Meet one of King’s best
Creachadoir retires to stud to stand alongside his sire at Haras du Logis for a fee which offers extraordinary value for a horse of his ability and breeding
It is a fact of racing life that recent form tends to be uppermost in people’s minds, and consequently Creachadoir will start his stud career at Haras du Logis in 2010 with the disadvantage of perhaps having been overlooked. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and the consequent consolation for breeders is that he will stand at what is surely a bargain price for a tremendous racehorse who is as handsome as he is well-bred: had Creachadoir retired with his best form fresh in people’s minds, there is no way that he could have been made available for as little as the €4,500 introductory fee at which he will commence his new career.
Bred by Frank Dunne (the owner/trainer of 1983 Japan Cup victrix Stanerra), Creachadoir started his racing career in Jim Bolger’s stable in Co. Carlow. As has been demonstrated time and time again, Bolger knows a good horse as soon as he sees one, and his placement of Creachadoir made it plain from the outset that he had yet another good horse on his hands. Bolger had him out early as a two-year-old, saddling him for a six-furlong maiden race at the Curragh in May 2006. Creachadoir showed plenty of promise, finishing third of 14 behind Eagle Mountain, beaten a length, and his trainer duly pitched him in at the deep end next time, sending him back to the Curragh at the Derby meeting for the Group Two Railway Stakes, in which he belied his inexperience by finishing a close fourth behind Holy Roman Emperor, Drayton and Excellent Art. Sadly a setback meant that Creachadoir was not seen out again as a two-year-old, but Bolger had him out good and early at three, making up for lost time at the beginning of what would be a long, arduous and honourable season.
Creachadoir made his three-year-old debut in March 2007 and in a very short period he went from maiden to major Classic contender. He actually broke his maiden in a Group race, getting off the mark with a three-and-a-half-length victory in the Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial Stakes. An attempt to turn him into a stayer failed when he could only finish fourth over 10 furlongs in the Ballysax Stakes, but dropped back to seven furlongs he posted an impressive three-length victory in the Group Three Tetrarch Stakes at the Curragh before proving himself a genuine Classic colt with two excellent Guineas performances, running second in both the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (to Astronomer Royal, finishing ahead of the likes of Excellent Art and Spirit One) and the Irish 2,000 Guineas (to Cockney Rebel, and finishing ahead of Duke Of Marmalade and Vital Equine).
Bought by Godolphin during the summer, Creachadoir first stepped out in the royal blue silks at Newmarket’s Cambridgeshire meeting in the autumn, posting his third Group race success when winning the Joel Stakes by three lengths. It was then straight back to Group One company for a fourth place in a vintage Champion Stakes (behind Literato, Eagle Mountain and Doctor Dino, and ahead of Multidimensional, Notnowcato, Speciosa, Maraahel and Mount Nelson) and an outstanding second, beaten only a short-head by the local champion Good Ba Ba, in the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin on 9 December 2007 – eight and a half months and nine runs after this hugely rewarding and arduous campaign had kicked off on the heavy ground of an early Irish spring. With third place being filled by Europe’s champion filly Darjina, this race was a true international championship, and Creachadoir’s run confirmed both his class and his toughness.
Both class and toughness were again in evidence when Creachadoir won the Group One Lockinge Stakes at Newbury the following May, beating an outstanding field – including Phoenix Tower, Haradasun, Rob Roy, Majestic Roi and Astronomer Royal – in this prestigious mile event. Sadly, however, while his victims went on subsequently to advertise the form, Creachadoir succumbed to a training setback and that was the end of his four-year-old season. No athletes, however talented, last forever, and sadly Sheikh Mohammed’s sporting decision to bring Creachadoir back as a five-year-old in 2009 was not rewarded with an appropriate level of success – hence the bonus for breeders of his now retiring at such an affordable fee.
For breeders wishing to use a top-class racehorse, Creachadoir is thus clearly a value choice – but he is a lot more than that. A well-made, strong and athletic horse, he also boasts a pedigree from the very top-drawer. Creachadoir’s sire King’s Best offers the best of all worlds, being a brilliant winner of the 2,000 Guineas who is by Kingmambo from the immediate family of Sea The Stars, Galileo and Urban Sea, and who has already sired four individual Group One winners; while Creachadoir’s dam Sadima, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells, ranks as one of the elite mares in the world today. Her breeding record is astonishing as she has bred top-class horses to a variety of stallions: Creachadoir to King’s Best, Youmzain to Sinndar, and both the Group winner Shreyas and the very promising 2009 juvenile Sagacious to Dalakhani. The reason for her prepotency is easy to see when one examines her antecedents: she is a grand-daughter of the Troy mare Cocotte, dam of two champions (European champion older horse Pilsudski and Japanese champion three-year-old filly Fine Motion).
This is a great family which keeps coming up with stars – and that is now just what Creachadoir gives breeders the chance to do, and at outstanding value.
04 January 2010