A SON of Giant’s Causeway, Palavicini won the Group 3 Strensall Stakes at York as a three-year-old, but most of his best performances were at Newmarket, where he scored in the Listed Fairway Stakes and was twice placed in Group races there. He won three times at two and three years of age, from a mile to 10 furlongs, finishing out of the first four only three times in 14 starts.
Bred in the USA by Windflower Overseas Holdings and trained for them in England by John Dunlop, Palavicini will have his first crop of foals racing as two-year-olds in 2015, just like his group-winning half-brother Elusive Pimpernel, who is also a stallion at the Irish National Stud.
Palavicini was second of 19 runners to Delegator in his first racecourse appearance at Newmarket, then was third at Newbury, before returning there to win a maiden race over a mile in October. Next season he started with a fourth place at Newbury in April, before being beaten only a head in the Listed Newmarket Stakes, then winning the Listed Fairway Stakes over 10 furlongs at Newmarket.
Soon afterwards Palavicini added the Group 3 Strensall Stakes over nine furlongs at York’s Ebor Meeting, winning comfortably by a length from Dream Lodge with the others well behind, then he ended that season with a third in the Group 3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket.
FERTILITY
As a four-year-old Palavicini was third first time out in the Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket, finishing his racing career with a fourth at Doncaster before retiring to stud. His fertility in his first season was 83% and his first restricted crop of two-year-olds will be racing this year.
Giant’s Causeway, the sire of Palavicini, was an outstanding European champion who was never out of the first two in 13 starts. This son of Storm Cat scored six times in Group 1 events, including the Eclipse Stakes, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Juddmonte International, while all four of his second places were also in Group 1 races, among them the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Among Giant’s Causeway’s 143 stakes winners are European champion Shamardal (sire of Lope De Vega and Mukhadram), the Newmarket 2000 Guineas hero Footstepsinthesand, Intense Focus and the brilliant American miler Aragorn.
Palavicini is a half-brother to Elusive Pimpernel, who was one of the best two-year-olds of 2009, when he won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes at York and was second to St Nicholas Abbey in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, training on to win the Group 3 Craven Stakes at Newmarket as a 3-year-old. Elusive Pimpernel is also one of the younger stallions at the Irish National Stud, with his first runners in 2015. Another half-brother, the Dubawi colt Prince Gagarin, won the Listed Silver Tankard at two years old in 2014.
Their dam Cara Fantasy has bred seven winners in all and this daughter of Sadler’s Wells won two races and is a half-sister to Lucky Guest, a listed winner at Baden-Baden who was at stud in Co Limerick and sired the winners of some 50 races. Their half-sister Persian Fantasy is the grandam of yet another Irish National Stud stallion, the very successful Big Bad Bob, and she is the third dam of the champion filly Snow Fairy, who completed the double of the Epsom Oaks and Irish Oaks, before adding the Irish Champion Stakes and valuable Group 1 events in Japan and Hong Kong.
Appropriately, this female line traces back to the excellent broodmare Tillywhim, a daughter of the 1909 Epsom Derby hero Minoru, who was bred at the Irish National Stud.
PALAVICINI (USA)
Race record: Winner of 3 races, £118,930, in England, at 2 and 3 years, 8-10 furlongs, inc Strensall Stakes, York, Gr,3, and Fairway Stakes, Newmarket, L; 2nd in Newmarket Stakes, L; 3rd in Darley Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.3, and Earl of Sefton Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.3.
Stud record: Retired to stud in 2012. His first foals are 2-year-olds in 2015.
Stands at: Irish National Stud, Tully, Kildare, Co Kildare. Enquiries to John Osborne on 045 521251.
Email: stud@irish-national-stud.ie
Web: www.irish-national-stud.ie
Fee: On application.