With the passage of time, it’s easy to forget that back in 2007 Encosta de Lago received a late call-up to join the Coolmore roster in Ireland.
The breeding season was well underway when the soon to be crowned Australian Champion sire boarded a plane in Sydney on the 20th of March.
The rushed departure was due to the hugely popular first season stallion George Washington failing to get his mares in foal, so Encosta de Lago was recruited to ease the workload on the new boy Holy Roman Emperor who was fresh off a wonderful season on the track at two.
So, Encosta de Lago was always going to cover a very limited book.
He did OK with the Group III winner Empowering and the US black-type winner Qushchu and the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak runner-up Miss Lago among his best.
Another winner for Encosta de Lago in Europe was the Richard Fahey-trained Pandoro De Lago (IRE) whose only win in seven starts came when she bolted up by seven lengths in a 10-furlong maiden at Newcastle.
Considering her bloodlines would be valued more south of the equator than north, there was a degree of inevitability that Pandoro de Lago (IRE) would find her way to Australia.
She has plenty to recommend on the dams side as well.
A half-sister to Group III winner Marbush (Linamix) and dual Listed winner Sublimity (Selkirk), Pandoro De Lago (IRE) is out of Fig Tree Drive, a daughter of that wonderful sire of broodmares Miswaki. Fig Tree Drive was a Newbury winning daughter of the Nijinsky mare Rose O’Riley who is a sister to the top-class mare De La Rose.
Trained by Woody Stevens for Henryk de Kwiatkowski, De La Rose won 11 of her 26 stats including the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby and was honoured as the U.S. Champion Female Turf Horse in 1981. She became the dam of the NZ Based stallion Conquistarose (USA).
Purchased out of the Glenlogan Park draft at the 2013 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale for $85,000, Pandoro De Lago (IRE) has found a home at Goldin Farm in South Australia.
Her first foal is the promising Sepoy gelding Sacred Rebel.
A $100,000 Magic Millions purchase for Raffles Racing, Sacred Rebel has only made a handful of starts for Kiwi trainer Tony Pike. A first-up winner at Te Rapa, Sacred Rebel made a successful Australian debut at the Sunshine Coast on June 10 after a break of 35 weeks.
He will line up the QTIS 3-Y-O Plate over 1350 metres at Doomben on Saturday, however, he is not our ‘Best On Breeding’.
That dubious honour goes to Sacred Rebel’s two-year-old half-brother Poised To Strike who will make his second career start in a 2yo handicap over 1250 metres at Morphettville.
Trained by Hayes, Hayes and Dabernig, Poised To Strike made a very pleasing career debut when a fast-finishing second to Unfair Dismissal over 1000 metres on the same track back on June 9.
Retained to race by his breeder Goldin Farm, Poised To Strike is a son of the very promising Dubawi stallion Akeed Mofeed (GB) (pictured ).
The Hong Kong Cup winner has made a bright start to his stud career with three winners to date including last weeks impressive Morphettville winner Assertive Play.
Additionally, Akeed Mofeed (GB) is the sire of the Caulfield winner Sunset Watch and Morphettville winner Heart Conquered who are both trained by Team Hawkes who are huge fans of the Akeed Mofeed (GB) breed.
Hopefully, this will translate to Akeed Mofeed (GB) receiving more support at Goldin Farm in 2018 as he covered just 32 mares last spring.
