Top international performer Flintshire a son of Dansili

FLINTSHIRE (GB) - 2010 bay horse

Unraced at two, Flintshire won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at three, and although he disappointed on two subsequent outings that season, he went on to become a leading international performer in each of the next three years.

He won or was placed in Group/Grade 1 contests in England, France, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America, earned a Timeform rating of 123 as a three-year-old, and was rated 128 by that organisation at four, five and six.

​He retired to Hill 'N Dale Farms in Kentucky with over €8 million in earnings, has proved popular with breeders, and has 98 registered foals in his first crop

Flintshire is one of 21 top-level winners among 133 stakes winners by the now retired Banstead Manor Stud stallion Dansili (by Danehill), a horse whose stallion sons include the Group 1 sires Harbinger and Zoffany.

His full-brother Dance Moves was a Group 2-placed stakes winner in France, his half-sister Deliberate (by King's Best) is the winning dam of US mile Grade 2 scorer Projected (by Showcasing), and his dam is the high-class middle-distance performer Dance Routine (by Sadler's Wells), who won the Group 2 Prix de Royallieu and was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks).

His grandam is Group 3 Prix de Royaumont scorer Apogee (by Shirley Heights) and his third dam is the Group 1 Oaks and Group 1 Irish Oaks runner-up Bourbon Girl (by Ile De Bourbon), the latter is the grandam of Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud victor Spanish Moon (by El Prado), and there are various other stakes and pattern winners in the family, but there is one horse on the page who stands out head and shoulders above the rest.

That star is an even brighter one than Flintshire, and she is out of a pattern-placed, stakes-winning full-sister to Dance Routine. Concentric is the mare and Enable her daughter. That multi-millionaire and Timeform 134-rated champion is by Newsells Park Stud stallion Nathaniel (by Galileo) – so is inbred 2x3 to Sadler's Wells (by Northern Dancer) – and she took her record to 10 wins from 11 starts with an historic recent success in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs.

Enable is a dual Group 1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine, she has won the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom, the Group 1 Irish Oaks at the Curragh, and the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks, and has secured her place among the all-time great fillies of the turf.

Being a top-class 10-12 furlong turf horse with such a strong middle-distance pedigree makes Flintshire an intriguing prospect for a US-based stallion, and it will be fascinating to see if he can become the next Kitten's Joy (by El Prado). It seems likely that he will have quite a few runners in Europe over the coming years.

Pretty much every flat sire gets two-year-old winners, although those by Flintshire are likely to need at least seven furlongs to be seen to best effect. It would be no surprise to see him get stakes and pattern winners in that age group, although his long-term potential is as a sire of milers and middle-distance horses.

FLINTSHIRE (GB) - b.2010 - Dansili - Dance Routine, 8 wins inc Grand Prix de Paris (Gr1), Hong Kong Vase (Gr1), Sword Dancer Stakes (Gr1-twice), Woodford Reserve Manhattan Stakes (Gr1), Bowling Green Stakes (Gr2), Prix du Lys (Gr3), 2nd Breeders' Cup Turf (Gr1-twice), Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Gr1-twice), Coronation Cup (Gr1), Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Gr1), Dubai Sheema Classic (Gr1), Hong Kong Vase (Gr1), Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes (Gr1), Prix Foy (Gr2), 3rd Coronation Cup (Gr1). Sire in USA. First foals in 2018.

FOALS CATALOGUED:
Bc - Disdain (by Invincible Spirit)     Tattersalls     December     withdrawn
Bc - Endless Light (by Pivotal)     Goffs     November     withdrawn
Bf - Imalwayshotforyou (by Discreetly Mine)     Tattersalls     November     25,000gns
Bc - Matroshka (by Red Ransom)     Arqana     December     €22,000
Bf - Spinamiss (by Lilbourne Lad)     Goffs     November     ​€40,000
Bf - Tabreed (by Sakhee)     Arqana     December     ​€52,000