Damila a first pattern winner for Milanais

DAMILA (FR) - 2013 bay filly

Several members of the current batch of second-crop sires have shown promise, most notably Coolmore Stud's Zoffany (by Dansili), who has now hit double figures for the number of individual stakes winners. Not all got large books or have had many runners to represent them, and among that group is Haras de Lonray's Milanais.

A son of Dyhim Diamond (by Night Shift), he was a leading two-year-old in France in 2008 when he won the Listed Criterium du Bequet at La Teste de Buch, was a half-length runner-up to Soul City in the Group 3 Prix la Rochette over seven furlongs at Longchamp, and then failed by just a neck to beat Naaqoos in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (Grand Criterium) over the same course and distance a month later.

He was runner-up to subsequent classic hero Silver Frost in a listed contest over a mile at Saint-Cloud in the spring of his three-year-old season, and his handful of first-crop runners feature Damila, short-head winner of the Group 3 Prix de Ris-Orangis over six furlongs on Wednesday.

Pierre Pasquiou's homebred filly is trained by Henri-Alex Pantall, she was a stakes-placed winner as a juvenile, and only beaten by a length and a half when third to Ross Castle in the Group 3 Prix Texanita in May. Each of her pieces of blacktype has come at Maisons-Laffitte.

Damila is the first foal out of Dawaes (by Marchand De Sable), a mare who won five times, from two to five years of age. She stayed a mile, she is a full-sister to the successful runners Seven Marchand and Morya, and she is out of an unraced mare called Seven Seventy (by Solid Illusion).

There are several winners under the next few generations of the family, including some who won six and seven times, but you have to back to a branch of the sixth generation before you find any high-profile individuals. The sixth dam of Damila is Nona (by Oise), the grandam of 1983 Group 2 Preis der Diana (German Oaks) winner Novelle (by Northfields).

That classic heroine is, in turn, the grandam of Night Magic (by Sholokhov), German Horse of the Year and winner of the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden, Group 1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks) and several other pattern events. She lost the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio by a head, was a length runner-up in the Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen, and was also runner-up in both the Group 1 Preis von Europa and the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden. In the latter she chased home the brilliant Danedream.

Damila was sent off at 16/1 on Wednesday, when she was placed behind Ross Castle in May, and also when she was only sixth behind Son Cesio in the Group 2 Prix du Gros Chene over five furlongs at Chantilly last month. It remains to be seen how much further improvement she can make, if any, but regardless of how the rest of her racing career goes, she will go to stud as a pattern-winning sprinter.