Three Haydock Sprint Cup winners who made an almighty impact at stud

The idea of a 'stallion making race' may be more of a marketing construct than a genetic one, but there is little doubt that the Haydock Sprint Cup has been won by some of the most important stallions to have ever held a place at stud.

Should one of the five entires still engaged in Saturday's Betfair-backed Group 1 triumph, he will not only join that illustrious roll of honour but will rubber stamp his own stallion credentials too.

We run the rule over three Sprint Cup winners who went on to leave a lasting mark on the breed, and see just how big are the footprints this year's contenders have to follow in.

Green Desert

Danzig - Foreign Courier (Sir Ivor)
Winner in 1986

When the as-yet unknighted Michael Stoute dropped Green Desert back to sprinting during his three-year-old season, the son of Danzig duly took his form to new heights. Having won the July Cup, his final victory came in the 1986 Sprint Cup, when, in the hands of Walter Swinburn, his defeat of Hallgate capped the career of a high-class talent.

Despite his diminutive stature, Green Desert went on to become a genuine giant of the stallion ranks. His stud record features 12 Group 1 winners and 94 stakes scorers worldwide, including names such as Desert Prince, Heat Haze, Owington and Sheikh Albadou.

31 year old Green Desert enjoys his retirement in his paddock at Shadwell's Nunnery StudThetford 26.8.14 Pic: Edward WhitakerCredit: Edward Whitaker

However, it is through his sire sons that Green Desert, who died in September 2015 aged 32, has cemented his place in the pantheon of greats, principally Cape Cross, Invincible Spirit and Oasis Dream, who have all made their own indelible mark on the thoroughbred.

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Cape Cross won the Lockinge Stakes before siring the likes of Sea The Stars, Golden Horn and Ouija Board, as well as the dams of Masar and Laurens; Invincible Spirit won the Haydock Sprint Cup himself before becoming one of the most important stallions of the 21st century; and Oasis Dream, winner of the July Cup and the Nunthorpe, has supplied 17 top-level winners, including Midday and Muhaarar, and is the damsire of unbeaten Group 1-winning juvenile Siskin, among others.

Green Desert seeing out his retirement aged 31 at Shadwell's Nunnery StudCredit: Edward Whitaker

It would be fitting if one of the five runners in this year's Sprint Cup - namely Dream Of Dreams, Fairyland, Forever In Dreams, Invincible Army and Major Jumbo - who descends from the great stallion could land the Group 1 prize.

Danehill

Danzig - Razyana (His Majesty)
Winner in 1989

Bred and raced by Prince Khalid Abdullah, Danehill recorded his biggest career success in the 1989 Sprint Cup, when Pat Eddery steered the Jeremy Tree-trained three-year-old to a two-length victory over Cricket Ball.

In a deal worth a reported £4 million, Coolmore partnered with Australia's Arrowfield Stud to buy Danehill as a stallion prospect. The son of Danzig duly took up northern and southern hemisphere covering duty the year after his Group 1 triumph, and altered the course of the breed forever.

Danehill, who died in a paddock accident at Coolmore aged 17, was not the first stallion to shuttle between the two hemispheres, but he is unquestionably the most successful, having claimed the leading sire title in Australia on nine occasions and the British and Irish equivalent three times.

Danehill takes a shower at Coolmore in 2003Credit: Edward Whitaker

His global stud record boasts a hitherto unchallenged 84 Group/Grade 1 winners and an astronomical 347 stakes scorers, statistics that make him the most dominant sire of the modern era, albeit Galileo is starting to bear down on his records.

His list of famous talents is a lengthy one, but suffice to say that without Danehill we would not have seen the likes of Dylan Thomas, George Washington, Mozart or Rock Of Gibraltar. Although his death came prematurely, Danehill left an army of sire sons to pass on his influence.

In the northern hemisphere his name has been kept in lights through the results of stallions such as Danehill Dancer, sire of Dancing Rain, Legatissimo and Mastercraftsman; Dansili, whose stud CV includes the likes of Bated Breath, Harbinger, The Fugue and Zoffany; Kodiac, the record-breaking sire of juvenile winners; and Rock Of Gibraltar, who has supplied 16 elite winners, including 2012 Sprint Cup hero Society Rock.

Redoute's Choice: champion sire son of DanehillCredit: Bronwen Healy

In the southern hemisphere he produced Redoute's Choice, who picked up the dominant sire mantle left behind by his own progenitor to supply 34 Group 1 winners and claim three champion sire titles in his native land. Danehill's southern hemisphere crops have also contained the likes of Exceed And Excel and Fastnet Rock, both of whom have shuttled with great distinction.

Danehill has also had an enormous impact as a broodmare sire, most notably through Kind, the dam of none other than Frankel. Other daughters have produced such as Danedream, Free Eagle, Highland Reel and Teofilo.

His name features prominently in the pedigrees of three runners in Saturday's race: Dream Of Dreams, Fairyland and Hello Youmzain.

Invincible Spirit

Green Desert - Rafha (Kris)
Winner in 2002

Prince AA Faisal kept Invincible Spirit in training until his five-year-old season, and was rewarded for his perseverance when the John Dunlop-trained runner saw off Malhub by a short head in the 2002 Sprint Cup.

That deserved Group 1 breakthrough, which saw Invincible Spirit follow in his own sire's footsteps, proved to be the final outing of his 17-race career.

He retired to the Irish National Stud the following year, where he was introduced to breeders at the relatively modest fee of €10,000. Some 16 years later and Invincible Spirit's fee now stands at €120,000 (and has done since 2016), as he has developed into a stallion of great consequence.

Invincible Spirit (with stallion man Daffer Kelly) meets the Duchess Of Cornwall at the Irish National StudCredit: Caroline Norris

He has sired 18 Group 1 winners, a list that includes top-class juveniles like Rosdhu Queen and Shalaa, older sprinters such as Fleeting Spirit, Mayson and Profitable, high calibre milers like Kingman and Magna Grecia and one of the best racemares of recent times in Moonlight Cloud.

He has sired 124 stakes winners already, and with his best-bred crops still in the pipeline, that number can only rise, possibly significantly so.

As well as a growing stud record, Invincible Spirit also possesses a burgeoning reputation as a sire of sires.

No horse, in the northern hemisphere at least, has done more to enhance Invincible Spirit's reputation in this department than Kingman, whose 15 stakes winners include talents such as Persian King (won the Poule d'Essai des Poulains), Calyx (Coventry Stakes), Headman (Prix Guillaume d'Ornano) and Sangarius (Hampton Court Stakes).

Kingman: hugely exciting sire son of Invincible SpiritCredit: Juddmonte/Asuncion Piñeyrua

Kingman is joined by useful stallions such as Charm Spirit and Mayson, while another son of Invincible Spirit, Cable Bay, is among this year's most promising first-season sires, with 16 winners on the board already.

Invincible Spirit also shuttled to Chatswood Stud in Victoria for four covering seasons, where he sired I Am Invincible, whose own rapid ascent of the stallion ranks has been charted by a fee that has climbed from a starting point of A$11,000 to A$247,500 (£137,000/€152,000, the highest advertised fee in Australia for the 2019 covering season.

The latest chapter in the rags to riches tale of I Am Invincible, who has sired eight Group 1 winners, was written when the Yarraman Park linchpin was chosen for Winx's debut covering.

Invincible Spirit is represented by Invincible Army in the Sprint Cup, while outsider Major Jumbo is by another of his sire sons, Zebedee.

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