Juddmonte Blue Hen Hasili Dead

Hasili (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}-Kerali {GB}, by High Line {GB}), the dam of five Group 1 winners as well as champion sire Dansili (GB) (Danehill), has died at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud aged 27.

Stud Director Simon Mockridge said, “Hasili has been an integral part of Juddmonte's history. Her record of producing five Group 1 winners is unsurpassed in the modern era and her powerful influences will continue to be felt through Juddmonte pedigrees and the General Stud Book for many years to come. It has been a privilege to have been associated with such an exceptional blue hen mare.”

Bred and raced by Khalid Abdullah, Hasili comes from a family that has left a footprint of high-level success across the world. Her page includes U.S. champion miler and sire Leroidesanimaux (Brz) (Candy Stripes), Australian Group 3 winner and reverse shuttler Scissor Kick (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) and Juddmonte's own record-setting Grade II winner and sire Three Valleys (Diesis {GB}). Hasili's second dam is the European champion 2-year-old and multiple stakes producer Sookera (Roberto).

Hasili won four times in France and was twice stakes-placed for trainer Henri-Alex Pantall before joining Juddmonte's broodmare band in 1995. The legacy that followed is nothing short of stellar. She is one of just two broodmares in history to have produced five top-level winners–the other being New Zealand's Eight Carat (GB)–and her sons and daughters won or placed in 43 Group 1 races between them, and ran in 63. Hasili was named the TBA's Broodmare of the Year in 2006.

“She's been totally remarkable in every way,” said Juddmonte Racing Manager Teddy Grimthorpe. “To produce the quality continuously that she did, and for them to go on to succeed at stud as well, the odds against it are so huge. To do that was really remarkable in every way.”

Four of Hasili's Group 1 winners were by Danehill, another Juddmonte homebred.

“I think it's fair to say she struck up a good relationship with Danehill, which was brilliant for Juddmonte and Prince Khalid because Danehill was a homebred as well,” Grimthorpe said. “I think the wonderful thing about that family is that they helped themselves. When Dansili was starting as a stallion, we always had good faith in him, but then Banks Hills came along and encouraged other breeders to join in, and it went on from there.”

Hasili was, remarkably, just a neck and a half-length away from producing seven Group 1 winners. Dansili was beaten a neck in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile while another daughter, Deluxe (Storm Cat)-who sadly died before making it to the breeding shed-was a half-length second in the G1 Prix Saint-Alary.'

Following is a timeline of Hasili's standout progeny.

Dansili

Hasili's first foal, born in 1996, was Dansili, a Group 2 winner who agonizingly hit the board six times in Grade/Group 1 company but redeemed himself in that sphere after going on to be champion sire.

Trained by Andre Fabre, Dansili won Deauville's G3 Prix Messidor during the summer of his 3-year-old campaign and was third thereafter in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. He won the G3 Prix Edmond Blanc and G2 Prix du Muguet both over a mile at Saint-Cloud to begin his 4-year-old season, after which he was second or third in his next five starts, four at Group 1 level. He finished second to Giant's Causeway in the G1 Sussex S. and wrapped up his career with a third, beaten just a neck, behind War Chant in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile.

“He was a bit unlucky to not win a Group 1,” Grimthorpe said. “He covered the last quarter of the Breeders' Cup Mile in :21 and change and if you took a picture half a stride after the post, like all those things it was too late.”

Dansili has, to date, sired 20 Group 1 winners of 35 Group 1 races, and the winners of over 275 stakes races. Standouts among a stellar group include G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. winner Harbinger (GB), the world's highest-rated horse in 2010; four-time Group 1-winning mare The Fugue (GB); and U.S. champion turf horse Flintshire (GB). His legacy looks safe with young sires like Bated Breath (GB) and Zoffany (Ire) doing good things in Europe, Harbinger shaping into an important sire in Japan with three Group 1 winners and Flintshire getting support from major breeders in America. Dansili is also making his mark as a broodmare sire, the five Group 1 winners produced by his daughters including Classic winner Chicquita (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), while the Group 2 winner Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) enters stud this year.

