No Teflon Don

I've watched the emergence of Don Eduardo and Thorn Park as sires with interest over the last couple of months.

In the Don's case the good looker has been making headlines since the day he was born.

You see Don is the product of racing royalty. In human terms he'd be compared to the offspring of Michael Phelps and Elle McPherson.

Befitting his parentage, Don is built magnificently. He fills the eye like Madileine Stowe or George Clooney and if mares bat for the other side ( I don't know the answer to that, can anyone enlighten me?) they would conceivably turn for him.

Such was Don's lineage and looks that he became, when sold through the Karaka ring in 2000 - what a piece of theatre his sale was except if you were an Optus shareholder - the highest priced yearling sold at auction in Australasia at 3.6million NZ; a record that still stands.

And the buzz didn't stop for a while because remarkably the big fella could run. He seemed to take an eternity to wind up in his races - think his running down of Carneige Express to win the 2002 AJC Derby - but he had courage, in bucket loads.

I'd be the first to admit that when he retired to stud in 2004 I thought the Don train might finally have run out of steam. Sure he had the genes and the looks but in racing speak he was a bit of a grinder. The first thing that probably ran through a lot of breeders minds was are his progeny going to take 2000m just to warm up?

Well Don Eduardo's stallion career has been a little bit like his racing style, slow to start but building momentum that's hard to stop..

With his oldest crop four-year-olds, the son of Zabeel has been represented by six stakes performers - all four year-olds - since New Years day including three Group winners.

And no there was'nt a Von Dousa winner amongst them, but they are proving versatile. He has a Group One sprint performer in Dashing Donna, a smart three-year-old sprinter in Australia in Swift Alliance while at the other end of the scale you have the likes of Divine Rebel and Vickezzchardonnay proving themselves as true staying types.

A lot of successful stallions stamp their best progeny and the Don does just that.

Dashing Donna and All In Black are medium size with athleticism while the males tend to be real peas to a pod -bigger with tremendous girths.

Another characteristic, on the pedigree page, is the propensity for speed to show up on the dam side of his stock's better performers. Sensibly breeders seem to have focused on balancing the Don's staying prowress with speed as a number of these dams have won at between 1200m and 1400m.

Even the best mating plans come unstuck if connections fail to display the patience that the breed require but in Don's case the virtue doesn't look to have been ignored as his stock have really come into their own as autumn four-year-olds.

He is no heir apparent to the throne of his illustrious father and will probably never match the deeds of a Pentire, but in Don Eduardo breeders look to have another unearthed another quality staying option in a current breeding environment hardly endowed with variety in that aisle.

Dropping off the radar for a season or two while his stock matured, the Don is once again a name on thoroughbred followers lips. Thankfully we've been saved the stories of Mark Spitz's full brother and Snaffi Dancer.