Dashing Blade
| Dashing Blade | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Elegant Air |
| Grandsire | Shirley Heights |
| Dam | Sharp Castan |
| Damsire | Sharpen Up |
| Sex | Stallion |
| Foaled | 1 March 1987 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | Littleton Stud |
| Owner | Jeff Smith |
| Trainer | Ian Balding |
| Record | 11: 6-1-1 |
| Earnings | £416,568 |
| Major wins | |
|
National Stakes (1989) Dewhurst Stakes (1989) Prix Eugene Adam (1990) Gran Premio d'Italia (1990) |
|
| Awards | |
| Leading sire in Germany (1998) | |
Dashing Blade (1 March 1987 – August 2013) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire who won major races in Ireland, England, France and Italy. As a two-year-old in 1989 he was one of the best colts of his generation in Europe winning four of his five races including the biggest races for juveniles in Ireland (the National Stakes) and England (the Dewhurst Stakes). In the following year he showed modesrate form in England in spring but went on to win the Prix Eugene Adam in France and the Gran Premio d'Italia in Milan.
Dashing Blade was a bay horse with a narrow white blaze and three white socks bred by his owner, Jeff Smith's Littleton Stud. He was from the first crop of foals sired by Elegant Air whose wins included the Horris Hill Stakes, Westbury Stakes and Tattersalls Gold Cup. He made a promising start to his stud career but dies in 1990 at the age of nine. Dashing Blade's dam Sharp Castan won one of her seven races and finished third in the 1979 Fillies' Mile.
Dashing Blade was trained throughout his racing career by Ian Balding at Kingsclere in Hampshire and was ridden in all but two of his races by John Matthias. Like many of Balding's trainees, she usually raced in a white sheepskin noseband. Dashing Blade was not an easy horse to train: before he appeared in a race he broke loose on the gallops, jumped a gate and ran free for several miles before being recovered.
Dashing Blade made his racecourse debut in the six furlong Berkshire Maiden Stakes on 14 June at Newbury Racecourse. Starting the 6/5 favourite he took the lead a furlong out and won by three lengths from Osario. Two weeks later, in a minor race at Salisbury Racecourse the colt started at odds of 1/6 and won "comfortably" by four lengths from Star Hill. Dashing Blade was then moved up in class and distance for the Group Three Vintage Stakes over seven furlongs at Goodwood Racecourse in which he was matched against the undefeated favourite Be My Chief. Starting at odds of 5/2 he tracked the favourite but was unable to quicken in the straight and finished third of the five runners. Despite his defeat at Goodwood the colt was moved up in class again as he was sent to Ireland to contest the Group One National Stakes over seven furlongs at the Curragh on 9 September. Book The Band (runner-up in the Gimcrack Stakes) started favourite with Dashing Blade next in the betting on 3/1. The other eight runners included Go And Go, Missionary Ridge (later to win the Gallinule Stakes) and the filly Wedding Bouquet (third in the Phoenix Stakes). After tracking the outsider Smokey Native, Dashing Blade went to the front approaching the final furlong and came out best in a closely contested finish, beating Wedding Bouquet by three quarters of a length with Book The Band and Pictorial just behind in third and fourth.
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