Sometimes a feature race result gives us something worth celebrating – like Space Blues win in Sunday’s Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.
It is the first win at Group 1 level for Godolphin’s Space Blues and, judging by the way he accounted for his rivals on Sunday, will not be his last.
What makes Space Blues so interesting is his pedigree. He is the 43rd winner at the highest level for his sire Dubawi and inbred 5×4 to Sunbittern (70 Sea Hawk – Pantoufle).
At first glance this is not necessarily extraordinary however, it is further back that gives this pedigree the extra sizzle.
Sunbittern won her first three races in England for Bruce Hobbs before finishing fourth behind stablemate Jacinth in the 1972 Cheveley Park Stakes on her final start at two.
The promise of that first season evaporated the following year when Sunbittern unseated her rider soon after the start of her second race and then simply refused to race on her fourth, earning the dreaded Timeform squiggle and retirement.
Any ill-feeling breeder Elizabeth Burke may have felt was no doubt forgotten when she delivered High Hawk (Shirley Heights), winner in 1983 of the Ribblesdale and Park Hill Stakes and the Premio Roma for Sheikh Mohammed.
At stud High Hawk left the likes of In The Wings, Morozov and Hunting Hawk, is granddam of The Derby winner High-Rise and the third-dam of Oaks d’Italia winner Zomaradah, the dam of Dubawi.
One of Sunbittern’s daughters High Spirited is the third-dam of Space Blues.
Sunbittern herself is descended from Zariba (1919 Sardanapale – St Lucre), purchased at Deauville as a yearling by Marcel Boussac.
Zariba was quick to repay her owner, winning five races at two, including the Prix Morny at Deauville, dead-heating in the Grand Critérium at Ostend and beating older horses over 1600m in the Prix de la Forêt.
The following season she finished fourth in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches after attempting to lead all the way. She then finished runner-up in the Prix de Diane before being dropped back in trip, proceeding to win the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville, the Prix Jacques le Marois, the Prix Penelope and the Prix Daru, winning 13 of her 27 races.
At stud she left four high-class runners, notably Goya (Tourbillon), Abjer (Asterus) and Corrida (Coronach).
Zariba’s daughter, L’Esperance (Pommern) won the Prix du Calvados at Deauville and the granddam of two Irish Derby winners in Talgo and Fidalgo.
Space Blue’s eighth dam Nafah (1940) is inbred 2×3 to Zariba through Abjer and L’Esperance’s daughter Flower (Pharos).
So the 98 year gap between Space Blues win in the 2020 Prix Maurice de Gheest and that of his ancestress Zariba?
She won the first running of the now Group 1 sprint in 1922.