THE Danzig (by Northern Dancer) line has long been associated with speed at the highest levels and it may add yet another Group 1 star to its roll of honour if La Rioja lives up to the promise she showed nine days ago.
She was runner-up in a six-furlong maiden on her debut at Lingfield in June, took a similar contest by five lengths at Newbury a month later, and then thrashed the pattern-placed stakes winner Whatdoiwantthatfor by four and a half lengths in the Group 3 Country Gentlemen’s Association Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes at Salisbury, her first try on soft ground.
La Rioja was bred by Alvediston Stud, she is trained by Henry Candy, and she is a 50,000gns graduate of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. She was consigned that day by Tally-Ho Stud who bought her for 27,000gns at the same venue 11 months before.
She represents the second crop of the Bucklands Farm & Stud stallion Hellvelyn (by Ishiguru), the grey grandson of Danzig that won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2006.
He also short-headed Borderlescott in the Listed Beverley Bullet Sprint Stakes, was runner-up to Holy Roman Emperor in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, and was later a stakes-placed sprint winner in the USA.
La Rioja is the fourth foal out of the unraced Talampaya (by Elusive Quality) and she is not only her dam’s fourth winner, but the third of them to earn blacktype.
Lilbourne Lass (by Pastoral Pursuits) was third in the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes and her full-sister Pastoral Girl, who was runner-up in a listed contest at Nottingham in May, chased home Osaila in the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot last year.
Talampaya is a half-sister to the stakes-placed gelding Bernasconi (by Rahy) and her winning dam Argentina (by Storm Cat) is a half-sister to Badraan (by Danzig), a triple scorer who has done well at stud.
Her Indian-born sons Shivalik Star (by Shamardal) and Shivalik Storm (by Dancing Forever) have been major winners in that country, but her second foal will be more familiar to racegoers in this part of the world as she is the talented Eastern Aria (by Halling) who won the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes, the Group 3 Lillie Langtry Stakes, and listed contests at Newmarket and Saint-Cloud, before moving to Saudi Arabia.
Gold Sunrise (by Forty Niner), the third dam of La Rioja, was a high-class juvenile who won the Grade 3 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs and finished third in the Grade 2 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland.
Her only two siblings were stakes-placed multiple winners, and her dam Seattle Dawn’s (by Grey Dawn II) best win came in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap.
She was one of several stakes winners out of Embellished (by Seattle Slew), and that mare was a half-sister to the Grade 1 stars Althea (by Alydar), Ali Oop (by Al Hattab), and Ketoh (by Exclusive Native).
Their siblings also included the Grade 2 scorers Twining (by Forty Niner), Aishah (by Alydar), and Aquilegia (by Alydar), in addition to the unraced Foreign Courier (by Sir Ivor), and so this is also the family of Bertolini (by Danzig), Arch (by Kris S), and the hugely influential classic-placed Group 1 star Green Desert (by Danzig), among others of note.
La Rioja is a great-granddaughter of Danzig and she comes from the family of one of his most famous sons, Green Desert. It will be exciting to find out just how good she is.