Mirage Dancer lands Australian Group 1 success to highlight fine family page

On a big weekend for Juddmonte Farms, homebred Mirage Dancer not only provided Frankel with an 11th individual Group 1 winner but also highlighted the massive influence of the Hasili bloodline.

Mirage Dancer raced in Prince Khalid Abdullah's colours when trained by Sir Michael Stoute in Britain but was sold to Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young's yard in August last year. Third in the Caulfield Cup on his first start for the yard, the entire was landing his first Australian win in the Group 1 Heineken Metropolitan at Randwick after a series of fine efforts.

By Frankel, for whom it was a first top-flight scorer in Australia and also had Hungry Heart finish second in the Flight Stakes and Finche third in the Turnbull, Mirage Dancer comes from one of Juddmonte's finest families.

Juddmonte Farms’ Simon Mockridge said: “Frankel only has a very small representative down in Australia, so it is a significant day for him.

A full-sister to Mirage Dancer was born earlier this yearCredit: Juddmonte Farms

“We kept him [Mirage Dancer] in training as a five-year-old, so it’s not that we had lost faith in the horse – we always knew he was capable of winning at this level – but there comes a time where you have to move on.”

“We are incredibly lucky and blessed to have a horse like Frankel retire to stud. He is a stallion for the future.”

Mirage Dancer is out of Heat Haze, a dual Grade 1-winning daughter of the breed-shaping Green Desert and out of the mighty blue hen Hasili, one of the most celebrated producers of the modern era who was the dam of five individual Group or Grade 1 winners.

Hasili died at the age of 27 in 2018 but left an indelible mark upon the breed courtesy of her son Dansili, a stallion at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud and supplier of 20 Group 1 victors including the brilliant Flintshire, Harbinger and The Fugue.

Dansili was placed in five top-level events but Hasili's five following offspring all struck at the highest grade, including Banks Hill, the dam of Ideal World and Romantica, Champs Elysees and Intercontinental.

Hasili (second left) with her daughters (l-r) Banks Hill, Heat Haze and IntercontinentalCredit: Juddmonte

Heat Haze herself has proven a high-class producer with four individual winners from six offspring to have made the track. Mirage Dancer was her first Group 1-winning progeny but he had struck at Group 3 and Listed level in Britain, while Forge and Radiator, both sired by Dubawi, were placed in stakes company.

Heat Haze produced a Frankel filly this year and visited the dual world champion's studmate Expert Eye this time around.

Read more

Amelie Lemercier of Haras de Bouquetot on life at the outstanding Normandy farm

Arc outsider among Pattern-class performers as 22 lots up for grabs at Arc Sale

Mighty Gurkha the one to beat but Tom Clover hoping to sprinkle some Fairy Dust