Northerly and Tourzima

Most racing aficionados are familiar with the deeds of Northerly aka The Fighting Tiger. Foaled in 1996 Northerly was, to quote Rommy Faversham, that rarest of rare avises, a double RF. Northerly was by Serheed out of North Bell by Bellwaterand thus inbred within five generations to the mares Flaming Page and Dinner Partner through different individuals foaled by those two mares. Northerly was a gelding whose deeds will long be remembered but whose tale ended with him.

Less well known is the mare Tourzima foaled in 1939 by Tourbillon out of Djezima by Asterus. Her owner/breeder was the French textile magnate Marcel Boussac whose exploits as a breeder have rarely been matched. Boussac was a devotee of inbreeding to his own stallions and female families, with Tourzima the quintessential example of his method. She won a small race at her only start but has had an ongoing influence on international pedigrees which continues to current days.

The same as Northerly, but totally different. To paraphrase Murray Walker.

Northerly won 19 of his 37 starts from the ages of two to seven, nin being Gr1 contests. Included among the haul were successive Cox Plates, A Caulfield Cup with top weight and two Australian Cups. He had a style of motion akin to a crab, in running he was always 100/1, but with a heart bigger than himself, was 10/1 on in a finish.

Northerly’s Xray pedigree shows his inbreeding more clearly than any written description could achieve. It is apparent from the diagram that apart from featuring the double RF, the top and bottom halves of his pedigree are almost mirror images.

As is so often the case, and as I never cease to remind you, horses with such singular pedigree constructions featuring the RF and Xray pedigree NORTHERLY 1996 double RF are frequently the only good horse by their sire, or clearly the best horse by their sire. And so it goes with Northerly.

His Sire Serheed was a very decent stallion, standing in Western Australia. His career record of 29 SW from 465 runners at almost 7% SW/R is very respectable, but only two were Gr1 winners, Kim Angel being the winner of a single Gr1, the WA Derby, but towering above the rest of Serheed’s runners was the colossus Northerly winner of 9 Gr1 contests, the horse with the spectacular pedigree. QED.

Footnote: The double RF is so rare that there are none in the 2025 Easter Sale. Successful sires who were double RFs include Sir Tristram, Pakistan, Roberto, Tudor Minstrel, Grosvenor Matrice and Mellay.

Tourzima was bred by Marcel Boussac and her influence on the modern thoroughbred is considerable. She was by Tourbillon out of Djezima by Asterus with a remarkable pedigree construction featuring the full sisters Durban and Heldifann who were the dams of Tourbillon and Djezima. Her sire and dam were foaled by full sisters as the Xray pedigree right shows.

Another Boussac homebred was the stallion Djeddah by Djebel out of Djezima. Djebel was a son of Tourbillon so we see a very similar pattern to that of Tourzima with, in this case, the grandsire and the dam being out of the same full sisters Durban and Heldifann. Djeddah’s Xray pedigree appears right to show the similarity.

This was worth mentioning because Djeddah sired the Blue Hen mare Lalun, dam of Bold Reason and Never Bend. The various permutations of inbreeding to Lalun, such as using Sadler’s Wells over mares by Shirley Heights or his son Darshaan form some of the strongest nicks in modern pedigrees. The various Sadler’s Wells/ Darshaan permutations are dynamite, no surprise really as Darshaan traces in tail female to Tourzima. So all horses inbred to Lalun with one strain involving Darshaan carry two lines of Djeddah and a third of Tourzima who are almost genetically identical.

Back to Tourzima, she is the ancestress of 35 Gr1 winners right down to the present day including the 2024 Epsom Oaks winner Ezeliya and Darley’s current red hot stallion Too Darn Hot. Her other influential descendants include the sires Acamas, Akiyda, Darshaan, Sinndar, Macip, Daliapour and the mares Delsy and Dar Re Mi. Several of these were bred and raced by the recently deceased Aga Khan who purchased the entire breeding stock of Marcel Boussac when it was sold owing to his financial difficulties.

To add perspective, Tourzima is the 5th dam of Darshaan and 7th dam of both Ezeliya and Too Darn Hot.

Elsewhere in this issue Ken McLean and John Boyce have additional analysis of Too Darn Hot, purely by coincidence. She is such an interesting subject to study, it is little wonder. BB Xray pedigree TOURZIMA 1939 Xray pedigree DJEDDAH 1945BB