SADLER’S Wells (by Northern Dancer) has had a profound impact on both flat and National Hunt racing and, up to Monday night, five of his sons are among the top 10 sires of jumpers so far this season.
Each of the quintet: King’s Theatre, Milan, Oscar, Kayf Tara, and Old Vic - is or was aimed primarily at the National Hunt industry, but his male line descendant who supplied the winner of the Grade 2 Lismullen Hurdle at Navan last Sunday is a notably successful flat sire.
Soldier Hollow, who stands at Gestut Auenquelle in Germany, was a top-class racehorse at around 10 furlongs, a four-time Group 1-winning son of In The Wings (by Sadler’s Wells).
His string of blacktype-winning progeny features the multiple Group 1 stars Ivanhowe and Pastorius, the former now racing in Australia as Our Ivanhowe and the latter a classic winner, member of the team at Gestut Fahrhof and whose first foals arrived this year.
Arctic Fire, the Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old who won last Sunday, is a gelding and he has been very lightly raced on the flat, easily winning an 11-furlong contest in heavy ground in France three years ago and then beaten a nose by Shu Lewis over 14 furlongs at Killarney last year.
It would be interesting to see if he might have a go at any of the Cup races on the level especially as his pre-Navan mark of 169 puts him among the best hurdlers in training.
He beat Monksland by half-a-length in last week’s two and a half mile contest, picking up a deserved first graded success.
Runner-up to Faugheen in the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle on his previous start and runner-up to that same star in the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, he has also been twice Grade 1-placed behind Hurricane Fly and finished third behind Irving in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle a year ago.
Arctic Fire was bred by Uwe Grüning and it is remarkable that he made just €3,000 when sold as a yearling in Baden-Baden. Two years later, and a month after that runaway flat success, he changed hands for €110,000 at the Arqana Deauville Autumn Mixed Sale.
He is a half-brother to the multiple flat winners Ange D’Azur (by Slickly) and Alverado (by Khalkevi), and his dam Adelma (by Sternkoenig) is a one-time flat scorer whose relations include a Grade 1-placed chaser and a German classic winner and champion.
Adelma is a winning half-sister to the multiple stakes-placed sprinter Appassionato (by Big Shuffle) and her successful siblings also include Alkeste (by Nebos), a flat winner whose son Allen Voran (by Sholokhov) is a prolific jumper. His string of blacktype placings features the runner-up spot in the Grade 1 Grande Steeplechase d’Europa at Merano and in the Grade 2 Prix Congress Chase at Auteuil.
All Pepper
That horse’s half-brother All Pepper (by Peppershot) won twice over hurdles for Alain Couetil in France before joining the Willie Mullins stable in 2014, but he disappointed on his only start for that team and returned to his former home.
The five-year-old grandson of Big Shuffle (by Super Concorde) has been lightly-raced and was fourth in a conditions event over hurdles at Auteuil in September, several days before his three-year-old half-brother Abraxas (by Saddex) won a 13 furlong flat race for the same connections.
The grandam of Arctic Fire and Allen Voran did not race, but Alke (by Konigsstuhl) is a full-sister to Alkalde, Germany’s champion three-year-old miler of 1988.
His eight wins, from two to four years of age, included a trio of Group 2 events, one of which was the Mehl-Mulhens Rennen (German 2000 Guineas), and he later went on to some success at stud.
The pattern-placed dual mile stakes winner Wild Romance, whose progeny include the Group 2 scorers Win For Us (by Surumu) and Wild Side (by Sternkoenig; dam of Group 2 Park Hill Stakes heroine Wild Coco) and the classic-placed pattern winner White Rose (by Platini), would be one of his best known offspring.
Arctic Fire is related to some talented horses of quite diverse aptitudes, but even though one of those was a classic winner and champion in Germany, it is looks fair to say that this young hurdler, who is available at around 8/1 for the 2016 Grade 1 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, is the best horse in the most recent generations of his family.