Two more elite winners keep Scat Daddy's name in lights

Two more top-level winners over the weekend, one on either side of the Atlantic, reiterated the terrible loss suffered by Coolmore – and, indeed, the breeding industry in general – when Scat Daddy died so suddenly in December 2015, aged just 11.

First Dacita, bred by the late stallion on a shuttle run to Chile, won the Beverley D Stakes at Arlington on Saturday; and then Sioux Nation followed up his Royal Ascot success in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday. The pair took Scat Daddy up to 22 individual Group/Grade 1 winners from seven crops of racing age.

A number of those – including Acapulco, No Nay Never and Caravaggio – have carried the colours of the Coolmore partners and Sioux Nation is the latest. A revelation when winning the Norfolk Stakes, he stepped back up to six furlongs here and was last off the bridle before holding Beckford's rally by half a length.

Coolmore vet John Halley's Fethard Bloodstock bred Sioux Nation out of the Oasis Dream mare Dream The Blues, who appears to have been fragile as well as talented. She did not run until the October of her three-year-old season, won a 6f maiden at Redcar for Kevin Ryan, and was never seen again.

Her dam, however, was well known at Ballydoyle. The Bluebird mare Catch The Blues was stabled there during Aidan O'Brien's earliest days at the yard and won three races, notably the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes, as well as being Group 1-placed in the Haydock Sprint Cup.

Sioux Nation, the second foal of Dream The Blues, has a yearling brother whose value has plainly now gained considerably. The mare also has a colt foal by Declaration Of War.

Dacita, for her part, is a result of her sire's stints at Haras Paso Nevado between 2009 and 2011. She was bred there out of the Seeker's Reward mare Daja, making her a sister to the Grade 3 scorer Dosificado and to the dual Grade 1 runner-up Dalala. The six-year-old is also a half-sister to two other stakes performers in Lady Estefania and Dacimo.

Dacita: One of Scat Daddy's progeny bred during his time shuttling to ChileCredit: Nicole Marie / Four Footed Fotos

In her native country, she was trained by Juan Silva to win three Grade 1 contests. Transferred to Chad Brown, she has added four further Graded victories to her name – two of those coming at the highest level.

Eight individual Grade 1 winners in Chile meant that at the time of his death Scat Daddy's prowess was probably more widely recognised there than was the case in the northern hemisphere. But his phenomenal posthumous record at Royal Ascot, crowned by another four winners at this year's meeting, guarantees fierce demand for his final crop of yearlings as the sales season enters full swing.

The scarcity value of his progeny was already apparent at Keeneland last September when MV Magnier paid a sale-topping $3 million for Mendelssohn, who got off the mark at the second attempt for O'Brien at the Curragh on Sunday.

First success: Ryan Moore gives Mendelssohn a pat after victory in the 1 mile maidenCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

In fairness, he also owed much of his appeal to two top-class siblings. Clarkland Farm bred Mendelssohn out of the Listed-winning Tricky Creek mare Leslie's Lady, already responsible for both 11-time Grade 1 heroine Beholder and the exciting Spendthrift sire Into Mischief. The latter, a son of Harlan's Holiday, can count Grade 1 scorers Goldencents and Practical Joke among his progeny.

Mendelssohn had made a low-key debut behind a highly regarded stablemate in The Pentagon last month but had learned enough to make the running this time. Perhaps lingering greenness accounted for the way he wandered under pressure before holding out by a length, but making the running over the Curragh mile at two implies rather different strengths from some of Scat Daddy's precocious stock.

Taken together, in fact, these three eye-catching winners certainly show diverse dimensions to their sire's legacy. The one common bond, however, remains regret.

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