KERILLA, a winner at Newcastle on August 14 and at Warwick Farm on September 1, is one of the closest inbred horses currently in racing, being by a Danehill sire, Danroad, and from a mare by another of his sons in Flying Spur. This is a two by three dose of the one sire and is one generation closer than the breeding that produced recent Victorian winner Luckyi’mbarefoot, a son of the Redoute’s Choice sire Undoubtedly and another Flying Spur mare. The only way to get closer inbreeding to Danehill now would be to put a son over one of his daughters.
Bred by Westbury Stud, raised in New Zealand and sold at their yearling sales for $21,000, but foaled in Australia when the dam Love Dust visited Refuse to Bend at Darley, Hunter Valley, Kerilla races out of the John O’Shea stables at Randwick for a big team of owners headed by Victorian based leading syndicators OTI Racing. One of the OTI directors is former test cricketer Simon O’Donnell. Kerilla has now raced on 13 occasions for four wins and a fourth in the Group 2 Yallambee at Morphettville. Her dam, a winner in Melbourne at two, is from one of the greatest families Patrick Hogan has at his Cambridge stud in New Zealand. She is from Bon Cher, a Sir Tristram South Australian Oaks second who is a three-quarter sister-in-blood to Group1 winners Grosvenor and National Gallery and close relation to Shadea, the dam of Lonhro.
Based at Highview in New Zealand, Kerilla’s sire Danroad was an Australian bred performer in that country, winning six of 17 starts. Four of the wins were at two and included the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes. He finished second in the Group1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes. Danroad is another good horse bred by John Singleton’s Strawberry Hill Stud and is from an American bred daughter of Australian Horse of the Year and world class international performer Strawberry Road. Singleton was one of Strawberry Road’s owners when he campaigned in Europe.
He has also met with success using another Strawberry Road mare, American winner Milva. She is the dam of All American, a Red Ransom $1.2million earner retired to Arrowfield stud this year, and More Strawberries, a More Than Ready 3-year-old filly who took out the Group 2 Furious Stakes at Randwick on Saturday. Second at two in the STC Magic Night Stakes and third in the Golden Slipper, she is trained for John Singleton by Gai Waterhouse. Unfortunately, Milva has missed in five of nine seasons and had a foal die shortly after birth. More Strawberries is inbred 4x3 to Mr Prospector, one of the doses derived from her grandam, his France Group1 juvenile Tersa. Also, Milva’s half-brother Rock Hard Ten, was a leading performer in America who won seven races (five stakes including two Group1s) and finished second in the classic Preakness. He is a prominent sire in America with his oldest three.
