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Perfect Gleam’s second dam, Anne Campbell, produced a pair of Grade 1-winning sons who both finished 2nd in the G1 Kentucky Derby, and she was a Broodmare of the Year. More importantly for our purposes, though, she has also founded a high-class family in Europe (and more specifically, at Ballydoyle/Coolmore) via her daughter Mr. P’s Princess. And one thing that stands out about this family is that it can’t seem to get enough Northern Dancer blood – so with that in mind, we’ve recommended that Perfect Gleam visit War Front’s promising young son Declaration of War in 2018.
Perfect Gleam is sired by the well-bred Perfect Soul, himself a Grade 1 winner on turf and sire of a G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner, and who is a son of the incredibly influential Irish stallion Sadler’s Wells (himself a son of Northern Dancer) out of a daughter of the Triple Crown winner and excellent broodmare sire, Secretariat. Given this high-quality pedigree, Perfect Soul has every right to be an even better broodmare sire than he has been a sire (and he has done well enough to sire a pair of Grade 1 winners with relatively limited support at stud).
Among the other sire sons of Sadler’s Wells is Galileo, currently the leading sire on the planet, who dominates the European stallion list year in and year out, and is a rising star in the broodmare sire ranks, as well.
That both Perfect Soul and Galileo are sons of Sadler’s Wells is noteworthy in the case of Perfect Gleam because Galileo also happens to be the sire of the Group 1-winning full-sisters Misty For Me and Ballydoyle (and their stakes-winning full-sister, Twirl), out of the Storm Cat mare Butterfly Cove – and Butterfly Cove shares her second dam, Anne Campbell, with Perfect Gleam. Storm Cat also happens to be out of a Secretariat mare, just like Perfect Soul, so that’s another pedigree similarity between Perfect Gleam and Misty For Me worth mentioning because, in addition to her four Group 1 victories on the race courses of Europe, Misty For Me also happens to be the dam of three Graded/Group stakes winners from her first three foals, including the War Front-sired pair of Roly Poly and U S Navy Flag.
Nor are those the only two good horses by War Front out of Sadler’s Wells-line mares, with G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hit It a Bomb and his full-sister Brave Anna being two other successful examples of the cross that will be achieved by sending Perfect Gleam to Declaration of War.
Perfect Gleam’s broodmare sire is Halo, and the foal from this mating will be inbred to that son of Hail To Reason 5×3. War Front has had very strong results with mares containing Halo blood, so hopefully doubling up on that here will prove successful as well – which we fully expect, given that inbreeding to Halo, in general, is a positive move.
Of the several sons of War Front now available in the U.S., Declaration of War is probably the most attractive prospect – he was well-rounded as a runner, being a multiple Group 1 winner from a mile to a mile-and-a-quarter, a stakes winner from 2- through 4-years-old, and he finished 3rd in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in his only start on dirt. His first crop ran very well last year as 2-year-olds, with Actress winning a Group 3 over colts in Ireland, Olmedo being named the French champion 2-year-old colt, Irish Territory placing in the G3 With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga as a maiden in a very salty field, and Speed Franco being named a TDN Rising Star off of a 6-length stakes win at Gulfstream. In fact, Speed Franco has come back already in 2018 to take the G3 Dania Beach Stakes. He has received strong support in each of his years at stud, and should have a solid pipeline with which to continue building on his early success.
Physically, this is a great like-to-like match, with both Declaration of War and Perfect Gleam being well-balanced, well-made horses of good size – and hopefully they’ll produce a foal with the same characteristics.
Declaration of War wins the G1 Queen Anne
Declaration of War wins the G1 Juddmonte International
Declaration of War finishes 3rd in his dirt debut in the G1 BC Classic
Speed Franco, by Declaration of War, romps in the Pulpit Stakes
Actress, by Declaration of War, beats colts in the G3 Anglesey
U S Navy Flag wins the G1 Middle Park
Roly Poly wins the G1 Sun Chariot