Saturday, December 19, 2009

Sunline’s Children Do Her Proud

sunline54a

In New Zealand today in Race 6 at Te Rapa, Sunstrike & Sun Ruler, the two oldest progeny of the late, great New Zealand mare Sunline, ran an exciting quinella. Sun Ruler prevailed over his big sister Sunstrike, winning by a nose.

Out of sentiment for Sunline, I follow her children’s careers so I listened to the race today, and brother and sister both ran a great race fighting out the finish. An unusual situation to see siblings race against each other, let alone the offspring of such a hallowed champion.

Though neither Sunstrike or Sun Ruler have shown anywhere near the freakish ability of their famous dam, they obviously have some talent. Sunstrike , now 5 is by Rock of Gibralter and Sun Ruler, 4 years old, is by Zabeel . They have two unraced filly siblings Sunsett (Hussonet) and Sunalta (Rock of Gibralter) who in time may keep the Sunline flag flying either on the racetrack or in the breeding barn.

I’m curious to see how Sun Ruler acquits himself from now on, as the Zabeel factor in his breeding indicates that he will be better over longer races than the 1200 metres today.

2 comments:

Valerie Grash said...

Anne,

That's fantastic! Glad you mentioned it, so I searched YouTube and, of course, someone posted the race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFMPOtHVgWo

Happy Holidays!

Val

Anne S said...

Happy festive season to you as well Val and thanks for the link to the YouTube as I have only listened to the race, not viewed it.

An interesting race on Boxing Day -Newcastle (NSW) race 5, where the pure white Zabeel filly The Opera House is to run her maiden race. She's a three-quarter sister to the great Might & Power. Very curious to see how she goes.