Queen's Plate pedigree profile: Shakhimat

Shakhimat

Lonhro–Reggae Rose, by Touch Gold

Shakhimat’s victory in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on April 8 solidified the colt’s place on the Queen’s Plate radar, and gave sire Lonhro one of his biggest North American wins.

Lonhro, Australia’s Horse of the Year in 2004 and leading sire in 2011, shuttled from his native country to Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky. for three Northern Hemisphere breeding seasons, from 2012 to 2014. Shakhimat is part of Lonhro’s first North American crop, which Darley representatives said was a full book before his hooves touched U.S. soil.

Though fairly new to the U.S. scene, Lonhro is a well-proven sire, with 11 crops of racing age, 618 winners, and 38 graded or group stakes winners for combined progeny earnings of more than $64.1 million.

His list of prominent Southern Hemisphere runners includes Australian champion 2-year-old male Pierro, New Zealand champion sprinter Bounding, and Group 1 winners Beaded, Mental, Exosphere, Benfica, and Denman, who himself stood a season in the U.S for Darley.

Not surprisingly, Lonhro’s most successful North American runners have excelled on the turf and all-weather surfaces, led by Grade 3 winner Isotherm and stakes-placed Holding Gold.

Shakhimat is a third-generation product of the Adena Springs breeding program, and is the first winner from two foals to race out of the Touch Gold mare Reggae Rose, who was a multiple allowance winner on the Polytrack at Woodbine.

Reggae Rose is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Celtic New Year and hails from the family of champion turf female Perfect Sting and Grade 3 winner Smart Sting.

–Joe Nevills