7/23/13
Last updated: 7/22/13 8:58 PM
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After media reports announcing Exceed and Excel, Black Caviar cautioned that there has been no confirmed match yet
(Courtesy of jockey/photographer Stephen Baster via Twitter) |
As the world watched for the Royal baby announcement, Monday brought
similarly-themed news regarding equine royalty: unbeaten sprint legend Black
Caviar will begin her broodmare career by visiting the court of leading
Australian sire Exceed and Excel.
[Monday evening update: After the
myriad of published reports about Exceed and Excel, the mare herself, and her
commercial manager, took to Twitter to emphasize that the tryst is not
finalized.
“To clarify my mating has not been confirmed,”
Black Caviar
tweeted. “There is some speculation; however
my owners are still considering all options.”
“Despite media
speculation,” Commercial Manager
Stephen Silk
tweeted, “no official announcement from BC owners re first mate for the mare.”]
The highly-anticipated match
would double down on the speed factor, for Exceed and
Excel was an Australian champion sprinter himself. The son of Danehill captured
such major races as the six-furlong Newmarket Handicap and the seven-furlong
Invitation Stakes.
A Darley stallion, Exceed and Excel stands at the Kelvinside location in New
South Wales for A$88,000. During the Northern Hemisphere breeding season, he
stands at Darley’s Dalham Hall in Newmarket for £35,000.
The shuttle stallion has made a mark in both the Northern and Southern
Hemispheres. His leading European progeny include the outstanding miler
Excelebration, a highweight in France, Ireland and Germany; English sprint
highweights Margot Did and Fulbright; and speedy juveniles Best Terms, Heavy
Metal, Infamous Angel, Bungleinthejungle and Morawij, the latter also adding the
June 15 Scurry at three.
Among his Australian stars are current Golden Slipper winner Overreach;
Guelph, heroine of the April 13 A.T.C. Sires Produce and April 27 Champagne
since finishing fourth in the Slipper; 2009 Blue Diamond victor Reward for
Effort; and triple Group 1 winner Helmet, who landed the 2011 A.J.C. Sires
Produce, Champagne and Caulfield Guineas.
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Although Exceed and Excel is a speed influence, he is capable of siring
horses effective at much longer trips, if bred to a stamina-laden mare. Examples
of this pattern are 2011 Winter Derby winner Nideeb, out of an In the Wings
half-sister to Warrsan and Luso, and current multiple stakes victress La Arenosa,
out of a stakes-winning Acatenango mare.
An Exceed and Excel-Black Caviar foal would be inbred 3×5 to Danzig, and
Northern Dancer would appear three times within five generations. In addition,
Exceed and Excel himself sports a triple cross to Natalma, and Black Caviar
contributes her own inbreeding to the great Vain.
Black Caviar extended her glittering record to 25-for-25 when dominating the
April 13 T.J. Smith at Randwick, thus breaking a pair of records in her part of
the world. By scoring her 15th career Group 1 victory, the veteran mare eclipsed
Kingston Town’s old Australian record of 14. The T.J. Smith also marked her
eighth consecutive Group 1 win, bettering *Bernborough’s consecutive tally of
seven.
The world’s top-rated sprinter, Black Caviar retired shortly afterward with
earnings in excess of A$6.8 million.
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