The timing of Acclamation (GB) finally disappearing from the scene is no miniature concern, just as his most notable offspring, Dim Angel (Ire), is about to be crowned champion sire in Great Britain and Ireland.
As the mare sale began at Tattersalls last Monday, news broke that Acclamation, who had officially retired only a few weeks earlier, had died aged 25. Already insured, it will leave a gap at Rathbarry Stud, where he Was in office for 21 consecutive seasons.
Paul Cashman, whose slow father Liam bought Acclamation to stand at Rathbarry, said: “Back then sires like that could get going a little easier. Would they start now? That is the question we must ask ourselves. Because everything is so polarized, now you almost want a horse winning Group 1 to grab people's attention, but back then, and we're talking about 20 years ago, more horses had a chance.
“They bought the horse, the individual and the race record and hoped it would work. As we all saw, this outcross really worked. With many of the lines that are now there, something clicked. Not many horses can be a father to multiple horses, and now he’s making his mark as a broodmare father – he’s doing it in every way he can.”
Royal Applause (GB) is the branch of the Northern Dancer line primarily associated with speed, through the two-year-old champion Try My Best. He in turn sired Queen Anne Stakes winner Waajib (Ire ), whose two Group 1 winners were six-tier specialist Royal Applause and, at the other end of the spectrum, Adelaide Cup winner Apache King (Aus).
Acclamation's dam, Princess Athena (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}), like Royal Applause, was both quick and precocious and won the Queen Mary Stakes for David Elsworth. She was unlucky not to also become the dam of a Royal Ascot winner when Acclamation met Australian sprint monster Choisir (Aus) in 2003 when he finished second in the King's Stand Stakes. At this point he was already a multiple winner. and he finished third behind Oasis Dream (GB) and The Tatling (Ire) in that year's Nunthorpe Stakes before winning consecutive victories in the Starlit and The Tatling (Ire) Diadem Stakes.
Acclamation made his last appearance on the track at the Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin during the international meeting, where just this weekend his highest-rated son, Hong Kong champion Romantic Warrior (Ire), became the first horse to take three wins in the Hong Kong Cup.
Bred in Ireland by Corduff Stud and Timothy Rooney, Romantic Warrior is an outlier in Acclamation's portfolio in that he achieved ten of his Group wins over ten furlongs. However, the six-year-old is as versatile and strong as he is talented and has also won at six, seven and eight furlongs.
Romantic Warrior's legacy will be one of the best Hong Kong-trained horses of contemporary times, having represented the island honorably by winning the Australian Cox Plate and the Yasuda Kinen in Japan. Closer to home, it is Acclamation's stallion sons who have cemented his own position in the pantheon of influential sires.
In addition, the day after Acclamation's death was announced, two of his granddaughters, Vertical Blue (Ire) and Believing (Ire), both by Mehmas (Ire), were sold at Tattersalls for 3.2 million and 3 million gns respectively, after December the previous year sold mare sale when another granddaughter, 1,000 Guineas winner Cachet (Ire), by Aclaim (Ire), fetched 2.2 million gns. And it is one of Acclamation's own daughters, the slow Marsha (Ire), who still holds the sales record for fillies and mares in Europe, having brought 6 million gns in 2017.
In addition to Mehmas and Aclaim, Acclamation's sons Equiano (Fr), Attendu (Fr), Expert Eye (GB), Lilbourne Lad (Ire), Bouttemont (Fr), Johnny Barnes (Ire) and Harbor Watch (Ire) also landed at the stud, but it is by far Dim Angel who has made the biggest impression in this role so far. Mehmas, bred from the same cross with Machiavellian, could still be in contention for that award, but it was Dim Angel from Acclamation's debut crop that first put his sire's name in the spotlight. There could perhaps be no more admirable facilitator of this line than Yeomanstown Stud's gray, who won the Middle Park and Mill Reef Stakes in his only season of racing.
