HENRYTHENAVIGATOR had a classic winner at the weekend – but not one that you might have heard too much about. His three-year-old daughter Dorcia caused an upset when she won the 100th Svenskt (Swedish) Derby, the outsider of four runners for her trainer Lennart Reuterskiold Jnr who landed the race last year also.

The first Swedish Derby was staged in July 1918 at Jägersro Racecourse in Malmö, the home of the race since. The Derby this year was worth a record 3,000,000 SEK (€315 000).

Dorcia was bred by Qatar Bloodstock and sold by Haras du Lieu des Champs as a yearling at Arqana in October 2015 for €40,000 to Morton Buskop Bloodstock. She won one of her two starts last year and prior to her big race success had been runner-up three times in four outings this season. She is the sixth winning produce for her Spinning World (Nureyev) dam Spinola.

Bought as a yearling for 50,000gns by Peter Harris, Spinola won the Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes at Newmarket on just her third start, her second victory as a juvenile. Sadly that was to be the zenith of her racing career and she disappointed on all of her subsequent runs. Having won a large part of her purchase price while racing, she was sold on by Harris at the Tattersalls December Sale for 140,000gns, leaving a tidy profit overall. She was purchased by Chevington Stud.

WINNING FOALS

Her first seven foals have all run and six of them have won. Her first offspring was the listed winner Kirkinola (Selkirk) and she was followed later by the stakes-placed pair of Eldandy (Danehill Dancer) and Lady Dragon (Galileo). David Redvers bought her at the Arqana December Sale in 2014, carrying the Swedish Derby winner, for €240,000 but she was barren and slipped in the two seasons after foaling Dorcia. Last year she sold to BBA Ireland at the December Sale in Newmarket for only 55,000gns, carrying to Charm Spirit.

Redvers and Qatar Racing know this family well as they raced Lady Dragon, bought for €200,000 as a yearling. The aforementioned Kirkinola was another in the family to be sold in recent times, costing Howson and Houldsworth €83,000 last December at Arqana carrying to Lope De Vega. Her first couple of foals are winners.

Spinola is out of Exocet (Deposit Ticket) and she won in the USA. She travelled the world and her eight winners were foaled in the USA, France, Ireland and Japan. In addition to Spinola, she bred the Group 3 winning gelding Hot To Fame (Quest For Fame), and through her placed daughter Exotic Mix (Linamix) is grandam of the Group 3 winning two and three-year-old Maureen (Holy Roman Emperor).

Henrythenavigator, a dual classic-winning son of Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) and the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Sequoyah (Sadler’s Wells) was bred to be an outstanding sire. He sired three Group 1 winning two-year-olds in his first two crops – Sudirman, George Vancouver and Pedro The Great – and having started his career standing for €65,000 last year stood for €7,500 and is now in Russia. How competitive does that make the stallion market in these parts?