A STUNNING SUCCESS

 Published on: August - September 2006

Little could Mr. Zavaray Poonawalla have dreamt, as he stood in the ring at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion in suburban Toronto, Canada, in October 1989, that he was about to acquire one of the broodmare bargains of all time, at least from the Indian point of view. Although a non-winner – she placed once from eight starts, earning $630 – and by an unfashionable sire, the mare in question, Ratifia, was half-sister to none other than Sassafras, winner of the Prix de I’Arc de Triomphe, and hailed from a classic family of superlative merit, that of Schiaparelli. She was knocked down for C$20,000 (then about Rs. 3 lakhs) to Stargate Bloodstock, acting for the British Bloodstock Agency.

The nine-year-old daughter of ashmore was carrying her fifth foal at the time, having been covered earlier that year by an attractive prospect, Windfields Farms’ based Ascot Knight, a Group-winning son of Danzig, standing his first season at stud in Oshawa, Ontario. A typical son of his sire, bay in colour like all his get, Ascot Knight was bred in Canada by Anderson Farms and sold for $1,400,000 to Maktoum Al Mktoum (Gainsborough Stud), who was obviously attracted by the fact that the colt was half-brother to stakes winners Overreaction and Bounding Away, their dam Bambee T.T’s first two foals.

STUNNING

Sent to (Sir) Michael Stoute in England, the colt annexed the Mecca Bookmarkers Scottish Derby (Gr. 3) at Ayr in Scotland and placed second in the Matchmaker International (Gr. 1), and the Mecca Dante Stakes (Gr. 2) and third in the Trusthouse Forte Mile Stakes (Gr. 2) before returning to the country of his birth, where he has stood under the Gainsborough banner ever since.

Arriving in India later (the same month in which she was purchased), Ratifia duly foaled a filly on 9th April 1990, which was retained to race in the ‘Red, White Maltese Cross’ colours of the Poonawalla brothers. Named Stunning, she was entrusted to trainer Imtiaz Sait and made a victorious, albeit belated, racecourse debut at Pune in September of her three-year-old year. She ran second thereafter; then won again, before attempting a ‘bridge too far’ by tackling the India fillies Classics in Bombay, which proved beyond her. Reverting to handicaps, she scored four times from her next six appearances, and followed up by running the race of her life to be third in the Idar Gold Tropy (Gr. 2), behind Icarus and Beyond Tomorrow at Pune.

Retired to her birthplace, where she has resided throughout, Stunning did enough with her first offspring – Smart Chieftan -- to gain lasting fame, then outdid herself by producing Classical Act and now the unbeaten Southern Empire, the trio all being sons of Placerville.

Winner of the Indian Triple Crown (all Gr. 1) and the Indian Turf Invitation Cup (Gr. 1), Smart Chieftan possessed an electric turn of foot which was unfortunately allied to a pair of crooked front legs – he toed out both fore.

While racing in India, he managed to remain sound but inevitably broke down in Singapore in 2001 before being returned to India. Had he stood up to training there, he might well have emulated Saddle Up who flew the flag for India like none before or since.

In 1999 came Classical Act, whose game effort to win the Kingfisher Bangalore Derby (Gr. 1) at only his second start in July 2002, was an unprecedented feat. The following winter, he was not right when putting in a few below-par efforts, but recovered smartly no annex-par efforts, but recovered smartly to annex the Maharaja’s Cup (Gr. 2), the Bangalore St. Leger (Gr. 2) and the R.W.I.T.C. Ltd. Invitational Trophy (Gr. 2)

Exported to Dubai, he ran a cracker of a race when third – after shaping as the winner – in a $100,00 event, but sadly that was his last hurrah and his from has been going downhill in Singapore ever since. Southern Empire showed he was top class when, at his very first start, he trounced his rivals in a maiden at Bangalore last December. From then on, he has been going from strength to strength, and his imperious dismissal of the well-credentialed Haunting Memories in the recent Kingfisher Bangalore Derby (Gr. 1), Suggests ‘superstar’ qualities. His average winning margin in seven trips to the post is six lengths, and it is fair to say no other three-year-old in the country even comes close in merit.

With three daughters already at stud to carry on her legacy, and a pair of young Placerville colts waiting in the wings Stunning is sure to extend her influence for generations to come.