With last season's Golden Slipper winner, Crystal Lily returning to racing, it is a good time to have a look at her pedigree. Portions of this blog appeared in The Sportsman.
Crystal Lily is by Stratum, a son of Redoute’s Choice. Stratum won the 2005 Golden Slipper beating the fillies Fashions Afield and Media. Crystal Lily is from the first crop of the stallion, and he produced 150 live foals that season. Interestingly, Crystal Lily is his first, and to date only Stakes winner having previously won the Blue Diamond Prelude for Fillies, and the Sweet Embrace. Stratum was out of a Luskin Star mare called Bourgeois who was unraced. His second dam was the stakes winning Vain mare, Brave New World. If we look at the pedigree of Stratum, we see that the only duplication within six generations was that of Star Kingdom appearing 6mx4m interestingly through the tail male lines of Canny Lad, the damsire of Redoute’s Choice, and the tail male line of Luskin Star, Stratum’s own damsire.
The filly is out of a Snippets mare called Crystal Snip. Crystal Snip has already produced Crystal Wit, by Distorted Humor, who won the 2004 Listed Dequetteville Stakes in South Australia. She is, in turn, the dam of the stakes placed Fast Talker, by Fastnet Rock. Another daughter, Crystal Sprite, by Hurricane Sky has produced the good 3yo stakes winner, Carrara, by Elvstroem. In all, Crystal Snip has had eight foals to race, for eight winners, yet rather surprisingly visited the same stallion only once in that time with her first two foals by Hurricane Sky. She returned to Stratum again this season which will be only the second time Crystal Snip has visited the same stallion.
Crystal Snip was out of the Century mare, Crystal Century who was also a 2yo winner. She was another prolific broodmare, producing eight winners from ten named foals including the stakes winners, Crystal Hawk by Amyntor, and Crystal Finale by Hurricane Sky. Crystal Snip’s third dam was the Vain mare, White Flakes who had won eight races. She produced six winners from nine named foals including Snow Gypsy who won fourteen races from 1400m to 3200m. White Flakes was also a full sister to Snowing who won three stakes races in the Flight Stakes, Sandown Guineas, and Newcastle’s Penfolds’ Classic.
Examining the pedigree of Crystal Lily, we see that the filly has a deal of inbreeding within six generations. The closest duplication is Lunchtime 6f x 3m. Lunchtime, another noted speed influence, appears as the sire of Snippets as well as the damsire of Canny Lad in Redoute’s Choice’s pedigree. Vain, perhaps one of our most brilliant influences in many generations, appears 4mx4m through the tail female line of both Crystal Lily’s sire and dam. We also see that Northern Dancer and Natalma appear three times in the first six generations of the pedigree. Northern Dancer appears through Danzig, Nijinsky and the good Queensland based stallion, Grand Chaudiere.
The relatively high level of inbreeding in Crystal Lily’s pedigree is even more interesting when we contrast this with the relatively little inbreeding in the pedigree of her sire, Stratum. For breeders, perhaps this will prove a good strategy when we look back at the successes and failures of Stratum at the end of his career. We should also note of course, that the pedigree is littered with some of the most important speed influences we have seen in many generations of the Australian thoroughbred.
In terms of dosage, we saw that Crystal Lily has a profile that reads [1.41/8.71] [21-7-5-1-0]. No doubt this reflects the early type of speed horse that she has proven to be. Stratum, her sire, also was bred to be an early type, with a dosage profile that read [1.02/5.00] [15-14-12-1-0]. Interestingly we note that both horses had an albeit small contribution in stamina ratings underlining the importance of balancing different characteristics in a pedigree.
There is a very interesting footnote to the pedigree of Crystal Lily. If we trace her family, we see that the great stallion, Ajax appears in her direct female line. Ajax was simply one of our best ever racehorses, winning a total of 32 stakes races. He was able to win as a 2yo and his early successes included the Champagne Stakes and AJC Sires’ Produce. As a 3yo, he went on to win the Caulfield and Rosehill Guineas, but he excelled as an older horse when he continued a long career winning a range of races from the six furlongs of the Newmarket, to the twelve furlongs of the King’s Plate which he won in both 1939 and 1940.
In comparison, Stratum hails from a female family that includes the New Zealand bred Lord, who was also among the true greats of the turf. Lord won 22 stakes races, but did not race as a 2yo like Ajax. Instead, Lord was to prove a quality older horse, winning stakes races from the seven furlongs of the Orr Stakes which he won in both 1959 and 1960, to the twelve furlongs of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes which he also won in consecutive years in 1962 and 1963.
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