Whatever your thoughts on the positives and negatives of ‘double Danehill’, the reality is that we’ve now had two Golden Slipper winners in a row bred this way so a blanket dismissal is obviously a mistake.
This year’s Golden Slipper featured five runners that carried a double Danehill cross including the winner Stay Inside and one horse that had three lines of the champion sire in Profiteer.
There are now 247 stakes-winners worldwide bred with a double cross of Danehill and the stakes-winner to runner strike rate is 2.7%.
As a comparison the Sadler’s Wells double cross has produced 170 stakes-winners, 19 Group I winners and the stakes-winner to runner strike rate is 2.4%.
In-breeding to champion sires is inevitable and has produced some absolutely outstanding racehorses, but for every success story there are a lot of failures.
Successful breeders look hard at the soundness and conformation of individuals and the overall pedigree picture as to what other bloodlines can balance out a double up which may bring speed, but may also bring some less desirable traits.
The double up of Danehill is generally associated with speed horses such as Sunlight and Bivouac as well as HK trained four time G1 winner Beat the Clock, but let’s not forget Verry Elleegant is also a member of this club and there is no better horse currently in training.
