NORTH LIGHT

This article takes a look at the breeding of 2004 Vodafone Derby winner North Light giving a little insight - 6 key ingredients - into the success of his pedigree ;

• Lady Josephine
• Gainsborough
• Hyperion
• Blenheim/His Grace
• Goody Two-Shoes
• Native Dancer

Lady Josephine - North Light as with his sire Danehill before him, has a strong influence of the great Lady Josephine dam line driving his pedigree, through the exact same Mahmoud/Fair Trial cross. Furthermore, North Light carries additional lines of the Lady Josephine dam line only intensifying her part in his success.

Gainsborough - this legendary stallion gets much of the credit for North Light success in the Derby. With Gainsborough contributing so strongly to Danehill's pedigree through the duplication of Natalma combined with a additional carries through Hyperion, Artist Proof a second line of Mahmoud, this theme continues on in North Light with his dam Sought Out carrying multiple crosses of Gainsborough - from Herbager carrying Gainsborough right the way down to North Light's 6th dam in tail Coventry Belle's sire the highly influential Hyperion being sired by Gainsborough.

Hyperion - already contributing strongly by carrying the Gainsborough influence, Hyperion can also be seen to be playing a dual role, with Danehill carrying Hyperion, he offers up a 6x7x7 cross to this stallion. Additionally, Sought Out already carrying a strong influence for the Hyperion aka the highly influential Selene family, only intensifying this fact even more. Not only does Sought Out carry a duplication of Hyperion in turn Selene, but Sought Out also carries the line of Mossborough aka the Selene tail line, giving further weight to the pedigree of North Light. Again just as with Gainsborough similarly Selene is a driving force firstly in Danehill through the cross of Pharamond and Hyperion and it is simply continued on in North Light.

Blenheim/His Grace - with Danehill carrying multiple lines of Blenheim through Mahmoud, the addition of Blenheim's full blood brother His Grace in Sought Out only fuses the pedigree of North Light even more.

Goody Two-Shoes – being the tail dam line of North Light, Goody Two-Shoes can also be seen to strengthen the importance of the previously mentioned Blenheim/His Grace factor, as Blenheim and His Grace's dam Malva carries Charles O'Malley aka the Goody Two-Shoes dam line. With Danehill carrying two lines of Mahmoud this intensifies North Light's tail dam line.

Side note - with Goody Two-Shoes being the tail dam line of Nureyev, Sadler's Wells, El Condor Pasa etc there in lies a huge part of North Light's success in the derby.

Native Dancer - last but not least this champion quickly found in both sire and dam only continues to add further weight to Danehill being a very nice sire choice for Sought Out.