The toughness and durability appears to have translated to Dane Shadows dam Slight Chance, although she no doubt benefited being from a daughter of Centaine, very good all round sire from use in New Zealand. Bred in Australia, Centaine is by Century and from Rainbeam, a great grandaughter of Melbourne Cup winner Rainbird. A half-sister to the Peter Pan Melbourne Cup second Peter, Rainbird went back to Lady Trenton, a Sydney Cup winner by another noted Musket racehorse and sire, Trenton, and from Black Swan, a daughter of the Sir Hercules product Yattendon.

Dane Shadows dam Slight Chance was one of the best females of her time in Australia, winning 12 races, coming home second in seven and earning $1,746,756. Her wins included six in Group 1 races, the VRC Victoria Oaks, AJC Flight Stakes, STC Ansett Australia Stakes, QTC Queensland Oaks, Sires Produce Stakes and Castlemaine Stakes. At three, she was runner up in the AJC Oaks-Gr.1, a close third in the MVRC Cox Plate-Gr.1 and a 1.7 lengths fifth when a 15-8 favourite in the AJC Australian Derby-Gr.1.

Her dam Lady Aloof, a daughter of the Riverman sire Sir Godfrey (FR), was also a tough racemare, winning 12 races up to 1600m in New Zealand, including a Listed event. She was a half-sister to Lady Bardell, a mare who went to Centaine and produced the dam of good Famous Star (GB) performer Star of Gold. He won nine races in New Zealand including the Wellington Telegraph Stakes-Gr.1.

Both Dane Shadow and his Group 3 winning three-quarter Danewin brother Salgado were bred and raced by Graeme Mapp, owner of what appears the oldest active stud farm in Australia, that is Hobartville,one which is on the western end of town of Richmond and which runs down to the Hawkesbury River. Mapp also bred at Hobartville the 1988 Bletchingly Golden Slipper winner Star Watch. It was a feat which Mapp wasnt far off emulating in 2004 with Dane Shadow, the seventh placegetter in a Slipper in which the first four home were Danzero, Charge Forward, Alinghi and Fastnet Rock.

A sturdy 16.0 hands bay, Dane Shadow did not win in four outings at two, but showed plenty of ability with seconds in the STC Silver Slipper Stakes-Gr.2 (13-8 favourite, beaten a head) and STC Todman Slipper Trial-Gr.2 (to Charge Forward) and a third against older horses in the STC Missile Stakes-Gr.3 won by the dazzling Spark of Life. At three, the only other year he raced, he won the Tattersalls Ming Dynasty Handicap-Gr.3 (1400m) at Randwick, beat Dance Hero when runner up to Fastnet Rock in the Up and Coming Stakes-Gr.2 (1200m) at Warwick Farm, got third money in the Newcastle Spring Stakes-Gr.3 (1600m) and was fourth in the George Main Stakes-Gr.1 at Randwick taken out by Grand Armee.

His successes on the racetrack and his projected achievement at a high level from his use at the Kitchwin Hills stud, one on which he locates through arrangement with strong supporter Graeme Mapp, can spearhead a new rewarding era for Hobartville, a stud which back in the second half of the 1880s was host to many mares influencedby Sir Hercules.

Among sires used there at that time were Grand Flaneur, a son of the Sir Hercules Sydney Cup winner Yattendon who is the only unbeaten winner of the Melbourne Cup, and initially Trenton, a son of Musket. Trentons dam Flora McIvor carried the same name as her grandam and was from a Sir Hercules mare. At the age of 15 after being a champion sire in Australia, Trenton was sent to England, where an Oaks winning grandaughter, Rosedrop, produced English Triple Classic Crown winner and world breed shaper Gainsborough.

Story courtesy of Brian Russell Bloodstock Media Services