Following a short but aggressive illness, champion sire Dansili has died shortly before his 26th birthday at his birthplace, Banstead Manor Stud, in Newmarket, England, Juddmonte announced with great sadness on Wednesday.
Bred by Juddmonte Farms, the son of Danehill was the first foal out of the Listed stakes winner Hasili, a daughter of Kahyasi 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 1 winners. Dansili may not have won his Group 1, but he made up for this by becoming 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 2-year-old, and his racecourse debut at 3, making him a leading contender for the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas) in 1999. Fifteen runners went to post – one of the highest numbers in the race’s history – and Dansili found only Sendawar too good. He ran four more times that season, winning the Group 3 Prix Messidor and placing in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois (won by Dubai Millennium) and Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp.
A tough and consistent campaigner, Dansili returned for a 4-year-old season in which he won both the Group 3 Prix Edmond Blanc and Group 2 Prix du Muguet and placed four additional times at the highest level, including running second to the “Iron Horse,” Giant’s Causeway, in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and third to War Chant and North East Bound in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile 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 1 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 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.
Dansili’s 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) shares the following tribute: “As a racehorse he was durable, genuine, consistent and expertly handled by André Fabre throughout his career. Although he deserved a Group 1 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.”
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