Sourcing the Sadler’s Wells-Darshaan Nick
by Roger Lyons
As an addendum to my last post, I’ll report some further findings relating to Dar Re Mi’s scond dam, Delsy (Abdos–Kelty, by Venture). Delsy is also the dam of Darshaan, by Shirley Heights. As I reported in my last post, Singspiel, sire of Dar Re Mi, has a superior runner strike rate of 2/14 with Darshaan, and, if you take Darshaan out of Singspiel’s opportunity with Shirley Heights, the strike rate with Shirley Heights is 2/18. Singspiel, however, has had some additional opportunity with Delsy on her own, and the strike rate is 3/15. That extra superior runner, of course, is Dar Re Mi.
These numbers are small, but provide some presumptive ground for thinking that Delsy might be the operative factor in the mega-nick between Sadler’s Wells-line sires and Darshaan-line mares. So, since posting that, I’ve taken a look at the numbers Sadler’s Wells accumulated during his career. Keep in mind, though, I’m considering all occurrences of Darshaan in the ancestries of mares that produced foals by Sadler’s Wells, not just occurrences in the broodmare sire line. Also, a mare contributes to the stallion’s strike rate when she descends from the ancestor in question and produces a runner that wins an unrestricted North American blacktype stakes or blacktype-qualifying foreign stakes OR runs second in a G1 or G2 race.
With Darshaan, Sadler’s Wells has the almost unheard-of strike rate of 18/48 (37.5%). If you take out Darshaan, Sadler’s Wells’ strike rate with Shirley Heights is 19/83 (23%), exactly Sadler’s Wells’ average). Intuitively, you would think that Darshaan makes the difference, and so he does, but the logical counterweight to his sire Shirley Heights is Darshaan’s dam, Delsy. Sadler’s Wells happens to have had opportunity with five daughters of Delsy, which placed her in the second generation of the foal, one generation closer than in occurrences through Darshaan. The result?
Three of those five mares produced superior runners by Sadler’s Wells, including two G1 winners–Daliapour, winner of the Coronation Cup (G1) and Hong Kong Vase (G1), and Darazari, out of the dam of Dar Re Mi and winner of the Ranvet S.(G1) in Australia. Delsy appears to be something of an independent source of the values that otherwise constitute the Sadler’s Wells–Darshaan nick.