It could be a case of like mother, like daughter in Sunday’s $500,000 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup.
Alamosa mare House of Cartier is a daughter of the 2012 Auckland Cup winner Shez Sinsational.
House of Cartier, who is among the five central districts-trained Cup runners, has been a Group III winner and was Group I-placed in the Australasian Oaks, in Adelaide, as a three-year-old.
She ran fifth in a Group I 1600m at Otaki at her last start but her three previous runs had been over a middle distance, and she was runner-up in both the Trentham Stakes and Marton Cup. The six-year-old won the Feilding Cup last spring and finished a respectable fifth in the weight-for-age Livamol Classic at Hastings, another race her dam won.
Shez Sinsational was a high-class mare and won three Group I weight-for-age races, as well as an Auckland Cup. She was also a Group II winner in Australia and earned more than $1.4m in stakes.
House of Cartier is raced by Bill Gleeson and Peter Gillespie, who will have two Cup contenders on Sunday, as they are also part-owners of leading prospect Lincoln King.
Nineteen mares have won the Auckland Cup in the past 50 years and while most have had a mixed record as broodmares, at least two others have left horses who ran in an Auckland Cup.
Dual Auckland Cup winner Prize Lady is the dam of the Dragon Storm, who was unplaced in the 2020 Auckland Cup before winning the New Zealand Cup later in the year, and the 1971 Auckland Cup winner Artifice left the good staying mare Joyarty.
Joyarty, who had her last race in an Auckland Cup, ran fourth in a Wellington Cup and won four stakes races, but earned greater fame as the dam of the 1989 Melbourne Cup winner Tawrrific.
It is obviously rare for quality racemares to leave horses who can emulate their major wins, but it can happen and at the highest level. The 1980 Arc de Triomphe winner Detroit left the 1994 winner Carnegie and the 1993 Arc winner Urban Sea is the dam of the 2009 winner Sea The Stars.
Urban Sea has had an extraordinary impact in the northern hemisphere as a broodmare. From nine foals to race, she left eight stakes winners including two Epsom Derby winners – Galileo and Sea The Stars - and two other Group I winners. Galileo has been the dominant sire in Europe for years and Sea The Stars has also been an influential sire, with 16 Group I winners to date.