Cannock Chase descends from 2yo star Bitty Girl

CANNOCK CHASE (USA) - 2011 bay horse

Placed on his only start as a juvenile, Cannock Chase ran just three times at three, all of them wins and culminating in a length and a half defeat of Mutakayyef in the Group 3 Tercentenary Stakes over 10 furlongs at Royal Ascot.

He was not seen out again until the following April, when he finished third to Western Hymn in the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown. He then failed by just half a length to take the Group 3 Huxley Stakes and his sixth of seven outings that year saw him beat Up With The Birds by one and a half lengths in the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes over 12 furlongs at Woodbine.​

Cannock Chase ran just once at the age of five, beating Western Hymn by a length in the Group 3 Huxley Stakes at Chester. Timeform rated him 119 in 2015, and he begins his stallion career at Nunstainton Stud in North Yorkshire.

He is by the classic winner and highly-ranked Lane's End Farm stallion Lemon Drop Kid (by Kingmambo), he is a full-brother to the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam scorer Pisco Sour, and his dam is a half-sister to the prolific blacktype horse Lord Admiral (by El Prado), a Group 1-placed horse whose wins included the Group 2 Jebel Hatta at Nad Al Sheba, the Group 3 Al Rashidiya Stakes at that same venue, and each of the Group 3 Ballycorus Stakes, Listed Glencairn Stakes and Listed Knockaire Stakes at Leopardstown.

Lady Ilsley (by Trempolino), the stakes-placed grandam of Cannock Chase, is a half-sister to several winners and she is a full-sister to Najecam, the Grade 2-placed dam of juvenile champion and Grade 1 scorer Action This Day (by Kris S) and grandam of Drefong (by Gio Ponti), likely US sprint champion of 2016 following his wins in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Spring and Grade 1 King's Bishop Stakes.

These are the highlights that you will see on a catalogue page for Cannock Chase, but what is not on the page is that his fourth dam is Bitty Girl (by Habitat), the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes, Group 3 Lowther Stakes and Group 3 Molecomb Stakes winner of 1973, who Timeform rated 123.

Her year-younger full-brother Hot Spark won the Group 1 Flying Childers Stakes at two and achieved a Timeform rating of 126 at three. Like most sons of his leading sire, he disappointed at stud although did get some stakes winners and blacktype earners.​

It is through two of his daughters that Hot Spark's name was brought back to prominence in more recent times as he is the broodmare sire of the Group 1-winning sprinter Ya Malak (by Fairy King) and, more notably, of the dual Guineas hero and prolific Group 1 star Rodrigo De Triano (by El Gran Senor).

​Bitty Girl's son Beaudelaire (by Nijinsky), who won the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Gheest at three and a listed race at two, stood in Florida and in France. He got a few blacktype horses, including the Group 3 Prix d'Arenberg scorer Repercutionist.

​CANNOCK CHASE (USA) – b.2011 – Lemon Drop Kid – Lynnwood Chase, 5 wins inc Canadian International Stakes (Gr1), Huxley Stakes (Gr3), Tercentenary Stakes (Gr3), 2nd Winter Hill Stakes (Gr3), Huxley Stakes (Gr3), 3rd Gordon Richard Stakes (Gr3). Sire in England. First foals in 2018.