It can have no bearing on his ability as a racehorse and sire as it is but a grain of sand in his oceanof genes, but the rising sire star Dane Shadow goes back maternally to a mare who has a lot of colonial history in her immediate pedigree.

Lady Fanny, the 11th dam of Dane Shadow, the foundation sire at the Brown family"s young quality Kitchwin Hills stud and commercial agistment complex along the Isis River near Gundy east of Scone in the Hunter Valley, is inbred 2x2 to one of the giants of colonial breeding, the 1843 NSW bred Sir Hercules. Such close inbreeding is rarely found in modern breeding, but often occured in the 1800s because of the much smaller pool of horses available. In addition to her close double of Sir Hercules, Lady Fanny was inbred 3x3x4 to his sire, the imported Cap-A-Pie. The latter sired a lot of good racehorses, but none more significant as a sire than his unraced son Sir Hercules, one bred at Bungarribee Stud at Doonside, now a prominent western Sydney suburb but then farm land, by a Charles Smith.

Deceased at the age of 45 only two years after Sir Hercules was born, Smith rose up from being transported to Australia for 14 years for picking pockets to become a leading businessman and big forcein early racing and breeding. Repetition of horse names prevalent at that time leads to some confusion, for instance the distinguished Australian sire Sir Hercules was out of an imported mare, Paraguay, by the influential Irish Sir Hercules. In addition, according to volume 1 of Australian Stud Book, there was an 1872 foaled colt named Sir Hercules who was by a son of champion sire Sir Hercules, AJC St Leger winner Cossack, and from a Sir Hercules mare, another 2x2 inbreeding.

The second Sir Hercules was a brother to Cossack, a horse who carried the same name as his sire. There could be some doubt about the veracity of these Stud Book entries as the original Cossack was foaled in 1847 and his purported sons Cossack and Sir Hercules in 1871 and 1872 respectively. Record keeping wasn"t all that reliable in the early days of breeding.

The original noteworthy Australian Sir Hercules was one of only two named foals from Paraguay, the other being a colt by Whalebone, a good racehorse who also sired some good winners. The Irish Sir Hercules was by a more celebrated Whalebone, one whose tentacles spread around the world. One of his descendants who was one of the big influences of last century, was Blandford, and the Whalebone mare Camel is in the immortal Carbine"s pedigree half a dozen times in six generations. For one, his sire Musket was a representative of the Ireland Whalebone male line.

Considering the shuffling around he endured, the Australian champion sire Sir Hercules had a remarkable acheivement at stud. He started off at Carcoar in central western NSW, had a stint in New Zealand, returned to NSW to stand at Grafton before winding up at Bylong where he died in 1866. Among his best offspring were The Barb, arguable a greater racehorse than Carbine, Yattendon, and Barbelle, winner between them of four of the first five runnings of the Sydney Cup. Two of them fell to The Barb, the second time with 10 stone 8 pounds, the equivalent of just over 67kg. It was by far the biggest weight carried to victory in the history of the event.

The Black Demon, as The Barb was revered, won 15 of his 23 starts with the other successes including the 1866 Melbourne Cup (at three), AJC Australian Derby and Metropolitan Handicap. The Melbourne Cup result was controversial as the official third placegetter Falcon, a son of the before mentioned Sir Hercules sire Cossack and an unknown mare, was not placed by the judges, but they were overuled by the stewards. Although he got some handy gallopers, an author of a book Racing Reminiscences published in the late 1800s described The Barb as a distinct failure as a sire. His two years younger sister Barbarelle was a mare with an iron constitution. Besides winning the Sydney Cup, and also the Doncaster Handicap, she contested the Melbourne Cup four times with the best effort being a fourth at the fourth attempt.

A younger brother, Barbarian, was handy performer who included among his efforts seconds in the AJC All-Aged Stakes and St Leger. He was only a moderate sire, but supplied Zulu, one of only two to carry less than six stone to victory in the Melbourne Cup when successful in 1881. Barbarian is one of the two doses of Sir Hercules in the far reaches of Dane Shadow"s maternal breeding. A daughter of Barbarian and a Sir Hercules mare, the eleventh dam, Lady Fanny, has been the mainstay in the family. Her grandaughter Helen Portland won the Auckland GN Oaks and produced Bonny Helen, a New Zealand Oaks winner and third dam of the mighty New Zealand performer Mainbrace, a winner of 23 races, including 17 in succession.

Reremoana, a sister to the eighth dam of Dane Shadow, was another tough, superior stakes performer in New Zealand in the family, winning 24 races.

Story courtesy of Brian Russell Bloodstock Media Service.