Chef-de-Race: Sadler's Wells (USA)
b.h., 1981 (Northern Dancer-Fairy Bridge, by Bold Reason)
(August 7, 1998)
by Steve Miller, with an introduction by Steve Roman

Introduction:  The following essay was written by my colleague Steve Miller, a Thoroughbred owner and correspondent from London.   It is based on his own in-depth research into the racing characteristics of Sadler's Wells' progeny.  As a result of this excellent and thorough analysis, Steve recommends, and I fully support the addition of Sadler's Wells as a Classic/Solid chef-de-race.

SADLER'S WELLS (Northern Dancer-Fairy Bridge) was sired by the most successful stallion of modern times out of the dam of Fairy King, Tate Gallery, Fairy Gold, Hermitage, Perugino, etc. Sadler's Wells won six of his 11 starts as a racehorse at 7-10 furlongs, including the Group 3 Beresford Stakes at two, and at three the Group 2 Irish Derby Trial and three Group 1s - Irish 2,000 Guineas, Eclipse Stakes, and Phoenix Champion Stakes. He went to stud at four and is the sire of 11 crops of racing age. He has sired over 110 stakes winners, which include some 70 Group/Graded winners. Among them are 31 Group 1/Grade 1 winners, namely: Braashee, French Glory, In The Wings, Old Vic, Prince Of Dance, Scenic, Salsabil, Opera House, Saddlers' Hall, El Prado, Johann Quatz, Masad, Fatherland, Fort Wood, Intrepidity, Carnegie, King's Theatre, Northern Spur, Moonshell, Muncie, Poliglote, Chief Contender, Dance Design, Luna Wells, Cloudings, Ebadiyla, Entrepreneur, In Command, King Of Kings, Kayf Tara and Dream Well. The last three mentioned have all won Group 1s in the current 1998 season; King Of Kings - 2,000 Guineas (8 furlongs); Kayf Tara - Ascot Gold Cup (20 furlongs); Dream Well - French Derby and Irish Derby (both 12 furlongs).

Sadler's Wells is the phenomenon of the era in Europe and is expressing a degree of dominance unmatched by even the likes of Hyperion and Nearco. However, he is essentially a sire of European turf winners, at middle distances and beyond, and as such does not excite American breeding fashion. Sadler's Wells is aiming for his seventh consecutive sire's championship this season (and eighth in all), this despite the fact that his 1998 three-year-old crop is the smallest for some considerable time, being less than half the number produced in 1997.

In 1997 he sired an impressive nine Group winners in Britain and Ireland: Ebadiyla, Entrepreneur, King Of Kings, Dance Design, Dushyanter, Time Allowed, Yalaietanee, Ashley Park and Royal Court. He also excelled in France, where he managed eight Group winners in Cloudings, Chief Contender, Ebadiyla, New Frontier, Camporese, Legend Maker, Allurement and Palm d'Or.

Of his latest crop of three-year-olds, Dream Well might be described as a typical Sadler's Wells middle-distance type: DP 8-3-14-2-1 = 28, DI 1.80, CD 0.54. Dream Well was a first foal out of an Alleged mare, Soul Dream, who won at 11 furlongs, and was herself out of Normia by Northfields, so no surprise that Dream Well sees out 12 furlongs comfortably.

In the Wings (ex High Hawk) has already sired top-class 12 furlong-winning horses in Winged Love, Singspiel (a highly successful Group 1 winner on turf and dirt) and Italian Derby winner Central Park, while Saddlers' Hall, sired classic winner Silver Patriarch among other stakes winners from his first crop. Old Vic had four 1997 stakes winners. El Prado is the sire of Canadian Group winner Navajo Pearl. Scenic and Batshoof have also sired Group winners from their initial crops.

Dushyantor (ex Slightly Dangerous) was second in both the Derby (12 furlongs) and the St Leger (14 furlongs) and second to Singspiel in the Group 1 Coronation Cup (12 furlongs) before continuing his career as a stakes winner in America. Out of a Roberto mare, Dushyantor is half brother to Commander In Chief and three parts brother to Scenic.

Silver Patriach (Saddlers' Hall-Early Rising) was beaten on the nod in the Derby after finishing from well off the pace, and went on to go one better than Dushyantor in the St Leger. Saddlers' Hall finished second in the St Leger himself (behind Toulon), 15 lengths clear of the third.

In The Wings, Batshoof, Saddler's Hall and Kylian, among others, are all showing up well in Leading Sires, Leading Sires of Two-Year-Olds and First Crop Sires.

Sadler's Wells's stamina index stands at 11 furlongs while his full brother Fairy King is 7.2 furlongs. The discrepancy between these figures is no doubt much to do with the different types of mares sent to them. But as pedigree authority Andrew Caulfield has pointed out, this isn't the only explanation. Fairy King - who won his third two-year-old title in 1997, becoming the first horse since Habitat to win that title three times - comes from a family whose other produce includes Nureyev, whose stock have an average winning distance of 8.2 furlongs and Marinsky, who was disqualified from the July Cup (6 furlongs). Caulfield maintains that, "had Fairy King remained sound, he would he taken more after these two than Sadler's Wells, and this is why he has been able to sire two-year-old winners from daughters of 12 furlong winners Lafontaine, Riva Ridge, Shirley Heights and Ela-Mana-Mou". In other words, the aptitudinal shift in Sadler's Wells is towards stamina. The average winning distances (AWDs) for In The Wings and Old Vic, for example, are indicating an even greater influence for stamina at 11.1 furlongs and 12.2 furlongs respectively.

