Hasili

THE curtain fell on one of the most absorbing acts the bloodstock world has witnessed when, in March 2018, Hasili died at the age of 27.

A small, neat, blaze-faced bay, Hasili did not drop too many physical hints at her genetic prepotency. For that, however, we have the racing records of the many good horses who continue this remarkable bloodline and ensure that her name will be forever writ large.

Foaled in 1991, Hasili was a granddaughter of the Cheveley Park Stakes winner Sookera, who was purchased in Juddmonte’s infancy from her breeder Robert Sangster.

In her sole racing season for Dermot Weld, Sookera blazed a trail which could be matched only by Fairy Bridge, who shared top billing with her in the rankings for Irish fillies. The legacy each would leave at stud could not even have been guessed at back in 1977.

By the Aga Khan’s Derby winner Kahyasi and out of Sookera’s winning daughter Kerali, Hasili was herself trained in France by Henri-Alex Pantall and demonstrated both speed and precocity by running eight times as a juvenile, winning four races from five furlongs to a mile, including the Listed Prix des Sablonnets.

Mated with Danehill on her retirement to Banstead Manor Stud in 1995, Hasili at once proved a hit as a broodmare. Starting with her first foal, Dansili, it became increasingly apparent throughout her breeding career that it was the genetic blend of the Juddmonte-bred Danehill with Hasili that was the winning formula above all others.

Though never quite notching a Group 1 victory - he fell less than a length short, but five of his full- or half-siblings subsequently made up for that omission - Dansili could easily stake a claim to be the most significant of all his mother’s well-credentialed offspring. The Group 2 winner went on to become champion sire in France in 2006 - the same year that Hasili was named TBA Broodmare of the Year.

Pensioned in 2018, Dansili’s record extends to 21 Group 1 winners, which could yet be enhanced by members of his final crops.

Meanwhile, his sons and daughters are extending that legacy at stud. Zoffany was the leading first-season sire of 2015, Bated Breath is impressing and stands at Banstead Manor, while Dansili’s list of notable winners as a broodmare sire continues to grow.

Where Dansili led, Hasili’s second foal, Banks Hill, followed and, in racing terms, trumped his achievements. Also by Danehill, she too was sent to be trained by André Fabre. Having finished runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, she became her dam’s first Group 1 winner in the Coronation Stakes, and then the first of her two Breeders’ Cup winners when she routed her opposition in the Grade 1 Filly & Mare Turf at Belmont Park.

Banks Hill returned at four to add the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois to her laurels, and by that stage her year-younger sister Heat Haze, by another son of Danzig, Green Desert, had already notched the first of her seven victories. Heat Haze’s best days were to come in America where, having been transferred from Fabre to Bobby Frankel, she was twice a Grade 1 winner.

Three fillies in three years for Hasili yielded yet another top-level victrix when Intercontinental emphasised the potency of the Danehill cross. Her transatlantic career, which culminated in victory over Ouija Board in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, was the perfect illustration of the soundness of Hasili’s stock - both in body and mind. Intercontinental raced on two continents in 22 races for 13 wins and seven places.

Cacique came next and, like his full-brother Dansili, went agonisingly close to claiming a Group 1 in Europe. A switch to Frankel’s barn in America duly brought his brace of Grade 1 victories. He went on to sire three Group 1 winners despite well-documented fertility issues.

Following a barren year, Hasili gave birth to the fifth of her Group/Grade 1 winners in 2003 when yet another tryst with Danehill produced Champs Elysees. He added another three Grade 1 wins and a Grade 2 in the US and Canada, having also won at Group 3 level in France. He is a proven Group 1 sire.

Along with Eight Carat, Hasili remains one of only two broodmares to have produced five Group or Grade 1 winners. The phenomenal record of her sons and daughters stretches to appearances in 63 Group/Grade 1 races, in which they won or placed on 43 occasions. At one stage, three of her sons stood alongside each other in the Banstead Manor stallion yard.

The name Hasili is found frequently in Juddmonte’s ‘Green Book’, etched on the pages of more than a quarter of the mares listed in the broodmare band. They include, first and foremost, her daughters Banks Hill, Heat Haze and Intercontinental, as well as Banks Hill’s Group 1-winning daughter Romantica.

“We’re incredibly lucky,” said Simon Mockridge when paying tribute to Hasili after her death. “Juddmonte families are the absolute lynchpin of Prince Khalid’s breeding operation, and she was the queen of them.”

While a significant chapter in this extraordinary dynasty ended with her death, the tale of Hasili is far from told. In legacy at least, there is still a long way to go. (EB)

Toussaud

EMMA Berry mentions that Hasili was one of just a pair of broodmares to have bred five Group 1/Grade 1 winners. The number that have produced four is also very small, just six more to date. One of these is also closely connected with some of the best days in racing for Prince Khalid Abdullah.

Empire Maker is one of just two classic winning home-breds for Juddmonte in the USA and he is the best known of the four top-class produce of Toussaud. Trained by Bobby Frankel, Empire Maker was the only colt of his generation to win three Grade 1s in his sophomore year, and he was runner-up to Funny Cide in the 2003 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

Winner of half of his eight starts and never out of the first three, Empire Maker won the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, Grade 1 Florida Derby and Grade 1 Wood Memorial. His career earnings were just short of $2 million.

A son of the champion three-year-old Unbridled, winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Empire Maker is the best runner from Toussaud who went from being a Group 3 winner at Newmarket to become a Grade 1 winner of the Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park at four.

Her first foal followed a similar path, Chester House (Mr Prospector) winning the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes before landing the Grade 1 Arlington Million.

Toussaud’s second foal was the filly Honest Lady (Seattle Slew) and the best of her six victories came in the Grade 1 Santa Monica Handicap. She has been a hugely successful broodmare, half of her eight winners gaining blacktype success. Best of that quartet is Grade 1 Forego Handicap winner First Defence (Unbridled’s Song), sire of last year’s top Irish juvenile and this year’s classic winner Siskin. .

The 2002 Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes winner Chiselling (Woodman) was the third top-rank winner from Toussaud, followed a year later by Empire Maker. Toussaud’s fifth stakes winner was Grade 2 winner Decarchy (Distant View) and he was runner-up in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar.

Empire Maker went to stud in 2004 at Juddmonte Farms in Lexington, Kentucky. Having spent some time in Japan, he was repatriated to the US but died in January 2020. His influence will continue through his stallion sons and through his daughters. Empire Maker’s sons include Pioneerof The Nile, while his first US crop following his return from Japan included last year’s Grade 1 winning juvenile Eight Rings. (LP)