Lucky Lion a Group 1-winning son of High Chaparral

LUCKY LION (GB) - 2011 bay horse

Like Free Eagle, [It's A] Dundeel, So You Think, and Toronado, Lucky Lion is a Group 1-winning stallion son of dual Derby and dual Breeders' Cup hero High Chaparral (by Sadler's Wells). He was Timeform 121-rated as a three-year-old and he begins his new career at Gestut Graditz in Germany.

Lucky Lion first came to the attention when, just a month after winning his maiden over the course and distance, he beat Nordico by one and three-quarter lengths in an eight and a half furlong Group 3 contest at Krefeld.​

The following month he beat that same rival to take the Group 2 Mehl Mulhens-Rennen (German 2000 Guineas) and it is he who chased home ruanway Group 1 Deutsches Derby hero Sea The Moon at Hamburg that July.

Three weeks after that initial defeat, Lucky Lion beat Noble Mission by half a length in the Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr Preis – Bayerisches Zuchtrennen over 10 furlongs on soft ground at Munich, and although that was to be his final blacktype success, he was Group 3 placed at four and five years of age and only beaten by three-parts of a length when fourth to Guiliani in 2015's edition of that Munich Group 1.

Lucky Lion is out of the speedy pattern-placed dual stakes winner Lips Arrow (by Big Shuffle), who is a half-sister to the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas heroine Lips Poison (by Mamool), and his grandam is Lips Plane (by Ashkalani), a pattern-placed half-sister to Beacon Lodge (by Clodovil) and Sugarhoneybaby (by Docksider).

The latter won the Listed Knockaire Stakes at Leopardstown and is the dam of winners from her first few foals, whereas Beacon Lodge is a multiple Group 2-placed gelding whose wins feature the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes, Group 3 Prix du Chemin de Fer du Nord, and two editions of the Listed Silver Trophy Stakes at Haydock.​

Royal House (by Royal Academy), who is the third dam of Lucky Lion, won twice, is out of the speedy pattern-placed juvenile stakes winner Reine Caroline (by Pharly) and so is a half-sister to the Grade 3 Bay Meadow Derby and Group 3 Prix de Guiche scorer Ranger (by Un Desperado), as well as to the dam of the Grade 1-placed Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes winner Reine De Romance (by Vettori).

LUCKY LION (GB) – b.2011 – High Chaparral – Lips Arrow, 5 wins inc Grosser Dallmayr Preis – Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (Gr1), Mehl Mulhens-Rennen (Gr2), Grosser Preis der Dr Busch-Memorial (Gr3), 2nd Deutsches Derby (Gr1), Fruhjahrsmeile (Gr3), Fruhjahrs-Meile (L), 3rd Preis der Sparkassen Finanzgruppe (Gr3). Sire in Germany. First foals in 2018.