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RAINBOW QUEST
Rainbow Quest, the most successful British sire in the history of the European Pattern and twice champion sire of broodmares, had to be put down on July 7, as a result of unresolvable complications following emergency surgery for colic. The 26-year-old son of Blushing Groom had been based at Banstead Manor Stud for the last 19 years, following his first two seasons standing at Juddmonte Farms, Wargrave.
Rainbow Quest had been recruited to the Juddmonte team of Prince Khalid Abdulla as a yearling in 1982, when his price of $950,000 placed him among the top 20 yearling colts at the American sales. With such a price tag, Rainbow Quest was always the subject of considerable expectations and he didn’t disappoint. Sent into training with Jeremy Tree, he showed a high level of ability from the very start, despite having a May 15 birthday. Rainbow Quest had clearly inherited plenty of the speed and precocity that had made his sire Blushing Groom the two-year-old sensation of 1976.
Tree had Rainbow Quest ready to make his debut in a 7-furlong maiden race at Newmarket in August, and the youngster defeated his 29 opponents in style. Another big field faced Rainbow Quest at Newbury the following month, when he started a hot favourite for the Haynes, Hanson and Clark Stakes over a mile, and he produced another very promising display to win.
Rainbow Quest’s victories were so impressive that he started second favourite behind another unbeaten colt, El Gran Senor, in the Gr.1 Dewhurst Stakes. The betting proved accurate, with Rainbow Quest proving the only one capable of extending the Irish raider and he reduced El Gran Senor’s winning distance to half a length. The compilers of the International Classifications had no hesitation in ranking El Gran Senor and Rainbow Quest first and second among the juveniles, separated by 1lb. Timeform was similarly impressed, rating him 130.
Rainbow Quest confirmed his standing as one of the best of his generation at three, when he won the Gr.2 Great Voltigeur Stakes most impressively. He had started his three-year-old campaign by running Lear Fan to a short head in the Gr.3 Craven Stakes over a mile and then contested three classics. He found a mile too sharp by that stage when fourth in the 2,000 Guineas but he then finished a fine third, beaten two lengths by Darshaan and half a length by Sadler’s Wells, in an unusually competitive Prix du Jockey-Club. Sent to Ireland for the Irish Derby, he again proved to be the only one capable of giving the brilliant El Gran Senor a race, running him to a length.
With his late foaling date no longer a disadvantage at the age of four, Rainbow Quest translated his new-found maturity into even more impressive form. After cantering over the opposition in the Clive Graham Stakes over 1¼ miles at Goodwood, he handed out the same treatment to his six rivals in the Gr.1 Coronation Cup, winning hard held from the Derby Italiano winner Old Country. He then ran well to finish second to Pebbles in the Eclipse Stakes and a close third in the King George but saved his best effort for the Arc. Although he crossed the line a neck behind Sagace (an impressive winner of the previous year’s Arc), the head-on camera revealed that Sagace had twice bumped heavily into Rainbow Quest. The stewards promoted Rainbow Quest to first place.
Timeform rated Rainbow Quest 134 and his International Classification rating of 133 made him the joint-top older horse in Europe. It is a measure of his tremendous ability that he achieved a Timeform rating of at least 130 at the ages of two, three and four, he was the first horse since Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard to achieve this feat.
His International Classification rating of 133 meant that Rainbow Quest was officially recognised as the best of Blushing Groom’s many European-raced offspring. This was quite an accolade, as Blushing Groom sired 18 per cent stakes winners, including such as Nashwan, Arazi, Groom Dancer, Rahy and Crystal Glitters.
Rainbow Quest’s powerful bloodlines also included an exceptional female line. His dam, I Will Follow, became the third consecutive generation of this famous line to become a Group winner when she defeated Amazer (future winner of the Yellow Ribbon Stakes) in the Gr.3 Prix de Minerve. I Will Follow was a daughter of the Oaks runner-up Where You Lead, who in turn was out of Noblesse, who established herself as one of the best-ever winners of the Oaks when she eased home ten lengths clear in 1963
I Will Lead was one of two very good daughters of Where You Lead, the other being the Oaks runner-up Slightly Dangerous. This exceptional broodmare produced Warning, the champion of his generation at two and three; Commander In Chief, winner of the Derby and Irish Derby; Dushyantor, runner-up in the Derby and St Leger; Deploy, runner-up in the Irish Derby; Yashmak, a Gr.1 winner who was also second in the Irish Oaks and fourth in the Oaks; and Jibe, runner-up in the Gr.1 Fillies’ Mile.
Is it any wonder, in view of the immense talent shown by his family, that Rainbow Quest proved so effective as a stallion?
When his daughter Fashion Statement won the Oaks d’Italia a month before Rainbow Quest’s death, she became no less than his 95th stakes winner. If his outstanding Japanese son Sakura Laurel, a winner of the Arima Kinen and Tenno Sho, is included, Rainbow Quest has no fewer than 18 Gr.1 winners to his credit and his total of Group winners stands at 58. These 58 represent nearly 6 per cent of the 986 foals in his first 18 crops. Very few stallions ever come close to this type of strike rate.
It took Rainbow Quest only two seasons at stud to come up with the winners of the Derby, Irish Oaks, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Grand Prix de Paris, Hollywood Turf Cup and Prix du Cadran. Since then he has added many more top prizes to his collection, such as the Irish 2,000 Guineas, Oaks d’Italia, St Leger (twice), Prix Royal-Oak (twice), Eclipse Stakes, Dubai Champion Stakes, Coronation Cup, Prix Lupin and Prix d’Ispahan. Four of his offspring have become Gr.1 winners at the age of two.
More recently, Rainbow Quest has earned recognition as an outstanding sire of broodmares. The major winners out of Rainbow Quest’s daughters include the classic winners North Light (Derby), Kris Kin (Derby), Footstepsinthesand (2,000 Guineas) and Rakti (Derby Italiano), plus Gr.1 winners of the calibre of Powerscourt (Arlington Million), Polish Summer (Sheema Classic), Meteor Storm, Marotta and Rebelline. As the latest Derby winner, Authorized, is out of a grand-daughter of Rainbow Quest, this grand stallion appears in the pedigree of three of the last five winners of the Epsom classic.
Rainbow Quest already figures as the broodmare sire of six Group winners in 2007 and his daughters have produced Group winners to more than 30 different stallions. The chances are, then, that his daughters are going to prove his richest legacy – the pot of gold to be found at the end of the rainbow.
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By one of those strange coincidences, Juddmonte’s veteran broodmare Aryenne died at the age of 30 on July 9, two days after Rainbow Quest’s demise. It was this classic-winning daughter of Green Dancer who provided Rainbow Quest with his first classic winner, when their son Quest For Fame took the 1990 Derby.
Aryenne was also the dam of the very smart Dancing Brave filly Yenda, who produced the Gr.3 winner Notable Guest.
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Date: 09 July 2007
