Million Ways

If you've been following the blog, you'll know that I love Vermilion. You may also know that I had a Vermilion kid that died only hours before it's debut (the only grey I'd ever fallen in love with), and the replacement I had in mind was so oversubscribed, I had no chance of getting it and went for an alternative strategy with Shadai for the coming season. Although I'd said I wasn't buying any more Carrot Club horses, Million Ways at least gives me a Vermillion runner.

Courtesy Carrot Club

As we said in the Monsoon Trough profile, Vermilion has just started his career as a sire, and with him winning so many big dirt races for the Sunday Thoroughbred Club (including the Japan Cup Dirt, Teio Sho, and JBC Classic no less than three times), if he's a good father, his services will cost an awful lot more than they do at the moment...

Vermilion gets his speed from a combination of El Condor Pasa blood, who was his sire, and Sunday Silence, who acted as damsire. El Condor Pasa 
we covered in Miracle Rouge's profile (a Sadler's Wells cross, and our most recent winner), while Sunday Silence is one of the most well-known US Triple Crown winners of them all, having a huge influence on Japanese bloodlines.

On the dam side, despite being unraced herself, Simple The Best has a good record for producing winners, and adds yet more Northern Dancer blood into the mix in this case. The damsire, Thunder Gulch, won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, only just missing out on a US Triple Crown, so this is another reason to be hopeful that we've got a potential NAR star on our hands here.