Adaline: good buying

Adaline's win in the Group Two Royal Stakes may not have conclusively determined her ability to be competitive past 2000m but she showed her minute defeat by Katie Lee in the Eight Carat Classic was no flash in the pan and that Trevor McKee has once again found a quality horse cheaply at the sales.

Maybe it has something to do with it being the first time most three-year-old fillies have gone further than 1600m and connections therefore preferring a cautious approach but this years renewal of the Royal Stakes was once again plagued by a lack of pace making it an inconclusive guide to upcoming oaks races.

Inspecting Adaline for the first time in the parade ring at Ellerslie over Xmas it was hard to see how type could have been a factor in McKee only having to pay $28,000 for the Court of Jewels filly at the 2008 Karaka Select Sale.

A medium sized strongly girthed filly with good balance and an attractive feminine head she exhibits a number of the better characteristics of her very good female family.

The excellent but short lived publication Raceform 1988/89 described Adaline's grand dam the dual groupwinner Soleil Rouge as "short-coupled, big barelled poweful type; good shoulder..." . Another member of the family Silky Red Boxer, whose dam Soleil Etoile is a half sister to Soleil Rouge, was a very similar type.

Although it is back in the second generation, there is a good deal of black type in Adaline's female family with a number of half sisters to Soleil Rouge regularly represented by siblings in the Karaka Premier and Sydney Easter Sales. Soleil Rouge has herself been a good producer leaving a listed winner and her daughters beside Red Covet (dam of Adaline), have left Hong Kong Group One winner All Thrills Too and the group winning NZ two-year-old Crossyourheart.

The taproot mare responsible for the family is the english bred mare Polly Soleil who was imported to NZ in 1976 by Waikato breeder Ron Denby. There is little known about the mare before she came to these shores other than she was a half sister to Denby's good stallion Avon Valley.

Red Covet by St Covet looks to have shown connections some ability on the racetrack given that her six lifetime starts were all on Melbourne's city tracks and she was jumped to a stakes race at just her third start coming off a Flemington win at 1400m.

I have discussed St Covet briefly in an earlier posting but his record at stud before his death after just two seasons is quite astonishing, posting nearly 80% winners to runners and 15% stakes performers to runners. From I'm guessing around 40 live mares, St Covet has also managed to leave his mark as a broodmare stallion with Mimi Lebrock, the sensational filly Amelia's Dream and now Adaline.

Adaline has older half siblings by General Monash, Danehill Dancer and Fasliyev who amounted to very little on the racetrack while a year older full sister named Regally Red has been a useful performer on the Victorian provincial circuit with stake earnings of $50,000. A two-year-old unraced half brother by Bianconi called The Admiral Returns is Red Covet's latest foal of racing age.

Which leads us to Adaline's sire Court of Jewels and notwithstanding the luke warm start by Red Covet to her broodmare career, probably the significant factor in Trevor McKee acquiring her so cheaply.

Court of Jewels retired to stud in Victoria in 2004 with a record of 4 wins and 5 placings from 17 starts including a group three 1300m success in Adelaide and stakes placings at Rosehill, Caulfield and Doomben. A useful enough record but hardly one to get breeders rushing the farm gate down.

It gets better though on the pedigree side and significantly too, for Court of Jewels as a son of Danehill from a Sir Tristram grand daughter of Eight Carat is very closely related to leading stallions Commands and Danewin.

To Be Continued