Darley stallions played a big part again at the Eclipse Awards ceremony in California on Monday night. Not only was a Darley sire responsible for the champion Two-Year-Old Male for the second successive year – the Cherokee Run colt War Pass followed Street Cry's son Street Sense in securing that honour by virtue of an impressive win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Elusive Quality's daughter Maryfield secured the Female Sprint divison after a conclusive victory in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (dirt) and another category saw Singspiel further enhance his impressive international CV thanks to his daughter Lahudood taking the Female Turf Horse award. Lahudood's achievement helped her owner/breeder Shadwell Stable to collect an Eclipse Award for Owner of the Year, and it also served as a potent reminder of the remarkable versatility of her sire.
The highlight of Lahudood's year was her impressive success in the Breeders' Cup Filly And Mare Turf at Monmouth Park in which she powered through the soft ground to record an emphatic victory over a field which included many of the best turf distaff performers from both sides of the Atlantic. This victory served to place yet another notable landmark on Singspiel’s list of achievements, and at the same time emphasised the astonishing scope for success possessed by his stock.
In his racing career, Singspiel was truly a horse for all seasons. Victorious in some of the world’s greatest races in spring (Dubai World Cup), summer (Coronation Cup, Juddmonte International Stakes), autumn (Canadian International) and winter (Japan Cup), he possessed the hallmark of a true champion in that all locations and racing surfaces came alike to him. It is now a similar story at stud. The only winner of the Dubai World Cup also to have sired a winner of the world’s richest race (Moon Ballad), he ticked off another notable box when Lahudood credited him with his first Breeders' Cup success. She coped with the soft ground that day with the same relish that another of Singspiel's daughters, Confidential Lady, had shown for fast ground when winning the previous year's Prix de Diane.
Singspiel's other Group One winners include the brilliant Japanese miler Asakusa Den'en who bounced off the firm ground in Tokyo to defeat Japan's best milers, plus Hong Kong’s Horse Of The Year Silent Witness, in the Yasuda Kinen. The star of his one Australian crop is Rewaaya, who defeated Miss Andretti to win last season’s Dubai Racing Club Cup at Caulfield over seven furlongs, while his Royal Ascot winners have included Papineau, so impressive in beating Westerner in the Gold Cup, and Silkwood, effortless heroine of last year’s Ribblesdale Stakes. Among his many good juveniles has been Lateral, a Group One winner of the Gran Criterium.
Lahudood has followed an established pattern in blossoming as she has travelled. Singspiel’s son Funfair, a Listed winner in England, did likewise two years previously when his American successes included a defeat of subsequent Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Artie Schiller in the Kelso Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park. By winning an Eclipse Award, Lahudood has merely kept up the family tradition of coming, seeing and conquering
