| European star adds to appeal of Collingrove sire |
20 Jul 2005 |
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| By Brian Russell |
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One of the current leading three-year-olds in Europe is a close relation of Bianconi, the promising Danzig source of winners standing on $9900 at the Collingrove Stud at Nagambie in Victoria. He is the Aga Khan bred and raced Desideratum, a winner of two stakes races at Longchamp and more recently runner up in the Group1 Grand Prix de Paris on the same course.
Desideratum is by the Shirley Heights sire Darshaan and from Desired, a daughter of Rainbow Quest and Dance of Leaves, a non-winning three-quarter sister to by Sadler's Wells to Bianconi. They are both from the American Group 1 winner and phenomenal producer Fall Aspen.
Her 12 winners from 13 runners have included nine successful in stakes races with the honour board headed by Timber Country (won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Preakness Stakes, third Kentucky Derby; a good sire in both hemispheres), Fort Wood (a Grand Prix de Paris winner and a champion South African sire), Colorado Dancer (Group 1 placed and dam of World Horse of the Year Dubai Millennium). One of the only crop of foals by the prematurely deceased Dubai Millennium finished third at the beginning of June in the English Derby.
Another good class performer from Fall Aspen is the eye-catching near black Bianconi. Got in America but foaled at the Coolmore Stud in Ireland and raced by the tremendously successful partnership of Michael Tabor and Susan Magnier, he ran 12 times for three sprint wins, including an appearance in the Ascot Diadem Stakes, a second in the Phoenix Sprint Stakes in Ireland and a fourth in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas.
A report on his success in the Diadem Stakes said he drew clear with great authority to win with something in hand. "It was a revelation and he looked set for further success," continued the review of the race.
Initially a shuttle sire but now a resident at the Collingrove Stud, one owned by a partnership of the Sangster family's Swettenham Stud and the Hayes family's Lindsay Park, Bianconi, like the great Danzig sire Danehill, is showing a capacity to provide gallopers in Australia for most distances.
Bianconi's oldest progeny here in the year finishing at the end of the month are three-year-olds and including three winners last week have provided him with winners of 40 races and over $1milllion for 2004-05.
Two who look very good prospects for stakes races as four-year-olds are Classiconi (a Listed winner at Flemington and second or third in three Group
3 events) and the impressive 1600 metre performer Mr Martini (he has had two successes at Moonee Valley and been second there in the Moonee Valley Vase-Gr.2 and VRC Debonair Stakes-Gr.3).
Since being acquired by the Collingrove partnership, Bianconi has had far bigger support including having over double the number of mares in 2003
(171) and 2004 (189) he had in each of his first three seasons. The support in the latter two years suggests that breeders are very pleased with the quality of his offspring and that he is likely to make a much bigger impact in the future.
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