News

Is this the ‘Perfect Horse’?

30th Apr 2010

*Breednet - Tara Madgwick - Friday, 30 April 2010

With stallions being claimed left right and centre from the Breednet Sire Prospect Tracker in the past month, there is now a new Triple AAA contender on the list with a superstar colt jetting back into Australia on Monday.

Ask any Australian racehorse owner what their idea of the 'perfect horse' is and their answer would most likely be as follows.

Win at its first start on a Metropolitan track as a 2yo. Go on to be named Champion 2yo, winning at Group 1 level along the way. Train on as a 3yo to win a Derby. Then as a 4yo, win the Cox Plate, and later in the season travel to the Northern Hemisphere to compete on the International stage.

Assuming the horse is a colt, retire to stud as a 5yo, shuttling between Hemispheres, raking in millions of dollars each year in service fees. Ideally you’d like the colt to be by a Champion Sire, from a dominant sire line. On the female side of his pedigree, you’d like to see the mares in his tail line sired by Champion Sires, plus you’d also like to see evidence that his female line has the ability to produce Champion Sires.

You’d also like your horse to be a great looker, with plenty of size and strength, with excellent leg conformation. Ideally you’d also like him to have a great temperament and have raced sound throughout his career and retired to stud sound. And the piece de resistance is that the horse goes on to be a Champion Sire himself.

What are the odds of finding a horse like this? A million to one you might suggest, or never!

Well you might be about to see history unfold before your very eyes over the next 12 months and beyond.

On Monday a cargo flight from Dubai will be arriving into Sydney with a 3yo colt named Musir (pictured). This could be the “perfect horse”?

Musir’s resume already reads as follows: At 2 years: 3 starts – 2 wins, 1 second. Won first start over 1000m at Clairwood, Durban, South Africa. Won Group 1 Golden Horseshoe (1400m) at third start. Champion South African 2yo. At 3 years: 3 starts – 3 wins. Won US$2 million UAE Derby (1900m) at third start. Highest ever rated UAE Derby winner. Race Record: 6 starts – 5 wins, 1 second. Prizemoney: US$1.4 million.

Earlier this week, Champion South African trainer Mike De Kock stated, “Musir possesses more class then any other Champion 2yo’s I have trained. Without doubt the classiest and most talented of all my Derby winners. He has a very high natural cruising speed, yet is able to produce electrifying finishing speed on top of that. Very sound and a perfect temperament.”

Where to from now? The Cox Plate of course. On release from Australian quarantine next month, Musir will be directed into the capable hands of Rosehill trainer David Payne for a tilt firstly at the Group 1 George Main and then onto the $3 million Cox Plate.

Afterwards he will return to Dubai for a tilt at the 2011 US$10 million Dubai World Cup, a race that De Kock and Musir’s owner Sheikh Khalifa came agonisingly close to winning this year with Lizard’s Desire.

De Kock has also trained two other UAE Derby winners in Victory Moon and Asiatic Boy, that went onto place second and third in the following year’s Dubai World Cup.

Based on De Kock’s latest comments regarding Musir, he’s almost past the post!

An interesting aside was that in winning last month’s UAE Derby, Musir ran the 1900m out at 12.36 sec/200m pace. Four races later over the same surface in the Dubai World Cup, Gloria De Campeao ran the 2000m out at 12.38 sec/200m pace.

What makes the 3yo’s performance even more meritorious was that he carried 59.5kgs to Gloria De Campeao’s 57kgs.

After Dubai, a quick trip across to England meet the Queen at Royal Ascot is also in the offing.

For a horse with this amount of talent, he could have a shot at either the Group 1 1600m Queen Anne Stakes or the Group 1 2000m Prince of Wales’s Stakes, or maybe both! Only joking.

Musir will hang up his racing shoes in mid 2011 and which stud he will end up at is anybody’s guess at this time.

One would assume that most of the major Hunter Valley farms have Musir at the top of their wish list.

After all a great looking colt that’s a Champion 2yo and world class 3yo by Australia’s number one stallion Redoute’s Choice has mouth watering appeal. With the likes of Stratum and Snitzel at the top of this year’s first season sires list, Redoute’s Choice could pick up the baton from his father Danehill in respect of being a successful sire of sires.

Now throw into the mix Musir’s female line. Musir is out of a daughter of another Champion Australian Sire in Encosta De Lago. His granddam is by the superlative Mill Reef, while his third dam is by another Champion Sire in Green Dancer. No real flaws there.

But what about some of the colts in his female pedigree that have gone to stud?

How about close relation King Kamehameha? Who you ask? Jot the name down, as this stallion could be Japan’s next Sunday Silence. King Kamehameha was Champion 2yo Sire in Japan last year and is presently leading the 2010 General Sires list with only two crops racing. King Kamehameha (by Kingmambo), was a bit of a freak racehorse, winning seven times in eight starts, including the 2004 Japan Derby and was Champion 3yo.

His race record not too dissimilar to Musir’s at the same stage of their careers, although chalk up a Group 1 win as a 2yo to Musir, ahead of King Kamehameha’s two non-black type wins. Any other successful stallions from Musir’s family? Well how about Blushing Groom and Mill Reef!

I don’t know about you, but starting to think that this 'perfect horse' theory may about to become reality. If I was a bookie, I wouldn’t be offering overly generous odds right at this time. Would you?