The full published figures for Winning Distances Of Sires Progeny from Weatherbys for Sadler's Wells are as follows: AWD = 11.0, 5f = 0, 6f = 1, 7f = 16, 8f = 36, 9f = 25, 10f = 119, 11f = 40, 12f = 104, 13f = 13, 14f & 14f+ = 53. Of this sample of 407 winning performances, 329 have won at 10 furlongs or more, 170 at 12 furlongs of more, and 53 at 14 furlongs or more. This clearly shows an overwhelming concentration in the middle-distance to staying divisions.

Ascot Gold Cup winner Kayf Tara out of Colorspin (Dosage Index 1.2), is clearly bred for stamina, which he possesses in abundance and exemplifies Sadler's Wells' ability to get staying progeny, even though Kayf Tara scores no points in his Solid or Professional Dosage categories. It is the contention of this essay that he should score significantly in the stamina wing of his DP. An even more convincing argument for Sadler's Wells's aptitudinal influence for stamina may come from those bred for speed, however.

The average Dosage figures for Saddler's Wells 31 Group 1/Grade 1 winners are  DP 7.77 - 3.03 - 14.74 - 0.74 - 0.67 = 26.95, DI 2.18, CD 0.59.

The five Group 1 winning individuals by Sadler's Wells with the highest DIs are King Of Kings (DI 4.67, CD 1.18), Scenic (DI 3.57, CD 1.00), Dance Design (DI 3.57, CD 1.00), King's Theatre (DI 3.36, CD 1.00) and El Prado (DI 2.79, CD 0.64). These are all well above the Sadler's Wells Group 1 winning average DI of 2.18 and average CD of 0.59. Yet all of these horses with the possible exception of El Prado, who could prove to be the fly in the ointment, got further than their bare figures suggested they should.

Irish Oaks winner Dance Design (ex Elegance In Design) and King Of Kings (ex Zummerudd) are both out of daughters of Habitat. The Sadler's Wells/Habitat cross has resulted in 32 foals of racing age and no less than eight stakes winners (a 25% strike rate), including Barathea, Batshoof, Alnasr Alwasheek, Dance Design and King Of Kings. As I suggest above, King Of Kings, winner of the 2,000 Guineas, is almost a better advertisement for Sadler's Wells's influence for stamina than Ascot Gold Cup winner Kayf Tara (ex Colorspin). This is because King Of Kings is from a distaff line of pure sprinters, out of Zummerudd (DI 12.14, which indicates brilliant speed, DP 32-8-5-1-0, CD 1.54), who in turn is by Habitat. It is therefore solely through the influence of Sadler's Wells that King Of Kings stays 8 furlongs (and probably a bit further).

Scenic (ex Idyllic) receives pure speed influences passed down from Bold Ruler (a Brilliant/Intermediate chef-de-race) and What A Pleasure (a Brilliant chef-de-race), through Foolish Pleasure, and from Raise A Native (also a Brilliant chef) through Where You Lead. Again it is solely through the influence of Sadler's Wells that Scenic got further than sprint distances!

Turn-To (included in both Brilliant and Intermediate categories) has clearly passed on more influence for speed to El Prado (ex Lady Capulet) through Sir Gaylord and Sir Ivor than was evident in either of those.

King's Theatre (ex Regal Beauty) was runner-up in the Derby and the Irish Derby and won the Group 1 King George & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at 12 furlongs. This was despite the influence of both Raise A Native and Spy Song (both Brilliant chefs) on his dam's side. Again Sadler's Well's aptitudinal shift toward stamina has clearly won out.

Not only can we say that Sadler's Wells's aptitudinal elements indicate that he is more of an influence for stamina than his exploits on the racecourse would suggest, but we can also conclude that the progeny of Sadler's Wells, and the progeny of the offspring of Sadler's Wells, can be expected to show a marked propensity for distances beyond what their bare Dosage figures might indicate.

The aptitudinal shift that Sadler's Wells is irrefutably showing, in addition to his quite remarkable dominant ability in stamping a horse, leads me to recommend that he be included as a split between the Classic and Solid categories - with the proviso that we make the assignment from a European perspective, if necessary.

If we apply new calculations to King Of Kings, for example (as the horse with the highest DI of Sadler's Wells's Group 1 winners), we see a dramatic difference in the colt's Dosage figures. Currently we are expected to believe that King Of Kings is DP 18-4-12-0-0 = 34, DI 4.67, CD 1.18. With these figures we would not expect him to perform much beyond sprint distances. Taking Sadler's Wells as a combined Classic/Solid influence, we have DP 18-4-20-8-0 = 50, DI 1.77, and CD 0.64. Knowing what we do about King Of Kings, this scenario fits very well with the colt's capabilities.

Going to the other extreme, the current Dosage figures for Kayf Tara are DP 5-1-18-0-0 = 24, DI 1.67, CD 0.46. We would not guess from this that the horse would come into its own when tried at 20 furlongs in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup, beating former winner Double Trigger (Ela-Mana-Mou - Solac), who is also three times winner of the Goodwood Cup at 16 furlongs. When the same adjustments are applied as in the above example we get figures of   DP 5-1-26-8-0 = 40, DI 0.90, CD 0.08. This profile is much more consistent with a horse capable of winning a hotly contested Group 1 race at 20 furlongs.

In light of this, Dr. Steven Roman's comment on my initial urgings to include Sadler's Wells as a chef-de-race - "Based on what I've seen, my inclination is that Sadler's Wells represents a shift toward stamina when compared to the aptitudinal elements behind him" - appears to be particularly pertinent.