On June 12, Converge broke through at the top level in the last Group1 race for juveniles of the 2000/2021 Australian racing year. Using a powerful turn of foot, the little gelding scored by over three lengths in the Treasury Brisbane J J Atkins Stakes and prompted hopes for a good season as a 3-year-old in 2021/2022.
While Converge undoubtedly gets much of his talent from his sire, the phenomenal Frankel, the contribution of his female family should not be overlooked. He is a great-great-grandson of Chaldee, not just a top Argentine matron but one of the greatest broodmares produced anywhere.
Sired by the winning Raise a Native horse Banner Sport out of Gaver (a daughter of the stakes-winning Honeyway horse Right of Way), Chaldee belonged to a family that had already produced Booz, Ruth, and Ezequiel II, all horses that won Group 1 races or races that were later rated as Group 1 after the Pattern race system was instituted in 1971. Her half sister Crown Golda (by the Hoist the Flag horse Crown Thy Good) carried on the family tradition on her own account, producing multiple Argentine Group 1 winner Tough Golda and becoming the maternal granddam of 2009/2010 Chilean champion sprinter Blue Shell and 2016 Gran Premio Gilberto Lerena (ARG-G1) winner Conviction. Another half sister to Chaldee, La Habrea (by Good Manners), is the second dam of 2005/2006 Argentine champion older female Magnetic Eyes, 2013 Gran Premio Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1) winner Querida Rebeca, Argentine Group 2 winner My Golan, and Argentine Group 3 winner Maaleh.
As creditable as the records of her sisters were, Chaldee was still better. A minor stakes winner and Group 3-placed on the track, she kicked off her breeding career with multiple Argentine Group 3 winner Sun Banner (by Sundae). That was just the appetizer to the main course, however. Repeatedly bred to 1985/1986 Argentine Horse of the Year Potrillazo, Chaldee produced four Group 1-winning fillies in Potrichal, Potridee (the Argentine champion 2-year-old filly of 1991/1992), Potrinner, and Potrizaris. The last-named filly was the best of all, winning honors as the 1998/1999 Argentine champion 3-year-old filly and Mare of the Year after scoring a rare double in the 1998 Gran Premio Selección (Argentine Oaks, ARG-G1) and Gran Premio Nacional (Argentine Derby, ARG-G1).
Potrillazo stood his last stud season in 1997, but Chaldee wasn't done yet. Bred to his three-quarters brother Potrillon---himself an Argentine Horse of the Year----Chaldee came up with one more Group 1 winner in Potro Rex, winner of the 2005 Gran Premio General San Martín. That gave the grand broodmare a total of five Group 1 winners, a record equaled only by the great New Zealand-based matron Eight Carat and by Juddmonte's magnificent foundation mare Hasili.
While Chaldee's family has not bred on in a manner to match her own sterling record, it has not done at all badly, either. Bred to With Approval, Potrichal is the dam of multiple Grade 2 winner T. H. Approval, who has had some success as a sire in Brazil, while Potridee is is the second dam of 2015/2016 Argentine champion 2-year-old male Touareg, of two-time Mexican champion Vistoso, and of Grade 3 winners Endorsement and Kitty in a Tizzy. Potrizaris has also added to the family legacy as she is the dam of Group 1-placed Japanese Group 3 winner Dia de la Novia (by Sunday Silence) and the second dam of Japanese Group 2 winners Dia de la Madre and Dreadnoughtus.
Converge descends from Chaldee through Potrinner, who produced three stakes winners (including a stakes-winning hurdler). The best of the trio was the Pulpit filly Melhor Ainda, who captured the 2005 Sands Point Stakes (USA-G3). She has not been a great success as a broodmare, with only two winners thus far from seven named foals, but her Irish-bred Shamardal daughter Conversely, a non-winner from eight starts, produced Converge as her first foal. Conversely has since produced a 2019 colt by Churchill and a 2020 colt by Invader (both in Australia) and is reported in foal to Divine Prophet for a 2021 Southern Hemisphere foal.
