Group 1 success awaits rising star Showcasing

SHOWCASING (GB) - 2007 bay horse

Classic-placed Group 1-winning sprinter Green Desert forged one of the two powerful branches of the Danzig (by Northern Dancer) sire line, and with more than 100 individual stakes winners to his name, and counting, Banstead Manor Stud's Group 1 sprint star Oasis Dream is one of his most successful stallion sons.

It is still somewhat early for him as a sire of stallions, and the early results are mixed. Aqlaam has had some stakes and pattern winners, but died young. Arcano and Approve have some blacktype scorers but they moved to Italy and Turkey respectively this year as their overall record is quite ordinary. Naaqoos has been disappointing and gets some successful handicappers, and Frozen Power's low strike-rate has led to him moving from Ireland to Italy.

Captain Gerrard has some blacktype horses but awaits his first stakes winner, but the Mickley Stud stallion has several prolific horses to his name. Italian Group 1 winner Querari stands in South Africa and his early runners include a Group 2 scorer, a recent 10-furlong listed winner, a Group 1-placed multiple winner, and various other blacktype horses, which is a promising start.

Oasis Dream has plenty of others sons who are at earlier stages of their career, including the sprint champion Muhaarar, who is in his first season at Nunnery Stud. Classic winner Power got his first stakes winner today from his first juveniles, and yesterday Showcasing's exciting daughter Quiet Reflection (dam by Haafhd) was an impressive winner of the Group 2 188Bet Sandy Lane Stakes over six furlongs at Haydock.

That Karl Burke-trained three-year-old has also won the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes, Group 3 Prix Sigy, and Listed Harry Rosebery Stakes, and she is one of the ante-post favourites for next month's Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.

Showcasing's oldest progeny are four years old, nine of them are pattern winners and four have won listed races, with one of the latter group being Raghu (dam by Zabeel) who was only beaten by a short-head and a head when third in the Group 1 BMW New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie in March. Group 2 scorer Showboy (dam by Thunder Gulch) was also bred in New Zealand, as were the Group 3 winners Caorunn (dam by Bertolini) and Cylinder Beach (dam by Rainbow Quest) and listed scorer Hardline (dam by Housebuster), and his southern hemisphere blacktype horses also include four who have been pattern-placed.

The rest all come from his service at Whitsbury Manor Stud, and in addition to Quiet Reflection they include the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner Toocoolforschool (dam by Hector Protector) and the Grade 1-placed dual US Grade 2 heroine Prize Exhibit (dam by Inchinor). Tasleet (dam by Cadeaux Genereux), who could join Quiet Reflection in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, was a Group 2-placed stakes winner last year and narrowly beat Knife Edge in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Chelmsford last month.

That pattern success came shortly after Conselice (dam by Diktat) won a mile listed contest at San Siro and eight days before she added the Group 3 Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1000 Guineas) at Capannelle. The best of Showcasing's progeny also include his first-crop son Cappella Sansevero, the Group 1-placed juvenile sprint pattern winner who stands as a stallion at Bridge House Stud in Co Westmeath.

Right now, Showcasing is the best stallion son of Oasis Dream and it is only a matter of time before his first Group 1 winner is crowned, probably the first of several. His fee was raised to £25,000 this year, which should lead to stronger books of mares than he got in his first few seasons, and so we could see even better results from him in a few years time.

He was bred by Juddmonte Farms, won the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes and finished third in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes as a juvenile, but did not go on to become the top sprinter that such form promised. He was a half-length runner-up in the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes on his seasonal reappearance, an excellent effort from a three-year-old, but he was beaten out of sight in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes and in the Group 1 July Cup, both of which were won by Starspangledbanner, and did not run again after that.

Each of his first four dams won in blacktype company and all but one of them has Group/Grade 1 form to her name, which is not something that you see very often.

His fourth dam is the Grade 2 Kentucky Oaks heroine Bag Of Tunes (by Herbager), the races in which she was placed included the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes, the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and the Grade 1 Delaware Oaks, and her descendants, excluding Showcasing's branch of the family, include the Brazilian-born Grade 1 winner Inchatillon (by Inexplicable), the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile Stakes scorer Becrux (by Glen Jordan), and the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap winner Baritone (by Stravinsky).

The third dam of Showcasing is Andaleeb (by Lyphard), she won the Group 3 Lancashire Oaks, she was fourth in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks, and she was the dam of the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Prophecy (by Warning). That speedy filly is, in turn, responsible for the triple Australian Group 1 star Foreteller (by Dansili), for Group 2 Prix de Sandringham winner Modern Look (by Zamindar), and for two daughters that have made an impact at stud.

Stakes-winning sprinter Arabesque (by Zafonic) is one of them, and in addition to Showcasing and the blacktype-placed fillies Bouvardia (by Oasis Dream) and Tendu (by Oasis Dream), she is also the dam of Camacho (by Danehill). He won the Listed Sandy Lane Stakes, was runner-up in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes, and his 11 stakes-winning progeny include pattern scorers Green Door (dam by Pips Pride), My Catch (dam by Barathea) and Puff (by Most Welcome) as well as Group 1-placed dual listed race heroine Winning Express (dam by Open Forum). Camacho is at Yeomanstown Stud.

The other one of Prophecy's notable daughters is Destined (by Danehill), dam of the Group 1 South African Derby runner-up Galileo's Destiny (by Galileo) and of the excellent filly Fix (by Iffraaj) whose trio of Group 2 wins are complemented by her runners-up spot in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby and her third place finish in the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas.

Showcasing's Group/Grade 1-winning male relatives are all geldings, but he and his talented half-brother are achieving good results at stud, and with the start he has made to his career it looks a shade of odds-on that he will get his first winner at the highest level before the year is out. In the long term, he promises to become a good source of talented sprinters and milers.

SHOWCASING (GB) – b.2007 – Oasis Dream – Arabesque, 2 wins inc Gimcrack Stakes (Gr2), 2nd Duke of York Stakes (Gr2), 3rd Middle Park Stakes (Gr1). Sire in England & New Zealand. First foals in 2012. 13 SW inc PRIZE EXHIBIT (Gr2), QUIET REFLECTION (Gr2), SHOWBOY (Gr2), TOOCOOLFORSCHOOL (Gr2), CAORUNN (Gr3), CAPPELLA SANSEVERO (Gr3), CONSELICE (Gr3), CYLINDER BEACH (Gr3), TASLEET (Gr3), ACCIPITER, HARDLINE, MAXIMUM AURELIUS, RAGHU, Cavallucci (Gr2), Dream Destination (Gr3), Fame Seeker (Gr3), Kasseopia (Gr3), La Mouline (Gr3), Showmeamoneyhoney (Gr3), etc.