Hasili (IRE)

Hasili was a tough and workmanlike racehorse – she ran 17 times in France as a two- and three-year-old, mainly in the provinces, winning a Listed race at Nantes in November 1993. It was as a broodmare however that she achieved legendary status.

Her first covering resulted in a bay colt by Danehill. Named Dansili, he was a Group 2 winner and six-times Group/Grade 1 placed as a racehorse, and went on to become one of the leading sires of his generation in Europe, responsible for 21 top-level winners during his stud career.

Hasili’s second foal, also by Danehill, was Banks Hill, winner of the Gr.1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Belmont Park and the Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville. She was crowned Champion 3YO Filly in Europe and Champion Turf Mare in the USA in 2001, and was Joint Top-Rated Older Mare in Europe in 2002. Heat Haze, by Green Desert, followed. She won the Gr.1 Beverly D Stakes at Arlington, and the Gr.1 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Hasili returned to Danehill for her next three coverings, producing Intercontinental, Cacique and Champs Elysees. Intercontinental mirrored her elder sisters Banks Hill, with a victory in the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and Heat Haze, with a win in the Gr.1 Matriarch Stakes, a feat which saw her achieve the accolade of Champion Turf Mare in the USA in 2005. Cacique won the Gr.1 Man O’ War Stakes and Gr.1 Manhattan Handicap, and brother Champs Elysees became Horse of the Year in Canada in 2009 after winning the Gr.1 Canadian International and Gr.1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes, as well as the Gr.1 Hollywood Turf Cup. Both Cacique and Champs Elysees went on to sire Group 1 winners themselves, the former from only a handful of runners due to issues with fertility.

In later years, Hasili produced the Grade 3 winner Deluxe (Storm Cat), who sadly died from colic as a four-year-old, and the unraced Very Good News (by Empire Maker) and Responsible (Oasis Dream). The latter filly later achieved fame when she and her Frankel colt starred in an ITV Racing ‘follow the foal’ series.

Hasili is one of only two mares to produce five Group/Grade 1 winners in the history of the Pattern. “She’s a plain Jane, a nondescript mare,” described Stud Director Simon Mockridge in an interview with the Racing Post in 2017. “But if she’s an ordinary mare, she’s done extraordinary things. And actually if you stand her up and break her down, she is incredibly well made. Very good angulation, very sound. She doesn’t look overly robust, but she has good bone for her size and she’s nice and square.

“She’s always been very laid-back, very easy to deal with, nothing fazes her. And that’s been true of her progeny, as well, when you take into consideration that her sons and daughters have run in 63 Group 1 races and won or placed in 43 of them.”

Hasili was pensioned from stud duties in 2012 and enjoyed a peaceful retirement at Banstead Manor Stud. She died in March 2018 at the age of 27, and Simon Mockridge paid the following tribute: “Hasili has been an integral part of Juddmonte’s history. Her record of producing five Group 1 winners is unsurpassed in the modern era and her powerful influences will continue to be felt through Juddmonte pedigrees and the General Stud Book for many years to come. It has been a privilege to have been associated with such an exceptional blue hen mare.”

Hasili’s legacy at Juddmonte will endure for many years to come. Five of her daughters were part of the Juddmonte broodmare band at the time of her death, with Hasili appearing in the pedigrees of over 25% of the mares in the 2018 Juddmonte Stud Book.