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Xaar, the sire of the dam of last Saturday’s Viliers Stakes winner Ninth Legion, has over 400 winners including 31 stakes winners from use in Ireland and Australia but only one has succeeded at G1 level
Overall his record for transmitting superior excellence is disappointing for a racehorse who ranks among the greats of European juvenile racing.
At two in 1997 he was awarded a high Timeform of 132 and stood head and shoulders over his contemporaries in the European International Classification after winning four of five starts including the G1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket by seven lengths and the G1 Prix de Salamandre at Longchamp by three.
He was an unlucky nose second in the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville in his only loss.
He went on at three, winning the G2 Newmarket Craven Stakes, third in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes and fourth in the G1 English 2000 Guineas while his two starts at four comprised a second in the G1 Sandown Eclipse Stakes and third in G2 Newmarket Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
A son of the prematurely deceased Zafonic, a Mr. Prospector grandson through Gone West, Xaar appeals as a very good horse on both performance and breeding to carry in an Australian pedigree, particularly as a broodmare sire for representatives of the Danehill male line such as Fastnet Rock.
The Australian bred son of Danehill and the fleetfooted Royal Academy mare Piccadilly Circus already appears destined for greatness as an influence on the Australian breed.
Fastnet Rock has been shuttling to Coolmore in Ireland since 2010 where his 12 first crop northern hemisphere 2-year-old runners in 2013 included five winner and two others placed.
Interesting matings for Xaar mares with the Danehill line could be with Redoute’s Choice or his sons as it doubles up a leading modern family.
It flows from Xaar being produced by Monroe (Sir Ivor x Best in Show, by Traffic Judge), a sister to Show Lady, the third dam of Redoute’s Choice.
The best performers by Xaar are Xtension (dam by Grand Lodge), Balthazaar’s Gift (Last Tycoone); No Questions (Kenmare) and Fortune Red Pepper (Known Fact).
So far the best runners out of Xaar mares are Ninth Legion, Harasiya, Flying Affair and Tifongo.
Xaar has over 200 females in Australia.
Ninth Legion was bred by Davilora Lodge in Victoria and sold for $110,000 at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale through Edinglassie Stud.
Raced by Segenhoe Thoroughbreds, Ninth Legion is a three-quarter brother to a Dane Shadow filly in the catalogue for next month’s yearling sale at the Gold Coast.
The dam Xaar’s Jewel won three races and is a half-sister to Kidlat (13 wins) and to the dam of Tell A Tale (Tale of the Cat), a champion New Zealand 3YO whose six wins included the NZ 2000 Guineas, Avondale Guineas and Hawkes Bay Guineas, second in the Singapore Gold Cup and third in the NZ Derby.
