Pedigree analysis: Europeans stand out in Juvenile Fillies Turf

Given European shippers’ past history of dominance in Breeders’ Cup races contested on turf, those handicapping Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies turf must give primary consideration to the quartet of 2-year-old fillies making the trip across the pond to the Santa Anita starting gate. Several members of the group have already won or placed in stakes overseas, and sport pedigrees highly slanted toward turf success.

The best pedigree among the European-bred contingent belongs to Osaila, who arrives in the U.S. with three wins in six starts, including the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes. The Danehill Dancer filly is out of the unraced mare Mennetou, a daughter of English 2000 Guineas winner Entrepreneur. Mennetou is also the dam of Irish Group 3 winner Obama Rule.

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Osaila’s second dam is Detroit, by Riverman, who won the 1980 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as a 3-year-old and produced four stakes winners, including 1994 Arc winner Carnegie. The extended female line spans the globe in its collection of turf standouts, highlighted by breed-shaping sire Zabeel, Irish 2000 Guineas winner Roderic O’Connor, English champion filly Durtal, and Grade 1 winner Filago.

Among the other European shippers, Qualify is a Group 3-winning daughter of the very good Coolmore shuttle sire Fastnet Rock. The filly is from the female family of English Derby and Arc winner Workforce and Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up Sea Moon.

Breeders’ Cup contender Sivoliere, who has won three of five races in France including a listed stakes, is from the second crop of European Horse of the Year Sea the Stars is and a great-granddaughter of U.S. Hall of Famer Serena’s Song. Sea the Stars is out of 1993 Arc winner Urban Sea, an elite broodmare who produced leading international sire Galileo and six other stakes winners. Gary Stevens has been named to ride Sivoliere in his first start since undergoing knee replacement surgery.

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Three Chimneys Farm’s Rainha Da Bateria, last-out winner of the Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland, is from one of the best international female families of the late 20th century. By Broken Vow, and out of the stakes-winning Dixieland Band mare Amelia, the filly is a half-sibling to Grade 3 turf winners Kindergarden Kid and Assateague and to 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up He’s Had Enough. The filly’s third dam is blue hen Courtly Dee, the foundation of a female line that has produced luminaries such as champion filly Althea, Grade 1 winner and sire Arch, leading European sire Green Desert, and current Breeders’ Cup Classic contender Bayern, among many others.

Another well-bred U.S. contender is Grade 2-placed Isabella Sings, an Eskendereya filly from the family of U.S. turf champion Singspiel and prominent grass sire Rahy. Del Mar Debutante winner and 7-2 morning-line favorite Sunset Glow, by Exchange Rate, does not contain a lot of turf black type through her first four dams, but she is out of a Dynaformer mare and ran second in a 21-horse field when contesting the Group 3 Albany Stakes last summer at Royal Ascot for leading juvenile conditioner Wesley Ward.