Secrets of the breeding of two of the stars of the weekend’s racing, Epsom Handicap victor Secret Admirer (on Saturday at Randwick) and powerhouse Bill Stutt winner Chase The Rainbow (Moonee Valley on Friday night), were found in the paddocks and stallion yards of the Emirates Park stud at Murrurundi in the Hunter Valley.

They emerged from a decision in the mid1990s by Emirates Park owner, Dubai’s His Excellency Nasser Lootah, and his stud management to purchase a very smart, non stakes winning American grandson of Mr. Prospector and then race him briefly in Australia. He followed up six wins on top American tracks with three in the Gai Waterhouse stables, appearances in the Doncaster at Randwick, the Frederick Clissold at Rosehill Gardens and Newmarket at Newcastle.

Now deceased, that horse is Secret Savings and he leaves a legacy to Australian breeding as his own is dominated by excellence and appears an ideal outcross for Danehill. He is by the Mr. Prospector multiple Group1 performed Seeking the Gold and from a daughter of Damascus, a giant of American racing and a major influence for class, toughness and durability.

Secret Savings appears in the breeding of the weekend’s stakes stars as the paternal grandsire of Chase The Rainbow through his best son Dash For Cash and in the pedigree of Epsom winning Secret Admirer as the sire of this 4-year-old mare’s dam Secret Illusion. Dash For Cash and Secret Illusion were both bred by Nasser Lootah’s Emirates Park studs.

The success by margins of 1.3 lengths and 1.5 lengths in the $200,000 Group 2 Stutt Stakes (1600m) on Friday of the Rick Hore-Lacy trained 3-year-old colt Chase The Rainbow, now winner of three of five outings and a head second on September 3 in a Listed event at Flemington, charging home in 33.2, underlines his sire Dash For Cash as one of the best sources of quality at stud in Victoria.

An imposing looking grey who picked up eight Group1 cheques for connections, comprised by wins in the VRC Australian Guineas and MRC Futurity, seconds in the AJC Doncaster, All-Aged Stakes, MVRC William Reid and STC George Ryder and fourths in the MVRC Manilkato and VRC LKS Mackinnon, Dash For Cash (fee $10,000) is one of eight sires at Adam Sangster’s Swettenham stud at Nagambie in Victoria.

Swettenham took the Dash For Cash colt that was to emerge as Chase The Rainbow to the Inglis Melbourne yearling sale and sold him to Hore-Lacy for $90,000. Also a grey, he shows the benefit of using the Secret Savings influence as an outcross for Danehill. He is from Illusional, a Redoute’s Choice minor winning half-sister to Sonic Quest, a Group 2 winner, and produce of Lodore Magic (by Kingdom Bay), the joint top New Zealand juvenile of 1995-96.

In contrast to Chase The Rainbow, Epsom winning Secret Admirer is free of Danehill and the only dose of Northern Dancer is five generations. She does, however, double up the power of Mr. Prospector, by being inbred 3x3 to Seeking the Gold, making her the closest inbred Epsom winner since Sky High (3x3 to Hyperion) in 1951.

Fortuitously for her owners, John Muir’s Milburn Creek Thoroughbred Stud, passed in ($38,000m reserve $40,000) when taken to the 2009 Inglis Classic yearling sale, the Graham Begg trained Secret Admirer is by Darley, Hunter Valley briefly shuttled Dubawi, a top European miler by the Seeking The Gold World Horse of the Year Dubai Millennium, and from Secret Illusion, an unraced half-sister by Secret Savings to 1990 AJC Metropolitan winner Donegal Mist.

Milburn did not breed the filly who became Secret Admirer, buying her through John Freyer Bloodstock for $38,000 at the 2008 Inglis Sydney weanling sale. The actual breeder is John Sunderland (Eire Bloodstock), the Irishman who is general manager of Darley’s Woodlands stud, Hunter Valley. John Muir gave Sunderland the privilege of leading Secret Admirer in after her Epsom win.

Sunderland also sold Secret Admirer’s dam Secret Illusion, but she died on October 29 2009 after producing a colt foal earlier in the month for Bowness Stud, Young, NSW.

Winner of three races, including two Group1s at Randwick, the Epsom and the Flight Stakes, Secret Admirer could be a new jewel for John Muir’s Milburn Creek stud broodmare band, one which this year has been relocated from Gross Vale, Hawkesbury Valley to Wild’s Meadow near Robertson the NSW southern highlands.