Kementari emerges as a new star
In pre-pattern race days, Denise’s Joy (1972) proved herself one of the best and toughest fillies and mares of her time, the late T.J. Smith saddling her to capture 10 feature races from 1100 metres to 2500 metres, among them at least four now considered Group One events, the VRC Oaks (2500m), QTC Queensland Oaks (2400m), VRC Turnbull Stakes (2000m) and the VATC Underwood Stakes (2000m) plus the WATC Australian Derby (2400m) in Perth.
At stud Denise’s Joy, the sixth dam of Kementari, became the fountainhead of a phenomenal female line giving us a stream of top class horses, most descending from her QTC Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winning daughter Joie Denise (Danehill) but Kementari goes back to another of Denise’s Joy’s daughters, Joy And Fun (Showdown).
Group One winners tracing to Denise’s Joy are Tuesday Joy (Carnegie), Sunday Joy (Sunday Silence) and her champion daughter More Joyous (More Than Ready), Fenway (High Chaparral), Arlington Road (Danehill) and Joie De Grise (Kenmare) in South Africa while also from her family are Group winners like Don’t Doubt Mamma (Not A Single Doubt) and Risen From Doubt (Not A Single Doubt).
Joy And Fun, Kementari’s fifth dam, has not done too badly with her branch of the family which has yielded Euphoria (Marauding), winner of the AJC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), multiple stakes-winning sire Christmas Tree (Biscay) and stakes winner Jewel In The Crown (Mighty Kingdom), Kementari’s fourth dam.
Bred in the name of Darley and carrying the blue silks of Godolphin, Kementari was on Saturday having only his seventh start to record his first black type victory but he had shown his potential last spring when narrowly beaten by Mighty Boss (Not A Single Doubt) in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
On Saturday in the Eskimo Prince Stakes, he toyed with his rivals, producing a lethal turn of foot in the straight to defeat the talented Siege Of Quebec (Fastnet Rock) by two and three-quarter lengths with the strong finishing Brave Song (Your Song) close up in third place. Race time was 1:09.69 with the last 600m covered in 33.73.
A near black colt, very much a son of his champion father Lonhro (Octagonal), Kementari is now likely to be aimed at the ATC Royal Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) on 10 March and there is also the possibility he could later take on older horses in the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) on 7 April.
Kementari is the latest of 72 stakes winners worldwide for Lonhro, whose Coolmore-based champion son Pierro has established himself among the leading younger sires now standing in Australia. Darley already has two sons of Lonhro in its stallion roster, Denman and Exosphere, with two more, Impending and now Kementari, waiting in the wings to further secure the future of the Zabeel (Sir Tristram) male line.
Darley-bred and raced Kementari’s dam Yavanna (Redoute’s Choice), a winner in Melbourne whose first foal was the talented Telperion (Street Cry) who showed much promise as a two-year-old, winning the ATC Lonhro Plate (Listed, 1100m), finishing second in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and fourth behind Capitalist (Written Tycoon) in the 2016 ATC Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m). Telperion did not train on at three years and last spring was retired to Westbury Stud in New Zealand, standing at the bargain fee of NZ $5,000 (plus GST).
Yavanna has an unraced two-year-old colt named Isilmo (Sepoy), a yearling filly by Reset (Zabeel), a weanling colt by Street Boss (Street Cry) and last season was again covered by Lonhro.
Kementari’s emergence as a major winner continues the great success his father Lonhro has achieved when mated with mares by Danehill (Danzig) and his sons, a cross responsible for the likes of Bounding, Benfica, Pinwheel, Wawail, Obsequious, Messene, Heatherly, Souchez, Deer Valley, Generalife and others.
Wild Queen (Loup Sauvage), the second dam of Kementari, was purchased by Darley as a yearling and proved to have high level ability, winning 10 races from 1200 metres to 1600 metres, including five stakes events to earn $557,150.
Crowning Jewel (Bletchingly), Wild Queen’s mother, won in Sydney before foaling seven winners of which three won black type races, Wild Queen, Cumbria (Lake Coniston) and So Gorgeous (Brief Truce) is herself the dam of Group One winner Sterling City (Nadeem) and of multiple stakes winner Tipungwuti (Fusaichi Pegasus) so there is not a weak link in Kementari’s tail female line.
Kementari is an outcross to four generations with the closest duplications in his well constructed pedigree appearing in his fifth generation via a 5f x 5f double of Nureyev (Northern Dancer) and a 5f x 5m double of Never Bend (Nasrullah). Apart from Northern Dancer (Nearctic), other names duplicated in Kementari’s background include Sir Ivor (Sir Gaylord), Relic (War Relic), Forli (Aristophanes), Native Dancer (Polynesian) and Nasrullah (Nearco).