Saturday’s Gr1 races at Kenilworth provided further evidence, if any was needed, of the dominance of Northern Dancer
In the last ten years, a Northern Dancer male line descendant has headed the general sires log in eight years.
The legendary Northern Dancer has dominated the runnings of the Vodacom Durban July since the 1990’s. Of the 16 runners for this year’s running of South Africa’s most celebrated horse-race, 13 are inbred to the mighty stallion.
“He’s so little, a cat would chase him. But he’s so plucky there’s barely room in him for his heart. His legs are barely long enough to keep his tail off the ground. He probably takes a hundred more strides than anyone else, but he’s harder to pass than a third martini”
When making a list of outstanding stallions, it is easy to focus on a few big horses, rather than an individual stallion’s overall stud record.
SARAH WHITELAW: Legendary Mares and striking first foals for well performed young sires, and more…
SARAH WHITELAW: Tracing back to Nijinsky II; Northern Dancer overwhelms in SA Gr1 features; New Approach VS Galileo; the Allegretta tribe
SARAH WHITELAW: So who are the young generation of stallions who could yet turn the tide for a weakened band of US sires?
It is eerie to think that there would have been no Siren’s Call, Sound Of Warning, or for that matter Call To Unite, had fate not decreed that Enchanted Cove follow her dam to South Africa, and that Peter de Beyer had the foresight to return Elusive Fort back home from the States as well!
There’s lots more to play for!