This branch line has a good chance of continuing for quite some time. This year's champion miler Charyn (Ire) is the latest addition to the stallion line at Sumbe, where he will stand alongside another son of Dim Angel, Angel Bleu (Fr) and his grandson Golden Horde (Ire). Darley has Harry Angel (Ire) and another son, Raging Bull (Fr), is in Gainesway, Kentucky.
Other stallions carrying Acclamation's line at stud include Pyledriver (GB), in some respects the most unlikely of middle-distance heroes, but a hero nonetheless. According to the short-lived Harbor Watch, his outstanding record included the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the Coronation Cup, the Hardwicke Stakes, the King Edward VII Stakes and the Great Voltigeur. It will be invigorating to see how he fares at Beeches Stud in Coolmore's National Hunt division, where he covered 109 mares this year.
One could perhaps argue that Acclamation has a better record through his male progeny, but two of his seven Group 1 winners to date are female, with Makarova (GB) recently emulating Marsha and winning the Prix de l'Abbaye at the Arc meeting of Longchamp won.
Money maker! 💰
Romantic Warrior secures HK$22.4 million with the win, overtaking Golden Sixty (HK$167.17 million) as the world record earner in horse racing (HK$177.32 million)… 💙@LONGINES | @mcacajamez | #HKIR pic.twitter.com/I8UBh4yt4M
— HKJC Racing (@HKJC_Racing) December 8, 2024
It will be intriguing to see how My Sister Nat (Fr), the Grade III-winning half-sister to Sottsass (Fr), Shin Emperor (Fr) and Sistercharlie (Ire), fares as a broodmare for Peter Brant's White Birch Farm Croom House Stud's Sweepstake (Ire), a stakes winner from Acclamation's first crop, is already in this role as dam of brothers Broome (Ire) and Broome (Ire) from Australia (UK). well established Point Lonsdale (Ireland) and Diego Velazquez (Ireland) (Frankel {GB}).
Commonwealth Cup winner Eqtidaar (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) was another Group 1 winner out of an Acclamation mare. His half-brother Massaat (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) narrowly missed out on this award when he finished second to Galileo Gold (Ire) in the 2,000 Guineas, following which he won the G2 Hungerford Stakes.
With 24 foals entered this year, Acclamation covered 16 mares in his final lively season this spring. Then there are still some chances to further improve your balance sheet. According to Cashman, the fact that it is so impressive is mainly due to the temperament that he conveyed.
He said: “As we just saw with Romantic Warrior flying the flag again at the weekend, it just shows what Acclamation's offspring are like: they're straightforward, they're tough and they want to win.” A horse's temperament is that half the battle and that's what it puts into its horses. They are very straightforward and wild horses that prevailed and the breeders were convinced of them.”
Cashman continued: “Gay [O’Callaghan, Yeomanstown Stud] broke the mold when he purchased Dim Angel as a two-year-old to serve as a breeding stallion. That wasn't done back then and was semi-frowned upon, but you could see what Gay was getting at because Dim Angel was a very good two-year-old, but there was no racing program back then and that's what you had to do. I have an above-average three-year-old who competes against them older sprinters can compete because they were so battle-tested.
“That Machiavellian line [with Acclamation] It really clicked for Gay and then for Tony and Roger [O’Callaghan, Tally-Ho Stud] It's the same with Mehmas. They are so tough and straightforward, and Mehmas broke the record this year for most two-year-old winners in a season.
“As my father said at the time, Acclamation did us and a lot of people a lot of good. He was good for juvenile mares, getting them running with winners on the board and taking them to modern levels. For a lot of people he was a very commercial horse.”
Jockey James McDonald said of Romantic Warrior on Sunday as his earnings rose to almost £18 million, making him the highest-earning racehorse of all time: “He's the best, forget the rest.” For that one horse alone, Acclamation would have a place in the worthy of history books, but we will also remember the rest, especially those whose sons and daughters continue to contribute to an already unforgettable legacy.
