Stallion Profile July 2003

Dash for Cash

Everything’s ship shape in this high class family

THE tough grey miler Dash for Cash endeared himself to racegoers with his honest efforts in four Gr.1 races during the Sydney Autumn Carnival, giving his all week after week against the best performers in the land. Now retired to Collingrove, Victoria, Dash for Cash won two Gr.1 races and, as DAVID BAY reports in this profile, is from the Mr. Prospector sireline and from a classic-producing European family.

DUAL Gr.1 winner Dash for Cash (Secret Savings (USA)-Gulistan by Rubiton), who begins his stud career at Collingrove, Victoria this spring, has an illustrious family reputation to uphold.
His fifth dam is the marvellous producer Felucca (Nearco-Felsetta by Felstead) whose male descendants have had quite an impact as sires in this part of the world.
Three of her daughters Ark Royal (Straight Deal), Kyak (Big Game) and Cutter (by Donatello II) won the Park Hill Stakes and met with success as broodmares. Several of their stakeswinning descendants are familiar names in modern pedigrees.
Ark Royal’s son Hermes (Aureole) went to NZ (where he was a noted sire of broodmares, his daughters crossing particularly well with Sir Tristram (IRE), as in the case of Derby winner and sire Grosvenor).
Kyak is the dam of Mariner (Acropolis), another good racehorse and sire, and the grandam of Buoy (Aureole), who stood at Newhaven Park. She is also the third dam of Sea Anchor (Alcide), who stood in NZ and Australia and is best known for his great son Red Anchor. She is also the fourth dam of Dash for Cash.
Cutter is the grandam of Sharp Edge (Silver Shark), winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas and Prix Jean Prat and a sire in Australia. She is also the grandam of Longboat (Welsh Pageant), an Ascot Gold Cup winner who was purchased as a Melbourne Cup hopeful before being sent to Kerry Packer’s Scone property to sire polo ponies as he was considered “too stoutly bred” to be a commercial sire.
Felucca’s other descendants include English Oaks winner Bireme (Grundy), a half-sister to Buoy, English St Leger winner Cut Above (High Top), a half-brother to Sharp Edge and Coronation Stakes winner Ocean (Petition), a half-sister to Hermes. Half-sister ANOTHER interesting family member is a descendant of Bardia (Colombo-Felsetta by Felstead), a half-sister to Felucca.
Bardia is the fifth dam of Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch (USA) (Gulch-Line of Thunder by Storm Bird), whose grandam Shoot a Line (High Line-Death Ray by Tamerlane) won the Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks.
Thunder Gulch has proved a top class shuttle sire and pedigree enthusiasts will note that Dash for Cash is bred on a similar cross.
This wealth of genetic material featuring horses like Mariner, Buoy, Hermes, Sea Anchor, Sharp Edge and Thunder Gulch, gives breeders a marvellous opportunity to linebreed to this family by using Dash For Cash.
An added bonus is that Dash for Cash is free of Northern Dancer blood and has a high class Australian racehorse, Rubiton (Century-Ruby by Seventh Hussar (FR)) as his damsire.
Rubiton sired Gulistan and her high class sister Rubidium (Edward Manifold Stakes-Gr.2) from the unraced Kalaglow mare Gulet (GB), whose dam Packet is a daughter of the English Derby winner Royal Palace and Kyak.
Rubiton won 10 of his 16 starts, four of them at Gr.1 and including the W.S. Cox Plate, and has followed his sire Century and grandsire Better Boy as one of the mainstays of the Victorian breeding industry.
His stakes performers this season include Fields of Omagh, Innovation Girl, Rubitano and Empress Waltz.
Although Dash for Cash is free of Northern Dancer, Rubiton’s damsire Seventh Hussar (Queen’s Hussar-Ann Bolyn by Tudor Minstrel) has a link with the great sire as his fifth dam Sister Sarah is the grandam of Nearctic (sire of Northern Dancer).