“As a stallion he did it pretty much the hard way,” Grimthorpe said. “He started off with quite a lowly fee and has risen to the top on his own success.

Banks Hill

After coming up barren in 1997, Hasili bounced back with the European and U.S. champion mare Banks Hill (GB) (Danehill). Following her elder brother into the Fabre stable, Banks Hill was beaten a head when second in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and won the G2 Prix de Sandringham followed by Royal Ascot's G1 Coronation S. Also like her brother, she hit the board in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Prix de Moulin de Longchamp, finishing second in both, before wrapping up her season with a win over older fillies in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Belmont Park.

Third in the G1 Prix d'Ispahan and G1 Prince of Wales's S. starting off at four, Banks Hill went one better to best Domedriver and win G1 Prix Jacques le Marois of 2002. Second again in the Moulin to Rock of Gibraltar, she was third on her U.S. return in the GI Yellow Ribbon S., and remained under the care of Bobby Frankel for her final two starts: a second in the Breeders' Cup and fourth in the GI Matriarch S.

“She ran a super race in the French Guineas and then really came alight when she won the Coronation at Royal Ascot,” Grimthorpe recalled. “She was Prince Khalid's first Breeders' Cup winner, which was an incredibly emotional day. Intercontinental, when she won the Breeders' Cup also at Belmont [in 2005], we have a picture of them both coming into the straight and it's remarkable how similar they were; they were both great, strong, bay animals with long ears, really dominating the race.”

“That was the great thing about Hasili; she really threw pretty much to Danehill,” he added. “They came out looking more like him than they did Hasili, strong, good-boned horses. She was very nicely conformed but it would be hard to pick her out in the field and say, 'this is one of the greatest broodmares of all time.' She was a good, correct individual, but I think it'd be fair to say she wasn't the most outstanding.”

Banks Hill emulated her dam in becoming a Group 1 producer, her first foal being G1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Romantica (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), who is still in the Juddmonte broodmare band. Her second foal was the stakes-winning and Group 2-placed Ideal World (Kingmambo), who is at stud in South Africa. Another daughter, Trojan Queen (Empire Maker), produced the stakes-placed Emergent (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Banks Hill has a 2-year-old colt by Lope de Vega (Ire) about to go into training described by Grimthorpe as “really nice.”

Watch Banks Hill's Breeders' Cup victory:

Heat Haze

Hasili left the court of Danehill the following season to visit another son of Danzig, Green Desert, and the result was the dual Grade I winner Heat Haze (GB). She took a touch longer than her elder siblings to hit top gear, but picked up a listed win in the fall of her 3-year-old season for Fabre before being expatriated to join Bobby Frankel. Kicking off with three straight wins for the Hall of Famer, Heat Haze was beaten a neck in the GI Diana S. at Saratoga and collected her first Grade I next out in the Beverly D. S. While unable to emulate Banks Hill with a win at the Breeders' Cup, Heat Haze went out a winner in the GI Matriarch S.

“Like Banks Hill she ran a super race in the French Guineas [fifth] but didn't quite hit the heights in Europe,” Grimthorpe said. “Bobby Frankel had her and she found her best in the States on the fast going and with the fast pace. As an individual she was not quite as robust as her siblings.”

Heat Haze has produced three stakes horses including Forge (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who runs for Juddmonte in Saturday's GII Muniz Memorial H. at Fair Grounds in the U.S. She has a 2-year-old colt by Dubawi (Ire) and a yearling colt by Frankel (GB).

Intercontinental

Back to Danehill in 1998, Hasili produced her second Breeders' Cup winner, Intercontinental (GB). She won her first two starts at two before finishing third in the G1 Grand Criterium.

“She was tremendously precocious, probably the most precocious of them all,” Grimthorpe said. “Andre [Fabre] had such a high opinion of her he ran her against the colts in the Grand Criterium at Longchamp on Arc Day. She ran a super race and she ran a really decent race when third in probably one of the best 1000 Guineas' there had been. Russian Rhythm won it and beat Six Perfections. She then came to Bobby and won the Breeders' Cup at Belmont in not dissimilar style to her sister.”