Genetic jewels like Chaldee are rare diamonds indeed, and no one knows when or where the next one will emerge. Still, good families are always good places to look, and Chaldee's lineage may yet come up with another mare who will write her own chapter in the living book that is the Thoroughbred.
While Converge undoubtedly gets much of his talent from his sire, the phenomenal Frankel, the contribution of his female family should not be overlooked. He is a great-great-grandson of Chaldee, not just a top Argentine matron but one of the greatest broodmares produced anywhere.
Sired by the winning Raise a Native horse Banner Sport out of Gaver (a daughter of the stakes-winning Honeyway horse Right of Way), Chaldee belonged to a family that had already produced Booz, Ruth, and Ezequiel II, all horses that won Group 1 races or races that were later rated as Group 1 after the Pattern race system was instituted in 1971. Her half sister Crown Golda (by the Hoist the Flag horse Crown Thy Good) carried on the family tradition on her own account, producing multiple Argentine Group 1 winner Tough Golda and becoming the maternal granddam of 2009/2010 Chilean champion sprinter Blue Shell and 2016 Gran Premio Gilberto Lerena (ARG-G1) winner Conviction. Another half sister to Chaldee, La Habrea (by Good Manners), is the second dam of 2005/2006 Argentine champion older female Magnetic Eyes, 2013 Gran Premio Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1) winner Querida Rebeca, Argentine Group 2 winner My Golan, and Argentine Group 3 winner Maaleh.
As creditable as the records of her sisters were, Chaldee was still better. A minor stakes winner and Group 3-placed on the track, she kicked off her breeding career with multiple Argentine Group 3 winner Sun Banner (by Sundae). That was just the appetizer to the main course, however. Repeatedly bred to 1985/1986 Argentine Horse of the Year Potrillazo, Chaldee produced four Group 1-winning fillies in Potrichal, Potridee (the Argentine champion 2-year-old filly of 1991/1992), Potrinner, and Potrizaris. The last-named filly was the best of all, winning honors as the 1998/1999 Argentine champion 3-year-old filly and Mare of the Year after scoring a rare double in the 1998 Gran Premio Selección (Argentine Oaks, ARG-G1) and Gran Premio Nacional (Argentine Derby, ARG-G1).
Potrillazo stood his last stud season in 1997, but Chaldee wasn't done yet. Bred to his three-quarters brother Potrillon---himself an Argentine Horse of the Year----Chaldee came up with one more Group 1 winner in Potro Rex, winner of the 2005 Gran Premio General San Martín. That gave the grand broodmare a total of five Group 1 winners, a record equaled only by the great New Zealand-based matron Eight Carat and by Juddmonte's magnificent foundation mare Hasili.
While Chaldee's family has not bred on in a manner to match her own sterling record, it has not done at all badly, either. Bred to With Approval, Potrichal is the dam of multiple Grade 2 winner T. H. Approval, who has had some success as a sire in Brazil, while Potridee is is the second dam of 2015/2016 Argentine champion 2-year-old male Touareg, of two-time Mexican champion Vistoso, and of Grade 3 winners Endorsement and Kitty in a Tizzy. Potrizaris has also added to the family legacy as she is the dam of Group 1-placed Japanese Group 3 winner Dia de la Novia (by Sunday Silence) and the second dam of Japanese Group 2 winners Dia de la Madre and Dreadnoughtus.
Converge descends from Chaldee through Potrinner, who produced three stakes winners (including a stakes-winning hurdler). The best of the trio was the Pulpit filly Melhor Ainda, who captured the 2005 Sands Point Stakes (USA-G3). She has not been a great success as a broodmare, with only two winners thus far from seven named foals, but her Irish-bred Shamardal daughter Conversely, a non-winner from eight starts, produced Converge as her first foal. Conversely has since produced a 2019 colt by Churchill and a 2020 colt by Invader (both in Australia) and is reported in foal to Divine Prophet for a 2021 Southern Hemisphere foal.
Genetic jewels like Chaldee are rare diamonds indeed, and no one knows when or where the next one will emerge. Still, good families are always good places to look, and Chaldee's lineage may yet come up with another mare who will write her own chapter in the living book that is the Thoroughbred.
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