Rubiton’s second dam Briar’s Toddy is by Star Kingdom’s Golden Slipper-winning son Todman and from Saint Auriga (by the classically-bred Landau - a horse bred on a similar cross to Nearctic). Royally-bred ALTHOUGH Rubiton has an Australian pedigree, you can’t help noticing that it’s packed with horses who were high class performers in England and who also feature in the pedigree of the royally-bred Gulet (GB), grandam of Dash for Cash.
Gulet’s sire Kalaglow is by the short-lived Kalamoun, a horse who won fame in this part of the world via his son Kenmare and in Japan through the deeds of his grandson, the Arc de Triomphe winner Tony Bin.
He is also the damsire of Kala Dancer (whose daughters should cross well with Dash for Cash).
Kalaglow cost just 11,500 guineas as a yearling and was unbeaten in five starts at two and won first-up at three before failing next start and then being injured in the Derby. It was at this time that trainer and part-owner Guy Harwood was informed by authorities that there had been a mix up in his pedigree and his dam was not the Crepello mare Aglow but in fact the Pall Mall mare Rossitor.
The mares shared the same breeder (and grandam Sonsa) but had been switched when they went into training and the mistake was not discovered for 11 years. Finally, a studmaster noticed that Rossitor had three white socks, when her “documents” said she had one.
Kalaglow’s final season on the track (at four) saw him win the Eclispe Stakes-Gr.1 (by four lengths) and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes-Gr.1 (beating Assert and Glint of Gold).
Retired with much fanfare and syndicated for £5m, he proved a disappointment at stud with his daughters generally regarded as inferior on the track to his colts.
His best perfomer is Australasian Horse of the Year and successful sire Jeune, winner of four Gr.1 events from 1400m-3200m including the Melbourne Cup.
Gulet, a grey like her sire, may have been unraced but she has left her mark as a broodmare, despite producing just three living foals. These include Gulistan’s Gr.2-winning sister Rubidium and Listed winner Salivate (Snippets).
Dual Gr.1 winner Dash for Cash raced just twice as a two year-old, winning first up by 3.75 lengths over 1000m at Sandown before a slashing second at his next start in the Pago Pago Stakes-Gr.2 over 1200m at Rosehill. Great form AS A three year-old he displayed great form. In successive appearances in 2001-02, a year in which he challenged Lonhro for the title of being the best ‘miler’ in the age group, he took out the Australian Guineas-Gr.1 (1600m) at Flemington and the MRC Futurity Stakes-Gr.1 (1400m) at Caulfield. They were in a sequence of four successive Group wins during Melbourne summer-autumn racing that stirred tremendous admiration in the first crop son of Doncaster Handicap winner Secret Savings.
The other two events were both at 1400m and were the Autumn Stakes-Gr.3 at Caulfield and the Debonair Stakes-Gr.3 at Flemington.
Dash For Cash turned in a number of good efforts in major races in Melbourne at three including a second in the Bill Stutt Stakes-Gr.2 and a fifth in the Eat Well Live Well Cup-Gr.1.
Another good perfomance was a third in the Magic Millions Three Year Old Plate.
His spring outings at four included a gutsy half-neck second to Northerly after being checked on the turn in the Turnbull Stakes-Gr.2 at Flemington, a third in the Memsie Stakes-Gr.2 at Moonee Valley and fourths in two Gr.1 events, the Manikato Stakes (1200m) and Mackinnon Stakes (2000m), beaten a half-length.
When in the autumn Dash For Cash showed his tremendous courage and class in just failing by a short-neck to overhaul the Gai Waterhouse-trained front running Arlington Road in the All-Aged Stakes over 1600m at Randwick on April 26, it was his fourth successive Gr.1 second in five weeks.
In that span of time he was runner-up in the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley, the George Ryder at Rosehill Gardens and then the Doncaster Handicap and All-Aged Stakes at Randwick.
He bowed out of competition following the All-Aged Stakes but his racing career will be remembered because of his speed, soundness, resilience and ability to back up week after week.
