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Juddmonte announce death of successful sire due to illness.
Juddmonte Farms announced the death of successful sire Dansili (Danehill), who died at his birthplace, Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket. He was 25.
Bred by Juddmonte Farms he was the first foal out of the Listed winner Hasili, who went on to become a Blue Hen of considerable note as the dam of six consecutive Graded stakes winners including five individual Group or Grade One winners. Dansili, not a Group One winner himself, became one of the leading British-based sires and broodmare sires of his generation.
Trained in France by André Fabre, Dansili won his first and only race as a two-year-old, and his racecourse debut at three, making him a leading contender for the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (Gr 1, 1600m) in 1999. He finished second in that race and ran four more times that season, winning at Group Three level and twice placing in Group Ones.
A tough and consistent campaigner, Dansili returned for a four-year-old season in which he added another Group Three victory to his record and a Group Two win and placed four further times at the highest level, including running second Giant's Causeway (Storm Cat) in the Sussex Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at Goodwood and third in the Breeders' Cup Mile (Gr 1, 8f), beaten by a neck and a nose, the fastest closing quarter in Breeders' Cup history. Soon afterwards, Dansili was returned to his birthplace at Banstead Manor Stud to start a new chapter as a stallion.
Dansili went on to sire 22 Group One winners, starting at a fee of £8,000 and rising to a peak of £100,000 thanks to some outstanding horses such as Flintshire, Harbinger, Rail Link, Proviso, Queen's Trust, Dank and The Fugue; and was Champion Sire in France in 2006. He was also an exceptional broodmare sire of the likes of Nezwaah, Cliffs Of Moher, as well as Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 1m4f) heroine Chicquita, Time Test, Snow Sky, Agent Murphy, Astaire and Juddmonte stallion Expert Eye. He was pensioned from stud duties in 2018 at the age of 22. His influence will be felt at Juddmonte for many years to come through his daughters in the broodmare band and via current Juddmonte stallion Bated Breath, whose career has closely echoed that of his sire to date.
Simon Mockridge, General Manager (UK) said: "As a racehorse he was durable, genuine, consistent and expertly handled by André Fabre throughout his career. Although he deserved a Group One victory on the racecourse, having been placed in six, that somehow always managed to evade him. During his 17 years at stud he played an intrinsic role alongside Oasis Dream in establishing the reputation of the Juddmonte roster. A truly wonderful, reliable, and uncomplicated character as a stallion he was a firm favourite of the Stallion Team and Juddmonte as a whole. He will be greatly missed."
