Phalaris | Horse Racing Free Tips

The loss of Europe's greatest stallion, Galileo, on July 10 brought forth the question of where the exceptional racehorse and stallion ranks in the pantheon of the best of the breed. Although unquestionably the best sire in Europe, Galileo's ranking among the greats will require more time to fully understand.

For a broader perspective on a sire, the internationally known bloodstock commentator Tony Morris wrote in his informative book, Stallions, that we needed to wait 25 years to see a sire's long-term influence on the breed. That is distinct from the ranking and perceived importance during a horse's lifetime, when the immediate success of a stallion or a particularly fancy winner may shine a light on the horse that dims quite a bit over time.

In 1920, for instance, would anyone have expected that the influence of multiple leading sire Phalaris would far exceed that of his great predecessor St. Simon? Or that of any subsequent stallion? No. It was unthinkable and unforeseeable, but nonetheless, that is the bloodstock of today. The heirs of Phalaris.

Among the greatest of these is Galileo.

What we do know today is that Galileo rewrote portions of the record books with the excellence and volume of his better offspring. He sired winners of all the English, French, and Irish classics, including five winners of the Derby at Epsom. A winner of the English Derby in 2001, Galileo sired the Derby winners New Approach (2008), Ruler of the World (2013), Australia (2014), Anthony Van Dyck (2019), and Serpentine (2020).

No other stallion has sired so many, and that gift for classic expression among his many foals is likely to be the most telling of the many fine gifts that Galileo has left us.

To win a classic, especially the Derby, requires a horse to possess stamina, strength, courage, honesty, and the desire to win, along with a lilt of speed to meet the rising ground to the finish at Epsom. Galileo possessed all those and freely shared the same with his legions of sons and daughters.

Like his great sire Sadler's Wells and world-renowned grandsire Northern Dancer before him, Galileo had a quality, not just in his physique, which was very fine, but in his manner and self-possession, that set him apart. Perhaps it is asking a bit much for a horse to have self-awareness, but with Galileo and some other elite Thoroughbreds, there is something in their character and in their interaction with others, both human and equine, that is akin to such a perception.

Certainly, when I visited Banstead Manor outside Newmarket to see the unbeaten champion Frankel, the big bay son of Galileo showed an awareness and command of his situation that was inspiring. A leading freshman sire and now the sire of two Derby winners this year in Adayar (English) and Hurricane Lane (Irish), Frankel is a key component of the future legacy of Galileo, and a significant part of the enduring legacy is that Frankel possessed so much of the ephemeral but ever-important quality: speed.

Without speed, a Thoroughbred is at the mercy of any racer who does possess it, and Adayar particularly showed that trait in leaving his opponents toiling at Epsom.

In addition to Frankel's growing role in the Galileo legacy, 19 other sons of the great stallion have sired G1 winners around the world, largely in Europe, and mostly on turf. Will they spread round the world to dominate the breed and raise the influence of Galileo to an even greater level?

Time will tell.

For the immediate future, Galileo will have his final crop of foals born next year in 2022, and his final crop of classic performers will come in 2025. These and others will continue to swell Galileo's number of stakes winners past 338 over the next few years.

And for those of us who watch and wonder, what if (unlikely as it is), what if the best is yet to come?

The post Bloodlines: Examining Galileo’s Place Among The Greats appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The Breeders' Cup Classic annually draws the most attention from various media and the most betting interest from fans. But the Breeders' Cup Distaff is a race of premium, if sometimes unrecognized, merit, and this year's event should be one of the great ones with 2018 champion 3-year-old filly Monomoy Girl (by Tapizar) and 2020 pro-tem champion filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) as the headline racers against a fleet of Grade 1 performers.

Both these outstanding horses share common characteristics. On the most superficial level, they are both chestnuts; both have speed and can carry it at least nine furlongs.

More emphatically, they possess the character and assertive attitudes so common among dominant racers. We have only to watch how each of these elite performers asserts herself through the stretch drive of their races to see that attitude in action.

In terms of pedigree similarities, Swiss Skydiver and Monomoy Girl descend in the male line from Eclipse through Bend Or, thence through Phalaris and his grandson Nearco, and then each is linebred multiple times through the deeper generations of their pedigrees to Phalaris in his various branches.

A foal of 1913, Phalaris was bred and raced by Lord Derby, who then put the dark brown racer to stud and reaped rewards and glories that even the avid admirers of Phalaris could not have predicted.

As a racer, Phalaris was quite a good horse. Strong and athletic, he won 16 of 24 starts, with three more efforts in the money, and he showed both high speed and the brawny determination to carry high weights successfully.

The best-known victories of Phalaris came with a pair of successes in the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket. The horse raced during the great social and economic upheaval of the Great War, during which many of the race meetings around England were suspended, but the English managed to uphold some traditions in the wake of the devastation from across the channel.

In 1916, when Phalaris was three, Lord Derby won the 1,000 Guineas with Canyon, by the Stanley House stallion Chaucer (St. Simon), and Phalaris began his 3-year-old season with a third place in the Craven Stakes, then was unplaced in the 2,000 Guineas. The colt won three races later in the season, then progressed notably in his next two seasons.

When assessing Phalaris's performances at four, which included carrying heavy weights and giving away chunks to the competition, the Bloodstock Breeders' Review made the following statement: “Phalaris inspires one with the belief that he is destined to make a great name for himself when he goes to the stud….”

That season, Phalaris won seven races in a row, after finishing second in his seasonal debut, and then lost his final start when unplaced in the Cambridgeshire Handicap.

At five, Phalaris won four of his five starts, at five, six, seven, and eight furlongs, but racing fans wouldn't recognize the names of those races because of the restrictions on sport. Begun when Phalaris was a yearling, World War I bracketed the horse's racing career and ended in 1918 after the retirement of Phalaris. Despite the limitations of a racing career during wartime, Lord Derby sent the good-looking horse to his Stanley House stud, where Phalaris stood alongside classic winner and classic sire Swynford (John o' Gaunt) and his half-brother Chaucer (St. Simon).

Phalaris was an immediate success and led the English sire list in 1925 and 1928. He sired classic winners Manna (Derby and 2,000 Guineas), Colorado (2,000 Guineas), Fairway (St. Leger), and Fair Isle (1,000 Guineas). Lord Derby also bred the classic-placed Pharos, who became a leading sire, getting Nearco among many others. In addition, Lord Derby bred the high-class juvenile Sickle, whom he sold to Joseph Widener to stand at Elmendorf Stud in Kentucky, and his full brother Pharamond, whom Lord Derby sold to Hal Price Headley and who stood at Beaumont Stud.

Sickle is the branch of Phalaris that produced Native Dancer, Raise a Native, Mr. Prospector, and Alydar. Pharamond founded the branch of Phalaris known today mostly through Tom Fool and his great son Buckpasser.

Sickle is the only branch today that holds up as a serious competitor to the dominion of the Nearco branch, which comes to us through Hail to Reason, Halo, More Than Ready; through Nasrullah, Bold Ruler, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy, and Pulpit; through Northern Dancer, Danzig, Galileo, and many others. Swiss Skydiver is the Hail to Reason branch through More Than Ready's son Daredevil; Monomoy Girl is Nasrullah's branch through Tapit's son Tapizar.

Each of these exceptional racers, like much of their competition, have multiple lines of Phalaris in their extended pedigrees, and like the great founder of this great Thoroughbred family, they have speed, strength, and the determination to win.

The post Bloodlines: Top Breeders’ Cup Distaff Contenders Have More In Common Than Meets The Eye appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post