Prior to that win at the 2005 Breeders' Cup over Ouija Board (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) was a victory the previous year in the GI Matriarch S., and in that final season in 2005 Intercontinental won or hit the board in all seven starts, including four other graded wins. Left in America, Intercontinental produced Abseil (First Defence), stakes-placed in Britain. She has a 2-year-old by Mizzen Mast and, after being repatriated to Europe, a yearling colt by Gleneagles (Ire).

Watch Intercontinental's Breeders' Cup:

Cacique

Hasili would produce two more colts to Danehill, starting with dual Grade I winner Cacique (Ire). Taking the now well-tried and very true route from Andre Fabre through to Bobby Frankel, Cacique was second to Bago (Fr) (Nashwan) in both the G1 Prix Jean Prat and the G1 Grand Prix de Paris. He won the G3 Prix Daphnis and the G2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein either side of a fourth in the GI Juddmonte International.

Sent to Frankel at five, Cacique won or finished second in five straight Grade Is, headed by wins in the GI Manhattan H. and GI Man O'War S.

“If you put Cacique and Dansili together you'd be hard-pressed to say who was who; they were very, very similar,” Grimthorpe said. “Cacique was a little bit finer, Dansili was a bit more raw, but similar heads, similar colours, similar types. Again, he graduated the great school of Bobby Frankel. He was a very decent horse with Andre, he won the Daniel Wildenstein but then he hit the heights with Bobby.”

Juddmonte was no doubt savouring the opportunity to retire a full-brother to Dansili to Banstead Manor, but was dealt a difficult blow when Cacique came up subfertile. From very limited opportunities he nonetheless sired three Group 1 winners: Prix Jean Prat winner Mutual Trust (GB), Hong Kong Vase winner Dominant (Ire) and Slumber (Ire), who emulated him in the Manhattan.

“It was a great pity because he started off tremendously well,” Grimthorpe said. “He had a great strike rate in terms of stakes horses to foals. But he didn't have enough of them, and from a stallion career point of view it was very tough for him to make his mark. Because of his family breeders supported him initially tremendously well.”

Cacique has been pensioned and is living out his retirement at Banstead Manor.

Champs Elysees

Bringing up the quintet is Champs Elysees, who may have given connections a few anxious moments when taking the 2008 GI Northern Dancer Turf S. at Woodbine by a nose at age five, but he went on to reward them with two more Grade I prizes: the GI Hollywood Turf Cup and the 2009 GI Canadian International.

“As a young horse he always looked like he was going to be a sharper individual and more precocious, but in the end he did take some time and he stayed pretty well,” Grimthorpe said. “Andre had him and he won a Group 3 in France and then went on to graduate at the school of Bobby Frankel again and became Hasili's fifth Group 1 winner.”

Champs Elysees began his stud career at Banstead Manor and while he was this year relegated to the National Hunt ranks at Coolmore's Castle Hyde Stud in Ireland, he has done his part to keep the Hasili legacy alive. He has produced two top-level stayers, the G1 Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) and Harlem (GB), a Juddmonte-bred who won the G1 Australian Cup two weeks ago.

“He has been a very solid stallion,” Grimthorpe said. “He's not terribly fashionable but he got a Gold Cup winner in Trip to Paris and actually sired another Group 1 winner that we bred and sold the other day called Harlem that won the Australian Cup.”

A Legacy Assured…

All of Hasili's aforementioned daughters remain in Juddmonte's broodmare band, as do two more daughters: Very Good News (Empire Maker), whose 4-year-old Weekender (GB) (Frankel {GB}) is with John Gosden and was disqualified from a listed win last year; and Hasili's last foal, Responsible (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Responsible has a 2-year-old, yearling and foal all by Frankel (GB), and thus the possibility of future top-level success from the family looks very much alive.

Hasili appears in the pedigrees of 25% of Juddmonte's mares in 2018, and her four sons have sired over 230 total black-type performers.

“Her great trait has been not only soundness of mind, but soundness of limb,” Grimthorpe said. “It's been a great hallmark of her progeny, which of course is half the battle.”

“We're incredibly lucky,” he added. “Juddmonte families are the absolute lynchpin of the whole stud farm, and she was The Queen of them.”