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TOPOFTHEHILL



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Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 12:43 pm

St Mark’s Basillica (Siyouni ex Cabaret x Galileo) is retired to stud. A G1 winning 2yo and a multiple G1 winning 3yo at distances up to 10 furlongs. He had a very high level of form winning 2 French Classics and the Irish Champion Stakes. His ability is not in question he must be in the top 5 of his generation, possibly or arguably the best. He had speed and a real change of pace that is the trademark of a real champion.
He was a neat good looking colt, not over big but beautifully made, he was a really good mover in all his paces.
Cabaret was a G3 winning 2yo by Galileo out of Witch of Fife, a Stakes Placed winner of 2 races for Sheikh Mohammad by Lear Fan. Cabaret is also the dam of Magna Grecia (Invincible Spirit) dual G1 winner of the 2000 Gns.
Siyouni is by Pivotal ex Sichilla x Danehill.
It’s a pretty impeccable pedigree and one which was highly probable to produce a top class horse with very high affinity scores and a particularly deep level of affinity from Siyouni’s 4th dam.
He was described today as the most important horse to retire to Coolmore since Galileo presumably on the basis that Siyouni is a proven cross for Galileo. The data set for the cross is far too small to make such a sweeping statement even if the bare numbers appear to support it. Nearly 6% G1 winners to runners and11.5% Stakes winners to runners. In fact if you look a bit more closely you will see some subtle unravelling of the theory. Siyouni has in fact a much more direct affinity with Sadler’s Wells, 33% of Siyouni’s progeny that went on to win stakes had Sadler’s Wells in the dam side of their pedigree whereas only 8% carry to Galileo.
There would be another concern as to his success at stud and that is the problems of relatively close inbreeding to both Sadler’s Wells (including through Galileo) and Danehill. That would in my opinion reduce significantly the number of mares ‘open’ to him with a real chance of delivering an elite runner.
I am sure there will be plenty of good opportunities for him but it might not be easy to get top class mares, with no Sadler’s Wells or Danehill into him and that is probably what he is going to need. Top affinities will be horses like Kingmambo, Kings Best, Machiavelian, Giants Causeway all of which figure strongly in Siyouni’s successes. The really big question is will he do well with Dubawi mares? I really have no idea but they currently have an indifferent record as producers of high quality runners so he is going to need to upgrade them big time.
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