During a lecture to students at the Irish National Stud recently, Leo Powell challenged the students to champion a Blue Hen broodmare, offering to publish the winning essay. The winner is American Jake Memolo with his piece on Hasili. He penned the essay the week before Champs Elysses sired his first Group 1 winner at Royal Ascot.

A BLUE Hen is the goldmine that everyone is looking for when it comes to breeding and selling champion racehorses. They are much easier talked about than found. When they come from families that you have been cultivating for years that might make it even more enjoyable. Such is the case with Juddmonte Blue Hen, Hasili.

Though she herself only acquired small blacktype when trained in France, what is particularly striking about Hasili (by Kahyasi, a grandson of Nijinsky) is that she produced five Grade or Group 1 winners, yet arguably her most well-known offspring is not included on that list. Dansili, the result of Hasili’s first mating of what became a potent combo with Danehill, has become a force in the stallion world, siring horses like Rail Link, Harbinger and The Fugue just to name a new.

It is also worth mentioning that he is starting to make a name for himself as a broodmare sire, with Chiquita winning the Group 1 Irish Oaks and Astaire annexing the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes. Dansili alone would ensure Hasili a spot in pedigrees for years to come, but she has been able to do so much more.

Her Grade 1 winning daughters Banks Hill (Danehill), Intercontinental (Danehill) and Heat Haze (Green Desert), are not doing too badly themselves. Banks Hill, who was crowned champion three-year-old filly as well as champion grass mare in the United States in 2001, has also been able to produce a Grade 1 winning daughter in the form of Romantica, who came devastatingly close to also landing the race her own dam won, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf has been kind to the family, even with the defeat of Romantica. I say this because not only did Hasili produce the 2001 winner (Banks Hill), she produced her full-sister, Intercontinental, who captured the 2005 edition of the race. The other Grade 1 winning daughter, Heat Haze, took the Beverly D at Arlington and the Matriarch at Hollywood Park.

This all comes without mentioning Deluxe, her 2007 daughter by Storm Cat, a Grade 3 winner who showed flashes of brilliance herself before her racing career was seemingly cut short.

The other Grade 1 winning sons by Danehill have made a name for themselves as well. Cacique, a multiple Grade 1 winner himself, just sired a new Grade 1 winner recently with Slumber winning the Manhattan Handicap on Belmont Stakes day.

This comes from an extremely limited opportunity after initially being pensioned because of sub-fertility. Siring three Grade 1 winners with such few foals on the ground is nothing short of a small miracle. The other brother, Champs Elysees, was Canada’s horse of the year in 2009. Though he has yet to sire a Group 1 winner, he is sure to have his day soon enough.

NO MISTAKE

The success of Hasili is no mistake. She herself won broodmare of the year in Britain in 2006, while her full sister Arrive won the award in 2008. She is also a half-sister to Dissemble, the dam of 2005 champion turf horse in America, Leroidesanimaux. He might be better known now as the sire of Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner, Animal Kingdom.

This all goes to show just how deep Hasili’s roots go, and what she has been able to produce. She has been able to enhance an already potent family. With all she has done, she will be a heavy influence in not only Juddmonte pedigrees for years to come, but pedigrees all around Europe and potentially the world.