Photo: Race Images
A decade after their ultimate experience as part-owners of Dundeel, Hawke’s Bay couple Mike and Sharyn Craig are getting another bite of the cherry with a descendant of the champion galloper.
On Saturday at Otaki, Itza Charmdeel became the second stakes winner produced by a daughter of Dundeel when he scored a last-stride win in the Listed Ryder Stakes. With a record of two wins from three late-season starts, the Roger James/Robert Wellwood-trained gelding shapes as a likely contender for higher honours as a three-year-old in the new season.
Dundeel, New Zealand-trained by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman but competing in Australia for all but the first of his 19 starts, was the best of his generation. His 10 wins included six Group Ones – a clean sweep of Sydney’s Spring Champion Stakes, Randwick Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and Australian Derby as well as the Underwood Stakes in Melbourne and in his final memorable appearance, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick.
By then Arrowfield Stud had secured the showy son of High Chaparral for stud duties, pulling together a partnership that included the original group headed by his breeders Murray and Jo Andersen. Murray’s sister Sharon Craig and her husband Mike also retained a breeding interest in Dundeel and since the weekend have enjoyed reflecting on where their association with the 2014 New Zealand Horse of the Year has taken them.
“Winning the Ryder Stakes wasn’t quite on the same level as what Dundeel achieved, but it was still special given the connection,” Sharyn Craig told RaceForm. “The way he did it after looking no chance on the turn was so exciting!”
Dundeel went to stud in 2014 and Whatadeel, a member of the illustrious Shantha’s Choice line and now the dam of Itza Charmdeel, was a member of his first crop. Another from that first crop was Cutadeel, bred by a partnership comprising the Andersens and the Craigs, and in early 2018 he became Dundeel’s first winner with a debut success as a two-year-old.
Cutadeel was to win five of his 12 New Zealand starts, including the first middle-distance lead-up to the Derby, the Listed Three-Year-Old Salver at Ellerslie, but he was unable to reproduce that form in the classic. Whatadeel never raced, but as the dam already of a stakes winner, her secondary career is off to a perfect start.
Itza Charmdeel is the result of her maiden mating to Charm Spirit in what was the second-last of his six seasons shuttling to Windsor Park Stud. Saturday’s win took Charm Spirit’s tally of stakes winners to 17, a list that has been boosted significantly by the star European sprinter Shaquille, whose record as a three-year-old this northern summer includes wins in the Gr. 1 Royal Ascot Commonwealth Cup and Gr. 1 Newmarket July Cup.
Itza Charmdeel was offered in Book 1 at last year’s National Yearling Sale, but after being passed at $60,000 the Craigs organised a partnership to race him.
“We had a get-together after the sales back at Waimarama and a group of friends who had been in another horse came in on him as well,” Sharyn Craig added. “After the start he’s made to his career, everyone’s having a great time.”
Whatadeel’s broodmare career has continued in the Hunter Valley, based at Cannon Hayes Stud where she has produced a now two-year-old colt by Shaala and most recently a filly by The Autumn Sun, who she is due to foal to again this spring.
The Shaala colt was sold as a yearling for A$80,000 to Victorian trainer Matt Cumani, while the filly by The Autumn Sun changed hands as a weanling for A$60,000 as a potential pinhooker for Marc and Sarah Devcich of Cambridge’s Henley Park.
“We kept 10 per cent of the Shaala colt, which we’re happy about, and since the weekend we’ve heard from Sarah and Marc to say how thrilled they are to have the half-sister – and why wouldn’t they be?” Mike Craig said.
“It’s great for us as far as making the mare, when you think that she didn’t make it as a racehorse and we had to basically start from scratch. So to get a two-year-old stakes win with her first foal is huge, it really sets her up.”
As well as the obvious blood connection between Itza Charmdeel and the champion galloper, Craig also recognises physical and behavioural similarities.
“At Otaki I could see him getting around the parade ring just like Dundeel used to – slightly on the go but still in control – and he’s even got that bit of colour in his tail that Dundeel leaves.”
