The relationship between breeding and luck was never better demonstrated than in the case of Droopys Sydney – sire of a third of Saturday’s Derby semi finalists including the first two in the betting, Deerjet Sydney and Knocknaboul Syd, plus Deerjet’s litter brother Smurfs Machine, and Coolavanny Chick.
Brilliantly fast in his racing debut at Cork Droopys Sydney broke his leg in his second race and things looks bleak for the 80lb son of Dukes Special and Droopys Laramie.
Stud keeper Michael Dunphy said: “It was a very bad break and the track vet was on the point of putting him down. But (trainer) Johnny Lenihan stopped them and he and his father Tony nursed the dog for a long time afterwards. They really thought the world of the dog.”
It was a year later that the Lenihans approached the Dunphy brothers to see if they had a bitch available for a litter by Sydney. At this point, the story takes an even more bizarre twist because despite all the litters they breed, the Dunphy brothers cocked up. They made Broadstrand Xola available, and mixed up their bloodlines.
Sean later admitted that he had miscalculated the generations, meaning that Duke Special was the father of both sire and dam – a second generation cross that would generally be considered as way too close in a pedigree. By the time they realised their mistake, it was too late.
So imagine their disbelief when the litter reached the track and produced a certain Bubbly Bluebird and the brilliant Irish bitch Droopys Harbour, winner of the Southern Oaks and dam of fastest Irish Laurels semi finalist Runinta Seeya.
That first crop would soon be joined by the likes of Ballymac Tas, Roman Empire, Unlock Unlock, Droopys Aoife and Bower Luke to name but a few.
Michael said: “Once the first litter reached the track it was obvious that he threw pace and we started to get a few bitches for him. But in the early days, there were a lot of free matings and unproven bitches. Next year will be ‘his’ year.”
Droopys Sydney and Laughil Blake are currently the busiest sires at Droopys Stud though the kennel lost two of its biggest stars earlier in the year. Droopys Jet (sire of Southwood Jet and Lenson Whelan and soon to be crowned the top UK sire for the second year) and Droopys Buick (sire of Irish Derby winner Newinn Taylor) were both put to sleep following losing battles with cancer.
