Pages
and pages have been written about the double Danehill cross and its much
speculated on performance, but comparatively very little is written about the
double cross of champion sire Zabeel, who was born in the same year as
Danehill, 1986.
As a shuttle stallion Danehill produced far more foals in his lifetime than
Zabeel and also far more sire sons and grand-sons with which to spread his
influence, but it still seems amazing that until Pinot won the Group I VRC Oaks
last Thursday, the double Zabeel cross had never produced a stakes-winner!
Such is the prevalence of Danehill blood, there have been 3243 runners with a
Danehill double cross producing 1549 winners at 47.8% winners to runners. A
total of 73 stakes-winners are bred this way, but only five Group I winners headed
by Guelph, the only multiple Group I winner, and this season's Flight Stakes winner
Alizee.
As a comparison, the Zabeel double cross has only a fraction of those numbers
with just 85 runners producing 40 winners (47.1% winner to runner) with Pinot
the best performer and only stakes-winner.
The double Zabeel has also produced three stakes placed horses and interestingly
one of those is also by Pinot's sire Pierro in Group II placed Pierata.
Pierro's burgeoning success as a sire is good news for the Zabeel sireline,
which is looking for the way forward given that established champion sires
Lonhro (by Octagonal) and Savabeel are now 19 and 16 years of age, while Reset
is 17.
Footnote : Statistics are courtesy of Arion .