Blue hen Scandinavia dies at 25
Blue hen Scandinavia dies at 25
One of Australia’s most prolific broodmares, Scandinavia (Snippets), has died at the age of 25, it was announced yesterday.
Scandinavia’s owner, breeder Rob Crabtree, announced her death through Aushorse, with the matriarch leaving behind a family that has come to sit at the forefront of the Australian racing and breeding industries.
“You never forget your first. I had a couple of good horses before Scandinavia and a few since, but in my opinion she’s changed the landscape of Australian breeding: a ‘blue hen’ by any definition,” Crabtree told Aushorse. “She’s a Group winner in her own right, she produced Group winners, her daughters have produced Group winners and her granddaughters are now producing Group winners.”
Crabtree purchased Scandinavia’s dam, Song Of Norway (Vain), from David Hains in 1994 for $40,000, in foal to Snippets. Song Of Norway was unraced and hardly had a pedigree page littered with black type: her third foal Russian Tea Room (Raise A Cup) had won the Rancher Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at Caulfield in 1992 and her half-sister Song Of Kingston (Bletchingly) had produced dual Group 1 placegetter Muirfield Village (Exit Five B), but it was still hardly an inspiring pedigree on paper.
However, Crabtree saw something in Song Of Norway and decided to invest, with her Snippets filly arriving in November, 1994.
“She (Song of Norway) had just the three foals for me, but I put her in foal to Western Symphony after Scandinavia was born and she produced the Sydney stakes winner, Midnight Sun,” Crabtree said.
“I decided to race Scandinavia in partnership with John Sadler and he trained her to win a Blue Diamond Prelude at two and the Group 2 QTC Cup, but she was also Group 1-placed four times in the Salinger, Goodwood, Lightning and Newmarket.
“Scandinavia was an even better racehorse than her record suggests – she was beaten a whisker in the Salinger behind 12-time stakes winner, Flavour, and was less than a head away when third to an absolute flying machine, General Nediym, in the Newmarket.”
While she was a terrific racehorse, she was an even better broodmare. She produced 13 foals, with 10 making it to the racetrack. Eight of them were winners; the two that didn’t win have created black type families of their own.
Her first foal Danavia (Danehill) was city-placed from four starts. She produced five foals; among them was stakes winner Iconic (Bel Esprit), as well as classy filly Sistonic (Bel Esprit), who produced the four-time winner Seatonic (Sebring). Another of her daughters, Hypatia (Distant Music), has produced two five-time winners in Bold Kingston (Your Song) and Believing (Bel Esprit).
It was Scandinavia’s second foal, though, that would really cement her legacy. Helsinge (Desert Sun) was unraced and was sold at the 2005 Inglis Broodmare Sale for $115,000.
Helsinge produced eight foals, but none could match her first: the almighty Black Caviar (Bel Esprit), who won all 25 of her starts – including 15 Group 1 wins – before retiring to the breeding barn herself, where she has produced two winners in Oscietra (Exceed And Excel) and Prince Of Caviar (Sebring).
Helsinge’s second foal, the colt Moshe (Bel Esprit), was a winner of three of his five starts, also producing a stakes winner in Moshki. He now stands at stud in Indonesia.
The third foal for Helsinge was another colt right out of the box. All Too Hard (Casino Prince) was a four-time Group 1 winner, including in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), before retiring to Vinery Stud. He has produced 16 stakes winners, most notably Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) conqueror Alligator Blood.
Among Helsinge’s other foals is Naturale (Bel Esprit), who produced this season’s Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) placegetter Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon).
Having produced Danavia and Helsinge, Scandinavia was finally able to produce a Group 1 winner to avenge her narrow defeats on the racetrack with her next foal being Group 1 winner Magnus (Flying Spur). Magnus raced in the Crabtree red and white checks and performed admirably on the world stage, hitting the placings in Group 1 races in Singapore and the UK as well as on home soil. His crowning moment came in The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) at Randwick in 2007.
“I’d come so close to winning a Group 1 on too many occasions and Magnus had finished second to Miss Andretti – in track record time – in the Lightning Stakes, then he ran third in the Oakleigh Plate,” Crabtree said. “Winning a Group 1 was proving to be fairly elusive, but then Magnus came out and won the Galaxy in Sydney for Peter Moody and Damien Oliver.
“I stood Magnus at Eliza Park (now Sun Stud), which ironically, is the farm I owned in the 90s, and from there he’s gone on to produce four Group 1 winners, including this year’s Futurity winner, Streets of Avalon, and 40 other stakes horses who between them have won $46 million.”
Also among Scandinavia’s progeny is Baltics (Fusaichi Pegasus), the granddam of this season’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) runner-up Hanseatic (Street Boss); nine-time winner Ibsen (Bel Esprit); Group 2 winners Wilander (Exceed And Excel) and Scandiva (Fastnet Rock); Listed winner Arctic Flight (Flying Spur); and Group 2 runner-up Lionhearted (Fastnet Rock).
Scandinavia only has one of her foals still racing – a three-year-old named Metro Warrior (Fastnet Rock), currently in training with John Moore in Hong Kong. As Viking Warrior, he was a two-time winner in Victoria. He was her last foal before she was retired from stud duties in 2018.
“What a phenomenal career and truly a legend in her own lifetime,” Crabtree adds. “For my wife, Sylvie, and I, Scandinavia is like one of the family, just as she’s been for her carer, Fiona Melling, who has looked after her from the start.
“Fittingly, Scandinavia is buried in the way of champions: standing up and facing the morning sun.”
Whether Metro Warrior lives up to his pedigree or not, Scandinavia has already made her mark – and will continue to do so in the years to come.