Last week brought news of the death of Australian star Lonhro at 25. A male-line descendant of Secretariat's half brother Sir Gaylord, via Sir Ivor, Sir Tristram, Zabeel, and Octagonal, Lonhro was Australia's 2004 Horse of the Year. He won 26 of 35 starts from 2 to 5, 24 of those graded stakes and 11 grade 1s. Lonhro was also an extremely successful stallion, earning a champion Australian sire title for the 2011-2012 season, and being represented by 86 Southern Hemisphere stakes winners and 13 grade 1 winners. He also stood three shuttle seasons at Darley at Jonabell in Kentucky, getting 11 stakes winners, six graded, among them Gronkowski, who chased home Justify in the Belmont Stakes (G1), and graded stakes winners Isotherm —who now stands at Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind.; Holding Gold; Cardsharp; War Heroine; Shakhimat; and Nootka Sound.
We had another reminder of Lonhro this past weekend, when his Australian-bred granddaughter Uncorked gained her first black-type win with a decisive victory in the Royal Heroine Stakes (G3T) at Santa Anita Park. An AU$130,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling, Uncorked showed only relatively modest form in her own country. Her sole win in nine starts came in a maiden at Sale, a country track around 2 1/2 hours from Melbourne. Her only black-type attempt came on her final Australian outing and saw her finish 13th in the 10-furlong Ethereal Stakes (G3).
Beginning the North American phase of her career with Brittany Russell on the mid-Atlantic circuit, Uncorked immediately showed improved form. Beaten just a neck in an allowance at Delaware Park on her United States debut last May, Uncorked captured a pair of allowances at Monmouth Park and took second and third in similar events at Laurel Park and Delaware Park in her next four starts. Fading to sixth after pressing the pace in the nine-furlong Athenia Stakes, Uncorked gained her first black type after closing well to take third in the Forever Together Stakes at Aqueduct in November. Switched to the West Coast and the barn of Phil D'Amato, Uncorked was making her first start of the year in the Royal Heroine. Reserved off the pace early by Frankie Dettori, she slipped through on the rail turning for home and powered clear to score by two lengths.
Uncorked is the only U.S. performer to date by Lonhro's son Pierro. The best runner to represent his sire, Pierro was recognized as 2012 champion Australian 2-year-old and also as the top 3-year-old colt at sprint distances on the 2013 World Thoroughbred Rankings. Never out of the first three in 14 starts, of which he won 11, Pierro gained grade 1 victories in the Golden Slipper (G1), Sires' Produce Stakes (G1), Champagne Stakes (G1), George Ryder Stakes (G1), and Canterbury Stakes (G1). Pierro is sire of 38 stakes winners from his first seven crops, 25 graded, including Australian champion female sprinter Arcadia Queen (AUS), and other grade 1 winners Regal Power, Shadow Hero, Pierata, Levendi, and Pinot.
Uncorked is out of Piaf, a winner in New Zealand, and a half sister to Axiom, the dam of two graded stakes winners, including New Zealand champion 3-year-old Xtravagant, and two other mares who produced stakes winners. Piaf is a daughter of shuttle stallion Iffraaj (by the Gone West horse Zafonic), and Arletty, who was successful in four graded stakes in Australia and New Zealand. Arletty is a full sister to the graded stakes-winning Firetaine and half sister to River Century, dam of New Zealand Oaks (G1) heroine Legs, West Australian Derby (G1) victor Guy No, and to Fifteen Reasons, the dam of champion New Zealand 3-year-old Sixty Seconds.
This is a female line that has been in Australia and New Zealand since the importation of the mare Teppo from England in 1910. She is ancestress of several outstanding Australian performers, including the great runners Ajax and Hall Mark, and Luskin Star, champion 2- and 3-year-old in Australia in the late 1970s, and whose fifth dam, Mit Muzzle, is seventh dam of Uncorked.
Uncorked is bred on the Pierro/Gone West cross that has also produced Australian graded winner Roy Had Enough and graded-placed winner Aeecee Tong De from only 17 starters. Interestingly, Lonhro's dam, Shadea, is by a son of Mr. Prospector out of a mare by First Consul, whose dam, Bold Consort, is a Bold Ruler/Princequillo cross, and Gone West is by Mr. Prospector out of a mare by Secretariat, another Bold Ruler/Princequillo cross. This is a version of the wider Nasrullah/Princequillo cross that appears three times in the pedigree through the similarly bred Mill Reef and Riverman. Uncorked's male line ancestor Sir Gaylord is bred on a cross of Nasrullah's three-quarters brother Royal Charger over Princequillo, and oddly enough the pedigree contains sisters to both Nasrullah and Royal Charger.
