Family Connections Abound in Dubai World Cup Night Races

Bernardini is part of a three generation string of sires
The biggest night of the year in Dubai racing takes place tomorrow with 103 runners hoping to take home some of the millions of dollars on offer during the eight Thoroughbred races on the card. As always, there is some fun pedigree history behind the runners, so here are a few fun facts as we prepare for this year’s Dubai World Cup night.

By the Numbers – The eight Thoroughbred races on the card attracted 103 runners bred in 11 different countries. Those runners represent 81 different sires and 91 broodmare sires with active sires on the list standing in 17 different countries, including Pakistan (Thousand Words). European sire list rivals Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) and Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) lead all sires with six runners each. Three broodmare sires (Danehill, Dubai Destination and Machiavellian) are tied for most runners in that category with three each.

Sires Siring Sires – Acclamation, A.P. Indy, Bernardini, Candy Ride, Exceed and Excel, Galileo, Medicean, Speightstown, Shamardal, Tagula and Unbridled’s Song not only are the sires of runners in the race, they also have sons with runners in the race. Not surprisingly, Galileo again leads this category with three sons with runners in Heliostatic, New Approach and Teofilo.

A.P. Indy – It’s been a big few weeks for A.P. Indy’s line with his son Congrats having a sale topper last week at OBS and big representation this week in Dubai. In addition to siring Dubai World Cup runner Long River, he is also the sire of Bernardini and Saint Anddan, who both have a runner each on the card. He’s also the grandsire of two other sires (Stay Thirsty and Tapit) who have runners. That connection to Stay Thirsty provides a fun three generation ladder with Bernardini siring Stay Thirsty.
Galileo's son Decorated Knight

Danzig – The Northern Dancer is strong in this group of horses and Danzig plays a big part in that as the sire, grandsire or great-grandsire of 17 stallions with runners here. In 11 of those cases, his line runs through Danehill but he also has some sons who have runners. Hard Spun, Langfurh and War Front were all sired by the influential stallion. For the record, since he won’t be getting his own category, 41 of the stallions with runners comes from Northern Dancer’s sire line.

Sadler’s Wells – You can’t have Galileo leading lists without Sadler’s Wells nearby and that’s no exception here. But while Galileo is the headliner of the Sadler’s Wells show, he does have a few other sons playing parts with Montjeu’s son Authorized and El Prado’s son Medaglia d’Oro having a runner apiece here.

Mr. Prospector – Seventeen sires with runners come from Mr. Prospector’s sire line, which isn’t a surprising fact. Which may be though is that six are grandsons of the stallion, including 13-year-old young gun Curlin. While doing these blogs, it’s usual to find Mr. Prospector lurking in the background on many pedigrees but he’s usually at least three generations back.

Sires as Broodmare Sires – Bernardini, Distorted Humor, Elusive Quality, Galileo, Halling, Peintre Celebre, Shamardal and Street Cry are all sires of runners who also double as broodmare sires. Even more impressive may be the feat pulled off by Awesome Again, Cape Cross, Danehill, Danzig, Diesis, Giant’s Causeway, Gone West, Machiavellian, Nureyev, Pivotal, Pulpit, Storm Cat and Sunday Silence who sired at least one son and daughter who have runners on this card.

North America - The Dubai World Cup looks like a showcase for North America with 27 North American-breds (including three Canadians) playing a part as sire, dam or broodmare sire to the race's 14 entries. Awesome Again and Sunday Silence lead all stallions here as the broodmare sires of two runners apiece. Awesome Again's come from two daughters while Sunday Silence's daughter Heavenly Romance is the dam of Lani and Awardee.

Awesome Again
Dubai World Cup Winners in Pedigrees – With the Dubai World Cup only taking place since 1996, it doesn’t leave a ton of time for former World Cup winners to play a major part in pedigrees yet but a few of them will be represented in the races on Saturday. 1997 winner Singspiel is the broodmare sire of Al Quoz Sprint runner Limito, 2000 winner Dubai Millennium is the sire of Dubawi (who has six runners), Street Cry is the sire of Famous Kid and the broodmare sire of Second Summer and Curlin is the sire of Dubai World Cup runner Keen Ice. No Dubai World Cup winner has ever sired another winner and Curlin is the only one who can break that streak this year.

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