Keeping It In the Family: Pedigrees of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

As of Thursday, the 2017 Group 1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe has attracted a field of 18 runners at Chantilly for an exciting race that has Nathaniel’s Enable looking to verify that she’s the best horse in Europe. While the field may change in the coming days, I couldn’t help but dig into the pedigrees of the current entrants as we prepare for one of the biggest races of the year.

Like nearly every big race in Europe, Sadler’s Wells rules the entries. The late Coolmore stallion is the sire or grandsire of the sires of nine of the 18 entries in the race. His son Galileo has sired six of those entries and is the grandsire of one other (Enable) with the majority owned by the Coolmore partners.

Galileo had the trifecta in 2016, led by Found.

Enable, who is sired by Galileo’s son, also has the distinction of being the only runner in the race with Sadler’s Wells as her broodmare sire. Sadler’s Wells is featured prominently in her pedigree as the sire of her dam Concentric and as the grandsire of her sire Nathaniel.

In the Wings is responsible for the other two Sadler’s Wells-lined runners. Both his sons, Soldier Hollow and Adlerflug, are active in Germany where both their entries were bred and are based.

Northern Dancer’s son Danzig also has multiple runners from his branch in the race. Curiously with the popularity and success of the Sadler’s Wells/Galileo over Danehill/Danehill Dancer cross, Danzig’s representation through cross is only seen twice in this race through Winter and Idaho.

ARC SIRE LINES

Horse	Sire	Sire line	Branch
Enable	Nathaniel	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Ulysses	Galileo	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Order Of St George	Galileo	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Brametot	Rajsaman	Northern Dancer	Lyphard
Dschingis Secret	Soldier Hollow	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Winter	Galileo	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Capri	Galileo	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Zarak	Dubawi	Mr. Prospector	Seeking the Gold
Satono Diamond	Deep Impact	Hail to Reason	Halo
Cloth Of Stars	Sea The Stars	Northern Dancer	Danzig
Seventh Heaven	Galileo	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Doha Dream	Shamardal	Northern Dancer	Storm Bird
Idaho	Galileo	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
One Foot In Heaven	Fastnet Rock	Northern Dancer	Danzig
Plumatic	Dubawi	Mr. Prospector	Seeking the Gold
Silverware	Silver Frost	Kalamoun	Kenmare
Iquitos	Adlerflug	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Satono Noblesse	Deep Impact	Hail to Reason	Halo

Sired by Galileo, Winter is out of a Choisir daughter. A former shuttler to Ireland for Coolmore, the Australian-based Choisir is by Danehill Dancer, a grandson of the aforementioned Danzig. Idaho has that same basic cross going on with the 4-year-old colt by Galileo and out of a mare by Danzig’s son Danehill.

Danehill is often the most popular way Danzig is found in Group 1s but another son, Anabaa, is playing his own part here. The late sire is the broodmare sire of two Arc runners in Galileo’s Capri (with a similar cross to the Galileo over Danehill) and Dubawi’s Plumatic. Plumatic brings in a watered down Northern Dancer over Mr. Prospector cross that proved to be successful in their breeding days.

The final Danzig line found within the broodmare sires is one not seen often with Lure’s son Orpen as the broodmare sire of Japan’s Satono Diamond. A subfertile stallion, Lure didn’t have many foals so in that sense, it is impressive that he not only had at least one son able to care on his line but that son also is represented in a race like the Arc.

The farthest back Northern Dancer is found in the sire lines of broodmare sires is five steps back thanks to Seventh Heaven, who is out of a Johannesburg mare. Johannesburg himself is a great-great grandson of the influential sire.

Northern Dancer is one generation farther back in Brametot’s pedigree. Brametot is by Rajsaman, a stallion himself who could almost be considered an outcross with Northern Dancer not appearing in his sire line until the fifth generation through Lyphard. In fact, looking at Brametot’s first five generations, you see only one cross to Northern Dancer through Rajsman’s dam, a granddaughter of Nijinsky but when you step back one more generation, you add that extra dose through Lyphard. However, Brametot does avoid extra Northern Dancer on his dam’s side through her sire Law Society, who is the only sire or broodmare sire here to trace back to Tom Rolfe.

Rajsaman (La Cauviniere photo)

Northern Dancer is also found in the fifth generation of Cloth of Stars' sire line. By Sea the Stars, Cloth of Stars is another nod to the legacy of the great broodmare Urban Sea, who is the granddam or great-granddam of eight runners in this race through her sons Galileo and Sea the Stars.

Sea the Stars is one of two stallions from the Danzig branch to have a runner in the race with Fastnet Rock siring One Foot In Heaven, who is out of a Peintre Celebre mare. Peintre Celebre himself is a grandson of Northern Dancer, giving One Foot In Heaven a 4 x 4 cross to Northern Dancer through his sire lines with a third cross coming from Fastnet Rock’s broodmare sire Royal Academy.

