Granddam of Seventh Heaven to be offered at Fall Sale

John Antonelli, breeder of US champion two- and three-year old filly Songbird, will offer the granddam of Seventh Heaven as part of his Californian breeding stock dispersal at the Barretts Fall Sale on Tuesday.

Antonelli acquired Piedras Negras when in foal to Johannesburg for $95,000 at the 2003 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

The resulting foal was La Traviata - whose price escalated from $75,000 as a foal to $1.1 million as a two-year-old in training when purchased at the Calder sales by Coolmore.

Trained by Francois Parisel, La Traviata went some way to justifying her price-tag by winning a Graded sprint at Saratoga, before she entered the breeding shed.

The 13-year-old has produced eight known foals to date - headed by dual Oaks winner Seventh Heaven, one of 70 elite winners for Galileo, and the 2011 Middle Park Stakes scorer Crusade.

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La Traviata's progeny appear to have scattered far and wide, with Crusade exported to South Africa and her Group-2 placed son Cristoforo Colombo, by Henrythenavigator, exported to Morocco.

While Seventh Heaven looks pointed at the British Champions Fillies and Mares, for which she is a general 10-1 shot, her two-year-old brother Coat Of Arms entered plenty of notebooks having finished second in the Futurity Stakes at the Curragh.

While she has no yearling, La Traviata has a brother to Seventh Heaven and Coat Of Arms at foot.

Greg Fanning will offer 15 lots in total on behalf of Antonelli, among them two yearlings and four weanlings by Piedras Negras's unraced stallion son Sapphire Cat.

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