We posted a story over the weekend regarding the outstanding matriarch Best in Show and it happened to be the weekend that another great mare in Lassie Dear stepped up and showed her wares!
The "Lassie Dear Weekend" started when Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor's Duke of Marmalade (Ire) (TrueNicks A+) made it four group Is in a row in Ascot's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Attempting the mile and a half for the first time, the 4-6 favorite looked in dire trouble when Papal Bull swept by him a furlong from home, but Duke of Marmalade rallied under Johnny Murtagh to prove his absolute class and provide Aiden O'Brien and Ballydoyle with a 14th success at this level in 2008. Quite possibly the last group I winner for his illustrious sire Danehill, Duke of Marmalade is out of the Kingmambo (TrueNicks, SRO) mare Love Me True, a stakes-placed granddaughter of Lassie Dear, making him one of the most appealing stallion prospects in the Northern Hemisphere.
One wonders with Coolmore already having the likes of Oratorio and Dylan Thomas retiring to their Fethard base in recent years if they will try their luck with "the Duke" in North America and retire him to their base at Ashford where his female pedigree would make him a very palatable play for that market.
Kingmambo appears as the sire of the royally-bred Mambo in Seattle (TrueNicks A) who looked defeated but dug in to win the restricted Henry Walton Stakes at Saratoga on Sunday. A son of Kingmambo out of Weekend in Seattle, by Seattle Slew, it was the third straight win for Mambo in Seattle, whose dam is a full sister to A.P. Indy (TrueNicks, SRO), a half-sibling to Summer Squall and Eavesdropper, and also a granddaughter of Lassie Dear.
It is interesting to note that Kingmambo has another stakes winner out of a Seattle Slew mare in the shape of the grade I winner Lemon Drop Kid (TrueNicks, SRO) who is out of a Seattle Slew daughter of Lassie Dear! Kingmambo also appeared as the broodmare sire of an impressive first time out winner at Saratoga on Sunday in the shape of Miss Ocean City. The daughter of A.P. Indy's champion son Mineshaft (TrueNicks, SRO) (thus bred in reverse cross to Mambo in Seattle), Miss Ocean City is not yet a stakes winner, having only broken her maiden, but is rated an A+ by TrueNicks as Kingmambo is already the broodmare sire of three stakes winners, one by A.P. Indy and two more by his brilliant son Old Trieste.
We will wait to see if Miss Ocean City, who is a half-sister to the classy Woodlander, can parlay her initial success into stakes performance. Given that she is an A+ rated filly we would like to bet so.