search the site
Fishing for a bit of history
It’s often in my spare time that I make a quick fish through the thoroughbred classifieds on the web, just in case a bargain has slipped through the net, so to speak.
Last night an advertisement caught my eye – for a young mare by the champion racehorse, but moderately successful stallion Peintre Celebre (pictured at Coolmore Stud) – priced at only $2000. The ad read simply: Pretty mare, red bay, star, snip and two sox (sic), quiet to ride and handle. Unraced.
The mare, 16hh, born in 2004 and based in Queensland, is named Panorama Bliss.
I tapped in her name into the Stud Book to check her pedigree.
First impressions were not good. The mare’s dam Peliom – by moderate Seattle Slew son White Bridle – had won three provincial races from 1600m to 2000, and has produced only one winner, the five-time bush winner Vexing, by Mind Games, a son of Puissance.
The second dam Midrift, by Star Kingdom’s good racehorse and underrated sire-son Rajah, also was unraced, and left only two winners from six foals. $2000 was starting to look dear for this non-commercial family, and the obvious reference to being quiet to ride indicated that the young mare’s owner saw a future for her as a hack rather than as a thoroughbred broodmare prospect.
But it’s a amazing what you find with a little more digging. A click further on in the pedigree to the fourth dam unearthed Midwise – I thought to myself, I know this mare.
Midwise, by the terrific stallion Midstream was a brilliant race filly who won the Gimcrack Stakes as a 2YO; she didn’t produce a Stakes winner but she is prominent in the pedigree of Victoria’s well known “Draw” family – she is the dam of Long Draw who in turn produced three Stakes winners, including the outstanding racemare Better Draw (by Better Boy), whose wins included the 1975 Group 2 Sandown Guineas, although she is well remembered for finishing third behind Surround in the 1976 Group 1 Cox Plate.
Midwise also is a sister to the 1955 Group 1 Sydney Cup winner Talisman.
It’s funny how some strains of a family just die away, while another may prosper and continue to develop. Is it the intrusion of a stallion that doesn’t work, or is that Midwise’s daughter Midship, by Faubourg II, had a physical issue that she passed on to her offspring, whereas her sisters took a different, more commercial path. Who knows?
Further study of this pedigree found some more familiar and famous names. Recently, I have been researching and writing a article on the early breeding influences on the Melbourne Cup for a book that will be launched in August 2010, commemorating 150 years of the great race, and the $2000 Peintre Celebre mare, who may finish up as a kid’s pony, is a direct descendant of one of the great mares of the Australian Stud Book – the imported Juliet (GB) (1851, Touchstone–Lancashire Witch, by Tomboy).
Juliet was imported by the Fisher brothers, Hurtle and C.B., who at the time had built a farm close to Flemington, Maribyrnong Stud, on which grazed some of the most influential bloodlines of Australia’s fledgling and growing racing industry.
Juliet, the “Eight Carat” of her time, produced nine named foals, five Stakes winners, including four classic winners – the 1873 AJC Derby winner Benvolio, the 1869 Victoria Derby winner Charon and the fillies Sylvia (1867 VRC Oaks) and Chrysolite (1864 SA St. Leger). Another son, The Hook, won the 1879 Doncaster Handicap.
Sylvia, by the Fishers’ top import Fisherman, is the mare that founded the line to the Peintre Celebre mare and the “Draw” family. Sylvia also was a super broodmare in her mother’s mould, leaving the sensational 1983 Melbourne Cup and Victoria Derby winner Martini-Henry, the 1875 Victoria Derby winner Robin Hood and Goldsbrough, winner of the 1874 AJC St. Leger, who would go on to be one of Australian’s greatest sires of the 19th century.
Sylvia’s half-sister Chrysolite, by Stockwell, left four Stakes winners of the highest quality, led by the champion Robinson Crusoe, winner of 10 Stakes races, including the 1876 Victoria Derby for trainer Etienne de Mestre, the 1873 Victoria Derby winner Lapidist and the filly Vaucluse, who won the 1882 Victoria Oaks. One of Chrysolite’s daughters, Aureola, left the 1887 Victoria Oaks winner Dainty, while another, Onyx, produced Nordenfeldt, winner of the 1885 Victoria and AJC Derbys, and Sardonyx, who won a Doncaster, before leaving her mark as a foundation broodmare in New Zealand.
Chrysolite also is the granddam of the 1880 Adelaide Cup and SA St. Leger winner Firstwater and the 1883 AJC All-Aged Stakes winner Off Colour – both out of The Gem.
As you can see, this is one incredible family that virtually dominated the first 30 years of racing in Australia.
The Fisher brothers got themselves into a bit of financial trouble, which forced them to disperse their thoroughbred interests for a short time, and Sylvia was one mare snapped up by the Auckland Stud Company. Sylvia’s four New Zealand-bred fillies, all by Carbine’s sire Musket, went on to produce Stakes winners.
Auckland Stud Company farm was named Sylvia Park, and it was there that Carbine was bred, by Musket from the imported Knowsley mare Mersey.
The farm and stock were dispersed in 1902, and Sylvia Park, in the shadows of Mt. Wellington, is now the Auckland’s business and shopping district, and retains the name.
I wonder whoever buys Panorama Bliss, the pretty red bay mare from Queensland, will ever know what history runs through her veins. Perhaps now they will.
Great Article, the history is fascinating.
Thanks Brett, It is a good story – there’s a story everywhere you turn in racing, just not enough time to write them. It’s the pity that the Stud Book, which is such a great reference, doesn’t easily display the history of a family i.e., the Group winners within a family, without having to do hours of research. All the information is there, but it’s hidden in the background.
thanks for the trouble you placed into sharing it with us. nice blog