He competed against and defeated some of the Gr.1 greats of the Australian turf including Lonhro, Northerly, Defier, Spinning Hill, Favelon, Sudurka and Desert Sky. His sire HIS sire Secret Savings (USA) won six races in the USA (he was fourth at Gr.2 level there), had just four starts in Australia for three wins and a third (all in stakes races) and including the AJC Doncaster Handicap-Gr.1.
He’s by one of the legendary Mr. Prospector’s best sons, the multiple Gr.1 winner Seeking the Gold, and his dam Jurisdictional, by the Horse of the Year Damascus, is a half-sister to three Gr.1 winners and traces to influential broodmare Grey Flight (his fifth dam).
Secret Savings raced from two to five years on racetracks on the American east coast such as Aqueduct, Saratoga and Belmont. The four seasons of 17 starts yielded six wins, five seconds and a fourth in the Brooklyn Handicap-Gr.2 over 1800m at Belmont Park, New York.
His wins were in allowance races from 1000m-1800m but his career was compromised by a series of minor problems and those who knew the horse recognised his potential to win a major race.
The decision to test Secret Savings against the best Australian sprinter-milers in the autumn of 1997 was risky but Dubai-based H.E. Nasser Lootah, owner of Emirates Park Stud in NSW and Victoria gave leading Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse the opportunity to show the world what the “real” Secret Savings could do. Gai, as she has proved many times, was more than equal to the challenge!
Secret Savings raced four times that autumn in Sydney for three wins and a third. By the time Secret Savings had finished this race assignment, he was a Gr.1 winner, a Gr.3 winner (twice) and had lifted his prizemoney to $1.17m.
Those four starts yielded a win in the AJC Doncaster Handicap-Gr.1, the STC Frederick Clissold Handicap-Gr.3 (1200m in race record time of 1:8.51, beating the time previously clocked by Danewin), the NJC Newmarket Handicap-Gr.3 (1400m) and an unlucky third in the STC George Ryder Stakes-Gr.1.
Secret Savings retired to stud in 1997 and his youngsters have won $5m including Dash for Cash, the good two year-old Shamekha (Magic Night Stakes-Gr.2, fourth Golden Slipper-Gr.1), Fernhill Handicap-Gr.3 winner Salameh, Widden Stakes-LR winner Secret Land as well as the stakes-placed Time Deposit and Rainfalls. FROM the Buckpasser mare Con Game, Seeking the Gold was one of the best American racehorses of the late 1980s.
He contested 15 races from two to four years (1987-1989) for eight wins, six seconds and prizemoney of $US2.3m.
Winning his only juvenile start (by 12 lengths), at three Seeking the Gold won the Dwyer Stakes-Gr.1 and Super Derby-Gr.1, the Peter Pan Stakes-Gr.2 and the Swale Stakes-Gr.2; and was second in the Gr.1 events, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Travers Stakes, Wood Memorial Invitational Stakes and Haskell Invitational Stakes.
After two runs at four, an allowance win and a Gr.1 second, he was retired to stud and has sired more than 50 stakes winners including Dubai Millennium (dam by Shareef Dancer), Seeking the Pearl (Seattle Slew), Heavenly Prize (Nijinsky), Flanders (Storm Bird), Catch the Ring (Halo), Meiner Love (Lypheor), Cash Run (Pleasant Colony), Cape Town (Seattle Slew) and shuttle sire Lujain (Shadeed).
With his sire and grandsire showing an affinity with the blood of Halo and Nijinsky, and being free of Northern Dancer himself, Dash for Cash looks ideal for mares featuring these horses in their pedigree.
Mares by Don’t Say Halo or Fuji Kiseki (Halo line) or Royal Academy (Nijinsky) are among many who look ideal as do mares by Shadeed’s son Splendent (a grandson of Nijinsky).
Dash for Cash retired as the winner of five races, with 10 seconds and three thirds in 30 starts for $1.99m.
He should prove popular at Collingrove Stud, Victoria, where his first season fee is $11,000 including GST.