Pompeii Courtsurprise success

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 41

Pompeii Courtsurprise success

By

DAVID MACCARTHY

Horse breeding, in many ways as much a mystery to its most devoted students as to the casual observer, seems to have produced another unexpected result with the success of Pompeii Court.

Wisdom from hindsight tells us that Pompeii Court was a hard-hitting, tough racehorse of the sort too often overlooked in favour of glamour by breeders and which always had a chance of handing on the speed and stamina which saw him post a track record for a mile at Santa Anita which stood until two weeks ago, seven years after it was set.

But hadd the Pompeii Court gamble by Waikato Stud not succeeded there were plenty of reasons for the experts to advance as to why.

Pompeii Court is by an inbred stallion Tell, whose 1988 fee in the United States was SUS6OOO', the same as that of his son in New Zealand.

Tell’s grandsire Princequillo had been bought for SUS2SOO out of a claimer by an American trainer, not because of what he thought of the horse but what he thought of the previous owner with whom he had a score to settle.

Pompeii Court’s unraced dam is a half-sister to Pikehall, a moderate stud success in New Zealand while Tell is closely related to Brauner which would be lucky to achieve even that accolade from the breeding industry here.

Tell, whose yearling sale-ring average in 1987 was less than SUS9OOO, won 9 races at two and three including the Hollywood Derby, before breaking down. The broodmare, Knight’s Daughter, appears in the

second and third removes of his pedigree, an unusually close coupling in modern breeding. Knight’s Daughter was the dam of Tell’s sire, the great Round Table, and she was also the mother of his grand-dam, Love Game.

Knight’s Daughter was a speed influence by Sir Cosmo but her half-sis-ters, Hypericum and Angelola, won the English One Thousand Guineas and Newmarket Oaks respectively, and the latter left the fine stayer Aureole.

Pompeii Court’s second dam, Paris Pike, was line bred to Nearco. Paris Pike won the Hollywood Oaks, her dam, Banri an Oir, won in Ireland at two and three and the next two dams Golden Penny and Penneycomequick ran second in the One Thousand Guineas and first in the English Oaks respectively. Small wonder, then, that Pompeii Court is especially good at leaving top fillies like Pompeii Pearl, Courtza and Courtalista.

It is a safe assumption he will be a broodmare sire of considerable note. Both his sire and his dam are by American racing legends. Round Table won 43 races and over SUSI. 7 million. A 1954 foal he set several world records,

was “Horse of the Year” in 1958 and left 84 stakes winners from 402 foals.

Round Table seems to have had little appeal with New Zealand breeders and relatively few of his sons came here, one of the best known being Pass The Bottle.

Things have rather changed since Sir Tristram’s success as that champion is from a Round Table mare. Round Table was a tough horse in an era <vhen American horses were not always noted for soundness. His sire, Princequillo, descended from Simon and he has been one of the principal factors in the revival of that line in recent times.

Princequillo was bred in Ireland in 1940 by Laudy Lawrence, an American who represented the interests of M.G.M. pictures in Europe. Lawrence shipped the youngster to his home country during the war and so began yet another racing fairy tale.

Beaten in ciaimers early on and winner of just SUS27SO as a two-year-old, Princequillo was claimed by trainer, Horatio Luro, to settle a grudge the trainer had against Lawrence. He was a very good racehorse but

went amiss after running a track record over 2600 m at Saratoga as a four-year-old. His first stud fee was SUS2SO and he got 17 mares. From his second crop came Hill Prince, the U.S. “Horse of the Year” in 1950 and Prince Simon which ran second in the English Two Thousand Guineas and the Derby. Princequillo left 480 foals and 64 stakes winners.

Pompeii Court’s dame Port Damascus was by Damascus, “Horse of the Year” in 1967, and winner of 21 of his 32 starts. His sire Sword Dancer was “Horse of the Year” in 1959 and won more than $BOO,OOO. He descends from Teddy a famous sire whose male line has fought to avoid extinction. Teddy and his sons owed their line’s survival at one stage to some dedicated French breeders who went to the extent of running secret non-betting races during German occupation to find out the best horse to use as a stallion.

Close up in Sword Dancer’s pedigree appears Rosedrop, by the New Zealand horse Trenton, one of Carbine’s greatest sons. Rosedrop was the ancestress of Hyperion who appears several times in Pompeii Court’s pedigree.