G1 stud success for All American relative

All American has plenty going for him in the physique, performance and sire-line departments, but this week it was another stallion from his female family making the news.

Specifically, his close relation Rock Hard Ten who stands at Lane’s End in Kentucky and last weekend recorded his first Grade 1 winner when 3YO filly Nereid dead-heated for first with Cambina in the $US250,000 Hollywood American Oaks over one-and-a-half miles on turf.

Pictured: All American at Darby Dan Farm, Kentucky, June 2011. (PHOTO: Suzie Oldham)

Like All American, Rock Hard Ten is a Group 1-winning grandson of Roberto, who stood at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky, where All American served his first northern hemisphere book of mares in 2011. All American’s dam Milva is Rock Hard Ten’s half-sister – both of them from champion French 2YO filly Tersa.

Now the winner of three of her four starts, Nereid is raced by Eric Kronfeld, famous as the breeder of US racing superstar Zenyatta. Asked after Nereid’s win if it was the presence of Kris S. (sire of Rock Hard Ten and damsire of Zenyatta) in her pedigree that attracted him to her, Kronfeld replied, “Go back one more generation – Roberto. I think Roberto is absolutely an underappreciated supersire. He does nothing but throw winners.”

Nereid is one of five Rock Hard Ten’s five Graded Stakes winners and the first from his second crop. Her pedigree pattern holds a relevant clue for Australian breeders booking to All American this year: she is from a mare by Danzig’s son Belong To Me.

All American returns next month to Arrowfield where he will stand the 2011 season at a fee of $16,500 inc. GST.