Jacira - Spanish Queen

Amidst the depressed state of Spanish racing, the career of Jacira has been a ray of light and a reason for joy for the racing fans of this country. Jacira is an attractive and a bit masculine looking 5 year old bay mare bred in France by A. Bozo and the Haras de Mezeray who last August capped her career with a victory in the top weight for age of the Spanish turf, the 12f Copa de Oro de San Sebastián. At the moment of writing she has just made her US debut in the G2 Win Star Galaxy in Keeneland.

Before the Copa de Oro she had run 24 times and has won 9 and has been placed 6, one of them a second place in a G3 race in Italy. All her 10 victories have been achieved in San Sebastián, making her the winningest horse in the nearly 90 years history of this track, located in the North of Spain.

Jacira is by the very good French miler Sillery out of Vol Sauvage, by Always Fair out of Vallée des Bois, by Vaguely Noble out of Tyrant’s Vale by Tyrant out of Belle Valléé, by Val de Loir. Within the first 6 removes of her pedigree the following duplications are found: Northern Dancer 5m x 4m; Nasrullah 4m x 6m x 6m; Menow 5f x 6m; and Nearco 5m x 6m x 5f. A quite male oriented pedigree, as not unusually happens with good racemares. We must go one step back, and bring into consideration the seventh remove, to find what Clive Harper has defined as filly factors: three daughters of Hyperion, and two daughters each of Nearco, Bull Dog and Prince Bio.

The basic cross, if such an expression makes any sense, of Jacira’s pedigree is Blushing Groom (sire of Sillery) / Danzig (sire of Always Fair). Tha same combination can be found in such splendid racehorses as Bank’s Hill, Brahms, Tranquility Lake and two of the best European performers of 2004, Derby winner North Light multiple G1 winner Rakti.

It is interesting to look at the pedigrees of some of this horses in relation with the genealogy of Jacira. This is what I have seen:

	Jacira has Blushing Groom, Danzig, another line of Northern Dancer, Buckpasser, Bold Ruler, Aureole (Hyperion/Donatello cross), Big Game and Vieux Manoir.
	Bank’s Hill has Danzig, Buckpasser, Blushing Groom, plus Northern Dancer and High Hat (Hyperion/Donatello cross).
	North Light has Danzig, Buckpasser, Blushing Groom, Alycidon (Donatello/Hyperion cross) and Vieux Manoir.
	And, finally, Rakti’s pedigree contains Danzig, Buckpasser, Bold Ruler, Blushing Groom, Alycidon and Big Game.

Perhaps could be interesting to bear in mind these coincidences when planning matings involving such important influences as Danehill and Polish Precedent, both Danzig/Buckpasser crosses.

Good racehorse as he was, Sillery has not proved a particularly successful sire. His most noteworthy son is Silic (out of Balletomane, by Sadler’s Wells), winner of the Breeders Cup Mile G1 and currently a sire in the United States. There are no great similaritites between the pedigrees of Jacira and Silic but they do not lack common factors. Such as:

	Their respective dams descend in tail male line fron Northern Dancer.
	Jacira has one line each of Fair Trial, Turn To and Nasrullah. Silic has 3 lines of Fair Trial, 2 of Nasrullah and 1 of Turn To.
	Jacira has one daughter of Nearco and Silic has two of them.

Other good performer by Sillery is the listed winner and classic placed Clety (out of La Bucaille, by Labus). Looking at his pedigree of his dam we find that like Vol Sauvage (Jacira’s dam), it has lines of Donatello, Fair Trial, Pharos and Djebel. Buit the most interesting thing is that he carries a line of Vieux Manoir through Mourne (a horse also found in Sillery). Mourne is out of a Nashrullah mare, so this makes him quite similarly bred to Tyrant’s Vale, Jacira’s third dam, who is by Tyrant (grandson of Nasrullah) out of a granddaughter of Vieux Manoir.

And, in my opinión, it is around these names that we find the key to Jacira’s pedigree. Sillery’s third dam. Saratoga, is a daughter of the French bred Snob, a son of Mourne (by Vieux Manoir – Ballynash, by Nashrullah) out of Senones, by Prince Bio. As stated in the previous paragraph, Tyrant’s Vale is by Tyrant (by Bold Ruler, by Nashrullah), out of Belle Vallée. This mare is a daughter of Val de Loir (by Vieux Manoir) out of Beautiful, by Fastnet out of Beauty Prize, by Prince Bio.

Two more comments to finish:

Jacira’s dam line has not produced any outstanding horse, but certainly it is not lacking in very useful runners. One of them is the multiple winner and listed placed Versainville, a son of Vallee des Bois, Jacira’s second dam. Versainville’s sire is Groom Dancer, a horse bred, like Sillery, on the Blushing Groom/Lyphard cross.

Jacira’s connections have said that once her racing days are over she could be mated with Hawk Wing. I have no idea about the reasons for this choice, but it certainly looks attractive from the point of view of pedigrees, since Hawk Wing brings Mr. Prospector (who has combined well with Blushing Groom and Danzig, for instance in Brahms), another daughter of Buckpasser, a third line of Northern Dancer (in this case through Nijinsky, who combines so well with Blushing Groom) and, above all, a fascinating male line of Val de Loir thanks to the Prix du Jockey Club winner Val de L’Orne, sire of La Lorgnette, Hawk Wing’s dam.