Before the anniversary of his Imperius race track in the Gr. 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on day 2 of the championships in Randwick in 2014 it is appropriate to announce Dundel (NZ) (High Chaparral) as the most recent introduction in the Up-to-date Zealand racetrack.
As a three-year-old, Dundel returned to the scene of his spring champion Stakes and the Australian derby victories and brought his group 1 to six with the victory in the race, which has become a synonym for the Sydney car carnival.
The career of the High Chaparral Colts had started in Up-to-date Zealand with Cambridge coach Murray Baker, who had prepared Dundels Granddam (NZ) two decades earlier, to become the three-year Stut foal from 1991-92 with a record of the Up-to-date Zealand Oaks.
Baker is a member of the Up-to-date Zealand Racing Hall of Fame, in recognition of a career, which included several primeerships and the status as the most successful Up-to-date Zealand coach of the Australian Group One winner.
Baker Dundel puts the top of the class of all these high -quality horses that contribute to his balance sheet.
“He is the best thing I trained,” said Baker when I discussed Dundel's survey on the Hall of Fame. “He had this all-round capacity that the best horses marked-he was talented and could do everything.
“When he went to Ellerlie at the first start of a two-year autumn 1200-year, I didn't think he could win. The rail was outside, he was pulled wide and spoke to James (McDonald) before the race. I said to him that he had the job in front of him, so see what he can do.
“Well, he closed home, which noticed that we had something special in our hands. After we had put it on with his breeder Murray Andersen and the rest of the owner group, we decided that he had so much ability to have a gap with Aussie.”
These efforts grew with every start, starting with a win in Wyong in August, another in Canterbury and then his first victory in the Gr. 3 Gloaming inserts at Randwick. Dundel's first victory in group 1 came to Randwick near Randwick in early October, but he won in two starts in the carnival in Melbourne.
Back in Sydney, his autumn campaign started with a fourth placement in the size. 2 Hobartville Stakes, followed by successive victories in the Gr. 1 Randwick Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and Australian Derby.
“No three-year-old had done that-they had already done these four races of the Sydney Group One-and we decided to try the weight of the weight in Queen Elizabeth,” Baker continued. “He ran very well, but was beaten by a reliable man who had come from Europe with a very good shape. So there was no shame.”
As a spring four-year-old, the time negotiations returned to John Messaras Arrowfield Stud before the interest in the valuable whole, a focus was on a victory in Group 1 in Melbourne.
This came in a Underwood missions in Caulfield, which was occupied with stars, which describes both Baker and Andersen and the most memorable of his 10 victories.
“I think there were about 13 group 1 winners in the field,” Baker recalled. “That included the undefeated mares -Tlantic jewel, but it put them away.
“He was not entirely right for the Cox plate, but he did that in autumn with his Queen Elizabeth performance in the autumn -it was simply the perfect way to write off.”
In the run-up to his farewell appearance, Dundel was in all three of his tasks of group 1, the Chipping Norton Stakes, Ranvet Stakes and BMW (Tancred) Stakes and although it had to fall back from 2400 to 2000 meters, on a two-week back-up, days from the Queen Elizabeth Stakes Baker, which was returned for a peak performance.
“He was a horse that they didn't have to do much between races, he was naturally fit and very tidy. The only quick work he did between the BMW and Queen Elizabeth was a 600-meter sprint on Tuesday.
“Emily Murphy traveled with him throughout his career and knew him from the inside out. After driving him in this work and he had time to believe, we knew that we had exactly right, and so it proved it.”
Baker may be excused whether Dundel would have been successfully driven beyond his four -year season, but inevitably comes to the same conclusion to accept the decision to draw it into studies.
“Although he was a stallion foal, he was always a stunning horse with which he could work. Maybe his best years were still before him, but he had done more than enough and the results have proven since then that it was the right one.”
Dundel was driven in each of his 10 victories by James McDonald, who played such a role in the horse that built him in Sydney Jockey ranks.
The Hall of Famer plays Dundel about the individual horses that are being created as Sydney's dominant jockey by Kiwi-Bred-Vny Ellegant (NZ) (ZED) (ZED) (ZED), Champion Sprinter Nature Strip and Godolphin star Anamoe.
During his career, Dundel 2012-13 acquired the Newsealand Champion 3yo title, the Champion Middle District Male in Australia and Up-to-date Zealand The following year and the title of the top horse of the year at the Up-to-date Zealand thoroughbred prices in 2014. At the global thoroughbred ranking in 2013, he was rated in 2013 with 121 and 122 in 2014.
Dundel depicted in his paddock at Arrowfield Stud (photo John Faras).
Murray Andersen, who withdrew the Dundel in collaboration with his wife Jo from a line that returns to some of the best bloodlines in Hawkes Bay, continues to enjoy the joys and advantages of his owner in what he understandably describes as a horse of a life.
“He was so much fun for us, from the beginning and now with what he is doing in Stud through his descendants and the next generation,” says Andersen in relation to Dundel's expansion of the sons Castelvecchio and Super Seth as well as his advent as broodmare.
“And now to believe it is being included in the Hall of Fame – it won't get any better!”
The Andersens will be grateful to the founders Sir Patrick Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan in Cambridge in Cambridge, their share in the Stutfalen, which they breeded in the partnership of Zabeel, from Zabel, who, as Stareel (NZ), in the partnership of Dundel, breeding partnership in partnership.
“We had intended to run them together, but she never got to the races when she suffered a pelvic injury in a coupling accident. When Patrick and Justine reduced their numbers, they offered us their share of starle.
“This is how we led a zabel mare to breed, but we were really just hobby breeders and it was a large deal for us to spend $ 17,500 for a service for high chaparral. After this pairing, she produced Dundel, they have to say that it was the best money we have ever spent.”
The Andersens were on course in Randwick last Saturday to experience a Dundel Wallach that they bred, and still partially, Fukubana (Dundel), third place in the A-1 million-dollar championship, and the Castelvecchio Studfo foals Aeliana (NZ) (Castelvecchio) their male competitors in the Australian derby.
The Dundel Wave, John Messara, the director of Arrowfield Stud, also drives from the time when he made the pioneering decision to invest in the horse.
“When we announced Arrowfield's takeover in Dundel in September 2013, I said that Dundel has Guineas Pace, Derby Stina and Allround class,” said Messara. “As a Danehill-free grandson of Sadlers Wells and Zabeel, he is an outstanding genetic match for a enormous part of the Australian Brutare population, including our own mares of Redoute's Choice, Flying Spur, Snitzel and not a single doubt.
“His victory of Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2014 for 2014 is still one of the most memorable in Arrowfield's 40-year-old history-like history of his electrifying speed, its impergative classes and his insatiable fighting spirit. He only increased our trust in him and our determination to give him the best possible opportunity.
“You can say with certainty that Dundel fulfilled all of our hopes as the leading Australian father of 36 Stakes winners, including eight at the one Level, Derby and Guineas winner group, and two of them from Snitzel and Route's choice.
“We will always be grateful to Dundel's owners, especially his breeders Murray and Jo Andersen that we allow ourselves and to consolidate Arrowfield's longstanding admiration and respect for the Up-to-date Zealand thoroughbred industry.
The innovation, which is induced in the Up-to-date Zealand Renn Hall of Fame 2025, is planned for Sunday, May 11th in Hamilton. Further information is available from [email protected].
-Ennis Ryan
