Strawberry Fields Stud Scores Big With Desert Crown

Desert Crown  evoked memories of grandsire Galileo's Epsom success 21 years ago with the ease and command of his June 4 Cazoo Derby (G1) victory for Sir Michael Stoute, Richard Kingscote and Saeed Suhail.

A son of Nathaniel, he is the first colt by Newsells Park Stud's Eclipse Stakes (G1) and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) winner to strike at the highest level and the third classic winner for his sire, following Enable  and Channel  in the Investec Oaks (G1) and Prix de Diane (G1), respectively.

Nathaniel is now the sire of six individual group 1 winners and Deutsches Derby (G1) runner-up Enjoy Vijay  from a total of 46 flat stakes performers.

Desert Crown was bred by Cambridgeshire engineer Gary Robinson, who owns Strawberry Fields Stud, near Teversham, and for whom this Derby success has been the culmination of two decades of planning, study and research, putting his theories on genetics and breeding into practice.

Robinson bred the undefeated Desert Crown (3-for-3) out of the Green Desert mare Desert Berry, whose dam, Foreign Language, he owned with the late Basil White. The Derby and Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes (G2) winner is the fourth runner and winner out of Desert Berry, following on from group 3 winner Flying Thunder, by Archipenko. She has a 2-year-old filly by Al Kazeem , a yearling colt from the first crop of Prix du Jockey Club (G1) winner Study Of Man  and foaled a brother to Desert Crown this spring. Unsurprisingly, Desert Berry returned to Newsells Park Stud to visit Nathaniel once more.

Successful over a mile as a 3-year-old, Desert Berry hails from another top-notch Juddmonte family. Foreign Language is a winning daughter of Distant View and the listed Prix des Tuileries winner Binary, by Rainbow Quest, making her a half sister to Binary File, who was a group 3 and listed winner in Scandinavia.

More pertinently, Foreign Language is a half sister to Binche, a Woodman mare who did not hit the heights on the track but developed into a top-class broodmare. She is the dam of Prince of Wales's Stakes (G1) winner Byword, by Peintre Celebre, and Proviso , a daughter of Dansili who was a quadruple grade 1 winner for Juddmonte and Bill Mott.

Binche is also the dam of a pair of stakes winners by Frankel  in the Prix Eugene Adam (G2) winner Finche, who was group 1-placed in Australia, and Baratti, who was a Listed winner at Longchamp in April for Andre Fabre.

Zatsfine, Binche's daughter by Oasis Dream, is the dam of group 3 winner Delaware, who is also by Frankel and stands at Woodside Park Stud in Australia, and the listed Prix de Bagatelle winner Environs, by Dansili.

Desert Crown was sold by Strawberry Fields Stud to Blandford Bloodstock for 280,000 guineas (US$383,003) at the 2020 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 2.