THERE are no guarantees in this business, but when you have a stallion as well-bred as Alkaadhem then the odds that he will sire one or more blacktype winners are reduced. A son of the hugely influential Green Desert (by Danzig), he won the Group 2 Jebel Hatta over nine furlongs and the Group 3 Select Stakes over 10, along with a pair of listed events at Goodwood, and he is out of Balalaika (by Sadler’s Wells), a stakes winner from the famous Reprocolor (by Jimmy Reppin) family.
He was a high-class racehorse from the immediate family of the Group 1 stars Opera House and Kayf Tara, both of whom have achieved success at stud and the latter being the outstanding National Hunt sire in England.
A long-time resident at Ballycurragh Stud in Co Carlow, Alkaadhem’s handful of flat runners include Lake George whose most recent of six wins came over seven furlongs at Sligo in June.
His number of runners under National Hunt rules include Timmy Farrell’s homebred gelding and Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle entrant Moylisha Tim, who won a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Cork in November.
Go Odee Go won over hurdles at Taunton and Wetherby last year, Miss Joeking scored at Hexham in November, and A Hare Breath got entries in both the Grade 1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Grade 3 Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle after a wide-margin and odds-on success at Kempton several weeks ago.
Alkaadhem is also responsible for The Organist and following her three-length victory in the Listed BetBright Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle over an extended three miles at Doncaster on Saturday, he is now the sire of two blacktype winners from a very small number of runners.
The Organist was bred by John Browne, who sold her for €7,500 at the 2014 Tattersalls Ireland August National Hunt Sale. She was trained by Stuart Crawford when she made an impressive winning debut in a Perth bumper in May and was sold for £60,000 at the Brightwells Cheltenham Premier NH Sale two weeks later.
She now carries the colours of the Million In Mind Partnership, is trained by Oliver Sherwood and her only defeat in four starts over hurdles is when she was runner-up in heavy ground at Leicester in January.
Her dam Go On Eileen (by Bob Back) was placed in bumpers, won over hurdles and was placed over fences and is also the dam of Regal Encore (by King’s Theatre) who was runner-up to Briar Hill in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Cheltenham three years ago.
A half-sister to four winners, including the Grade 3-placed hurdler Reine Des Reines (by Supreme Leader), Go On Eileen is out of the triple hurdles scorer La Grande Dame (by Niniski) and so is a granddaughter of the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes scorer Runnello (by Crepello).
That contest is a five-furlong event for two-year-olds, and so considerably different from the arena in which The Organist is proving so talented, but it is also evidence of greater speed and precocity than what the family’s most famous member has shown, and he’s one of the most highly-rated horses in the world.
CIRRUS DES AIGLES
In addition to being the fourth dam of The Organist, Runnello is also the fourth dam of the outstanding and prolific Group 1 star Cirrus Des Aigles (by Even Top).
There are various other blacktype horses in the family, including the Group 3 Prix La Rochette scorer Banjer (by Baldric), who was a half-brother to The Organist’s unraced third dam Pop Music (by Val De Loir), and although they include a couple that were listed placed over obstacles, these horses are all but distant relations to Saturday’s listed scorer.
The Organist has given her future paddocks value a tremendous boost and she is a fine advertisement for her sire, Alkaadhem.