Breeders with an eye to the long-term might like to consider this fact: Red Ransom is easily the most successful British-based Broodmare Sires of Stakes winners so far this year. With four individual winners of five Stakes races worldwide to date in 2008, he comprehensively outscores any other stallion currently standing in Britain. This might not seem a huge total, but compared to all other British-based stallions it is enormous: no other British-based sire has more than one Stakes-winning maternal grandchild to his credit so far this year.
Of course, we are still early in the year. So could this statistic be an anomaly? Far from it: a look back at the table for 2007 sees Red Ransom occupying a similarly dominant position then. Last year, Red Ransom mares were represented by ten individual Stakes winners worldwide. These horses won 18 Stakes races in 2007 between them. One has then to go a long way farther down the table to find the next stallions currently based in Britain: his fellow Darley sires Green Desert and Cadeaux Genereux share second place with seven individual Stakes-winning maternal grandchildren each. There is then a similarly big gap below this respected pair before one comes to the next ones on this list, with no other sire currently at stud in Britain having had more than four individual Stakes winners among his daughters’ offspring throughout 2007.
Red Ransom’s stud profile is a truly international one. His Stakes winners this year have come in America and New Zealand (his G2-winning grandson there, Red Ruler, having the distinction of being the only Stakes winner ever sired by Viking Ruler), while last year they were split among four countries: America, Ireland, France and Italy. It is unsurprising that he has yet to establish a profile as a broodmare sire in the UK, having only transferred here from the States in 2003, but that surely is only a matter of time. In fact, it would be no surprise to see him responsible for a G1-winning sprinter in Britain during 2008, with US Ranger – a son of Danzig from the Red Ransom mare My Annette – in the notebooks of many shrewd judges as a potential sprint champion. US Ranger’s impressive victories in 2007 – a four-length romp in the Prix Djebel in the spring and an eye-catching three-and-a-half-length success in the Waterford Testimonial Stakes at the Curragh in the autumn after his transferral to Ireland – made him one of Red Ransom’s ten Stakes-winning maternal grandchildren last year, although possibly the best-known to a European audience was Oaks d’Italia heroine Fashion Statement, a filly by Rainbow Quest from Red Ransom’s daughter Shabby Chic. In America last year, perhaps the pick of the winners produced by Red Ransom mares were triple Stakes winner Jennie R, a daughter of Awesome Again from the Red Ransom mare Petrouchka, and dual Stakes winner Chatain, a son of Forest Wildcat from Red Ransom’s daughter Roujoleur. Chatain has already added further lustre to his record in 2008 by posting a 2.5-length success in the G3 Hal’s Hope Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
Of the above-mentioned Stakes winners, all are by Northern Dancer-line stallions except for Fashion Statement. As Red Ransom is devoid of Northern Dancer blood (although his grand-dam Christmas Wind, the dam of four-time G1 winner Winter’s Tale, was a daughter of Northern Dancer’s sire Nearctic) it is unsurprising that his daughters have proved very suitable mates for Northern Dancer-line stallions, just as he himself has proved an excellent choice for owners of mares from the world’s most prolific sire-line. He has, incidentally, also proved very well matched with the Mr Prospector line, his most recent Stakes-winning maternal grandchild being Polonius, a four-length winner of the Pasadena Stakes at Santa Anita on 15 March, who is a son of the Unbridled stallion Broken Vow.
Red Ransom himself hails from the Hail To Reason sire-line, which has proved so influential worldwide over the past four decades, largely through Red Ransom’s sire Roberto, the son of Hail To Reason who edged out subsequent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Rheingold in the Derby in 1972 prior to stunning the racing world by becoming the only horse ever to defeat the great Brigadier Gerard when smashing the track record in the Benson And Hedges Gold Cup (now Juddmonte International) at York. Another son of Hail To Reason who has had a huge effect on the development of the modern-day thoroughbred is Halo, sire of Japan’s all-time great patriarch Sunday Silence.
Roberto has proved to be hugely influential, not only as a sire but also as a sire of sires. Dynaformer, Kris S, Silver Hawk and Lear Fan were all top-class racehorses who established themselves among the elite division of sires in the States, while Al Mufti did likewise in South Africa, as did Brian’s Time in Japan. Furthermore, At Talaq and Touching Wood both proved themselves excellent sires down under. Roberto has never been similarly well represented in Britain and, although Robellino was a consistently successful stallion - with the likes of 2,000 Guineas winner Mister Baileys, Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Classic Park, Gold Cup winner Royal Rebel and Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Rebelline to his credit - Red Ransom has to be regarded as the best opportunity that British breeders have ever had of tapping into this sireline.
Although Red Ransom has only stood in Britain since 2003, he has been a familiar name to British racegoers for a lot longer than that, courtesy initially of the fact that his first crop contained Sri Pekan, brilliant winner of the Coventry Stakes, Richmond Stakes and Champagne Stakes in 1994. Since then, Red Ransom has established himself as a truly international sire with a host of top-class winners all around the world.
Perhaps Red Ransom’s best son has been the ill-fated Electrocutionist, outstanding winner of three G1 races including the 2006 Dubai World Cup and the previous year’s Juddmonte International. Equally familiar, however, to British racegoers should be his Oaks-winning daughter Casual Look, and the brilliant Intikhab, whose outstanding eight-length win for Godolphin in the 1998 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot was rated by Timeform as the performance of the season. The ultra-consistent Ekraar, a G1 winner in Italy of the Gran Premio del Jockey Club, endeared himself to audiences worldwide by making the frame in G1 races in England, France, Dubai and Hong Kong, while a similarly consistent performer was Red Clubs, a genuine competitor in the top sprints for three consecutive seasons who ensured that his racing career ended on a high when he landed a G1 victory last autumn in the Haydock Park Sprint Cup.
Red Ransom has tasted success at the Breeders’ Cup – courtesy of the win of his daughter Perfect Sting in the Filly And Mare Turf in 2000 - while another G1 winner for him in the States has been Del Mar Oaks heroine Bail Out Becky. His other top-level winners around the world include German G1 hero Ransom O’War, as well as Charge Forward (a G1-winning sprinter in Sydney) and Red Dazzler in Australia. Charge Forward is now a popular young stallion at Arrowfield, while Red Ransom’s G2-winning son Domesday is a similarly exciting young sire. The latest Australian star for Red Ransom appears to be Blue Diamond runner-up All American, who confirmed himself as one of the leaders of his generation with a strong win on 29 March in the G3 Skyline Stakes at Randwick. This was actually the second leg of a big Australasian double following the G3 win in New Zealand of Valpolicella – and he nearly made it a treble when Arlington finished a close third in the G1 Randwick Guineas.
Red Ransom is clearly one of the main reasons why the Hail To Reason dynasty continues to thrive, and he provides British breeders with a special opportunity to use a sire with a proven record at the top-level all around the world.