Overall, 13 runners in the race can be traced back to Northern Dancer through their sires. But stepping away from Northern Dancer, one finds some other interesting sire lines in the race.

Mr. Prospector of course features fairly prominently. Great-grandson Dubawi, considered the second best sire in Europe, has two runners in the race with Zarak and Plumatic.

Zarak’s broodmare sire is Zamindar, giving him a 4 x 4 cross to Mr. Prospector. Zarak is one of two runners who come from the Gone West branch of Mr. Prospector’s line with last year’s Arc third-place finisher Order of St George returning this year. That horse is out of a daughter of Gone West and could easily farther increase the value of a colt out of Order of St George’s half-sister who sold at the Goffs Orby Sale for €350,000 to Shadwell.

The late Kingmambo is a Mr. Prospector son represented three times here with both his runners sired by Northern Dancer lined stallions. Kingmambo is the broodmare sire of Ulysses and Cloth of Stars while his son King’s Best is the broodmare sire of Doha Dream, a colt sired by Shamardal. Kingmambo died in 2016 but his son is still active, standing at Darley Japan the last few years. Between all the runners in the Arc, Mr. Prospector’s sire line is represented seven times through six runners just through the sires and broodmare sires in the race.

Kingmambo

It’s no secret that Japan is eager to win the Arc and this year they’ll have two runners, both sons of Deep Impact.

Deep Impact is a son of two-time classic winner Sunday Silence, who is a Hail to Reason grandson. While Sunday Silence stood his whole career in Japan and didn’t have many international runners, his son Deep Impact looks to carry this line a bit more internationally. In addition to his two Arc runners, he had Saxon Warrior win the Group 2 Juddmonte Beresford last Sunday and the highly regarded September win the listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot in addition to finishing third in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes a few weeks ago.

Neither of Deep Impact’s Arc runners are out of mares by the same broodmare sires as those two though Satono Diamond is close with September out of a Danehill mare and Satono Diamond out of an Orpen mare. As mentioned before, Orpen is a grandson of Danzig with Danehill a son of the stallion.

Satono Noblesse however has nothing in common with the two Deep Impact regulars. The 7-year-old entire is out of a Tony Bin mare and the closest he comes to the Northern Dancer sire line is having Northern Dancer’s grandsire Nearco in the eighth generation through his broodmare sire. It should be noted however that even though Satono Noblesse doesn’t have Northern Dancer in either his sire or broodmare sire’s sire lines he does have a 5 x 5 cross to that stallion through both his granddams.

ARC BROODMARE SIRE LINES 

Horse	Damsire	Sire Line	Branch
Enable	Sadler’s Wells	Northern Dancer	Sadler’s Wells
Ulysses	Kingmambo	Mr. Prospector	Kingmambo
Order Of St George	Gone West	Mr. Prospector	Gone West
Brametot	Law Society	Tom Rolfe	Hoist The Flag
Dschingis Secret	Platini	Birkhahn	Literat
Winter	Choisir	Northern Dancer	Danzig
Capri	Anabaa	Northern Dancer	Danzig
Zarak	Zamindar	Mr. Prospector	Gone West
Satono Diamond	Orpen	Northern Dancer	Danzig
Cloth Of Stars	Kingmambo	Mr. Prospector	Kingmambo
Seventh Heaven	Johannesburg	Northern Dancer	Storm Bird
Doha Dream	King’s Best	Mr. Prospector	Kingmambo
Idaho	Danehill	Northern Dancer	Danzig
One Foot In Heaven	Peintre Celebre	Northern Dancer	Nureyev
Plumatic	Anabaa	Northern Dancer	Danzig
Silverware	River Mist	Never Bend	Riverman
Iquitos	Areion	Bold Reasoning	Super Concorde
Satono Noblesse	Tony Bin	Kalamoun	Kampala

Five-year-old Silverwave may get the award for having the biggest sire lines outcross. While he has Northern Dancer four times in his fifth generation, all are brought into his pedigree through his grand and great-granddams. In a bit of a random twist, Silverwave’s sireline is the same line as Satono Noblese’s though through different son of Kalmoun with Satono Noblese’s line following the Kampala branch and Silverwave following the Kenmare line.

That Kenmare line actually give Silverwave two doses of Riverman. A son of Never Bend, Riverman is the grandsire of Silverwave’s broodmare sire River Mist while also being the broodmare sire of Silverwave’s great-grandsire Highest Honor. Since he was talked about above, it’s also worth mentioning that Anabaa is the broodmare sire of Silverwave’s sire Silver Frost, obviously providing one of those crosses to Northern Dancer.

The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is scheduled to go off at 3:05 p.m. local time with Enable currently favored to become the sixth filly in the last 10 years to win the Arc.