LAST weekend Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played an exhibition game of tennis in Cape Town in front of 52,000 people. The same weekend a horse called Nadal enhanced his reputation as a possible star among the sophomore generation in the USA.

The human Nadal is a Spanish professional who is currently ranked the world number two in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals. He has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second-most in history for a male player, and in 2008 he took the Olympic gold medal in singles.

Nadal has been the best ranked player in the world for a total of 209 weeks, including being the year-end number one on five occasions. Among his victories are a record 12 French Open titles, four US Open titles, two Wimbledon crowns and a single Australian Open title. Other highs in his career to date include 84 career titles overall, the most outdoor titles in the Open Era and a record 59 titles on clay.

Can the equine Nadal reach such highs on the racecourse? He has made the perfect start and time will tell if he can continue to climb the ladder of success. Unraced at the age of two, the first six weeks of 2020 has seen his run twice and win both, and at the weekend he claimed the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita. Now he will aim to step up to Grade 1 class.

The son of Blame (Arch) was bred by Sierra Farm, owned by Edmond and Sharon Hudon and located five miles north of Lexington in Kentucky. He was sold at Keeneland as a yearling for $65,000 to Randy Bradshaw but what a transformation when he was resold at Fasig-Tipton as a two-year-old for $700,000 six months later. Kerri Radcliffe was the purchaser this time and the colt joined Bob Baffert.

The trainer conditions the colt for owners George Bolton, Arthur Hoyeau, Barry Lipman and Mark Mathiesen. They must be dreaming now of what possibilities there are ahead for the colt.

Interestingly, should he go on and become a Grade 1 winner he would be the first son of his sire to do so. The stallion is responsible for four Group or Grade 1 winners, all females, and they have achieved their highs in Canada, the USA and France. Senga won the 2017 Prix de Diane – French Oaks. Blame’s 29 stakes winners from his first six crops include 16 at group or grade level.

Blame will command a fee of $35,000 at Claiborne Farm this year, back to the fee announced when he retired to stud in 2011. That charge had fallen to as low as $12,500. An Eclipse Award winner as the champion older horse in the USA, Blame’s 2010 season was his best, capturing the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, Stephen Foster Handicap and rounding off the year with success in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic when he sensationally denied Zenyatta.

On the female side of his pedigree, Nadal is the second produce of his dam Ascending Angel, a daughter of Pulpit (A.P.Indy). She failed to win but did place five times as a three-year-old. Her first offspring is the four-year-old Angel Number (Lemon Drop Kid) and she has been placed this year. Ascending Angel has five winning siblings, two of which were stakes performers.

The stakes winner Reform Act (Lemon Drop Kid) was one of that pair and she was bought by Brian Grassick as a yearling for $130,000 and raced for Joe Higgins, trained by Dermot Weld. Her three victories included a listed race at Cork and she was runner-up to the great Yeats in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan. Connections sent her to the USA in search of the elusive group/graded success and she placed in the Grade 2 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct.

The second stakes performing sibling to Ascending Angel was Soul Search (A.P.Indy) and though she failed to win a stakes race, she was a superior runner, finishing second in the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes and third in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes. At stud she is the dam of the Grade 3 winner Journey Home (War Front).

Soul Search had a winning full-sister in Lunar Colony (A.P.Indy) and she was sent by Will Farish, her breeder, to race in England. She made just three starts for John Gosden and won over 10 furlongs at Windsor at three. She has proven to be a successful broodmare with a pair of stakes winning produce, her son Lunar Victory (Speightstown) and daughter The Tea Cups (Hard Spun) both capturing stakes at Belmont Park and Saratoga.

This is a female line that is awash with high-class winners. Solar Colony (Pleasant Colony) is the grandam of Nadal and she is an own-sister to three graded stakes winners, the best being the champion juvenile filly of 1991 in the USA, Pleasant Stage. She captured his first win in the Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes before adding the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She never won again but was runner-up in the Kentucky Oaks.

Two of Solar Colony’s full-sisters have bred Grade 1 winners, Colonial Play being responsible for Marsh Side (Gone West) who won both the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes and Northern Dancer Turf Stakes at Woodbine. Similarly, minor winner Meteor Colony’s best runner was Changeintheweather (also by Gone West).

Pleasant Stage was the best of the 10 winners from Meteor Stage (Stage Door Johnny) who was placed a couple of times at two. However, she had seven winning siblings, two of them successful at Grade 1 level. A Phenomenon (Tentam) won half of his 12 starts, notably the Vosburgh Stakes and he was runner-up in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. Meanwhile, Seattle Meteor (Seattle Slew) gained her most important victory in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga.

Keep an eye out for the equine Nadal as he progresses through what looks like being a memorable season. He certainly has a packed dam line that would not be out of place in a stallion prospect. He could also become his sire’s star runner.