Quality and quantity
Elusive Quality has made a wonderful start to 2008 with 36 winners already on the board in the northern hemisphere and two exciting prospects in Bernicia and Related running for him in Australia
There’s no doubting that Elusive Quality is a sire with Classic potential – his Kentucky Derby-winning son Smarty Jones has already highlighted that. But Elusive Quality’s stock has been rising the world over and he now has leading Classic fancies in England and Australia.
In the UK, the highly promising Raven’s Pass (pictured), awarded a Timeform rating of 125p for his outstanding G3 Solario Stakes win and subsequent placed effort in the Dewhurst, has been strong in the betting for 2000 Guineas all winter.
His hour will come at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile on 3 May but three days prior to that Bernicia is set to line up in the AJC Oaks at Randwick in Sydney. Bred by Darley, she is a half-sister to G1 winners Vengeance Of Rain and Dizelle and has thrust herself into the Oaks picture on the back of three unbeaten runs, including a recent Listed victory.
She’s not the only star from Elusive Quality’s first southern hemisphere crop. Another filly, Camarilla, has been eye-catching not solely because of the cerise silks of Woodlands Stud that she sports on the track but also because she was a G1 winner at two, landing the Sires’ Produce Stakes at Randwick.
Both fillies are out of mares by Danehill, as is up and coming juvenile Related, who just missed out on G2 honours by a nose in the Todman Stakes on his racecourse debut recently and is another of Elusive Quality’s Australian runners who looks likely to make a name for himself.
With the forthcoming Easter sale catalogue containing his full-brother and a colt out of his half-sister, Related’s excellent run was certainly well-timed if a little unlucky with traffic problems curbing a clear run until the final 100m.
Elusive Quality’s burgeoning international reputation will no doubt have been bolstered by the efforts of Elusive Warning in Dubai. The Godolphin four-year-old beat his stablemate Blackat Blackitten when landing the G3 Burj Nahaar – Muhtathir and found just Diamond Stripes too good when second in the G2 Godolphin Mile on Dubai World Cup night.
As we’ve seen, Elusive Quality can sire top-class juveniles. For precocity, look no further than Elusive City, winner of the G1 Prix Morny in 2002 and now standing at the Irish National Stud. If it’s consistency you’re after, how about Maryfield? This tough Canadian-bred mare, now seven, has won six stakes races, including the G1 Ballerina Stakes and G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf last year. In total, she has run 28 times for nine wins and six places.
For a stallion with a truly international profile he certainly passes on quality in abundance. There’s nothing elusive about it.
09 April 2008