Mucking out at Guirys 1 in Coolmore Ireland on my year out from University. I think there were 20 foals in the barn – 18 by Sadler's Wells and two by Danehill.

Biggest influence on your career?

Ultimately, my father, who introduced both my brother William and I to racing. He loved his National Hunt and we spent many a happy afternoon at Huntingdon and Towcester. Later in life, both Richard Henry and Simon Mockridge played major roles in my experience and development.

Favourite racehorse of all time, and why?

Desert Orchid. I was 10 when he won the Gold Cup and he was a grey who jumped well – everything me and my grey pony at the time aspired to be.

Who will be champion first-season sire in 2023?

Too Darn Hot.

Greatest race in the world?

The Derby.

If you could be someone else in the industry for a day who would it be, and why?

MV Magnier. MV works very hard and I would imagine his day-to-day is incredibly diverse from selecting young stock to managing the paths of future champions. I love that diversity.

Emerging talent in the industry (human)?

He has already emerged, but at only 24 years old, I am going to say Tom Marquand. I am sure Tom will be champion jockey in the near future.

Name a horse TDN should have made a Rising Star, and didn't?

Checkandchallenge – I so hope he will provide my brother William with his first Group 1 winner in 2023.

Under-the-radar stallion?

Once again, I am not sure quite how under the radar they are, but I think both Saxon Warrior and Cracksman are set for big years ahead.

Friday night treat?

Chinese takeaway.

Guilty pleasure outside racing?

Watching Rugby Union.

Race I wish I'd been there for…

The Wow Signal's Prix Morny Group 1 win. I think I was inspecting yearlings for the Goffs UK Premier sale. Any winner celebrating with John and Sean Quinn is good fun, so I really missed out with his Group 1 win.

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“Milan was a very good-natured horse and will be sadly missed by everyone here,” said Catherine Magnier. “He was a wonderful servant providing top class horses year in year out.”

Bred by Fittocks Stud, Milan was bought by Demi O'Byrne for 650,000gns as a yearling at Tattersalls in 1999, and joined Aidan O'Brien's yard. Racing for Michael Tabor, he won his only start at the Curragh at two in 2000, and was third in the 2001 G1 Prix Lupin in his second appearance at three. Back on top in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York three starts later, the son of G3 St. Simon S. heroine Kithanga was a five-length winner of Doncaster's G1 St. Leger next out. Unplaced in Sakhee (Bahri)'s G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the half-brother to fellow St. Simon S. heroine Koora (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) was second to Fantastic Light (Rahy) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Belmont in October. Injured in his lone start at four, he was retired with a mark of 10-3-2-1 and $991,814 in earnings.

Covering mares at Grange Stud beginning in 2004, Milan left Champion Hurdle hero Jezki (Ire), and Christmas Hurdle winner Darlan (GB). His top chasers are legion and include Santini (GB), Monalee (Ire), Apache Stronghold (Ire), and 2017 G3 Grand National scorer One For Arthur (Ire) among others. Milan's daughter Marie's Rock (Ire) starred in March's G1 Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham and backed that effort up with another top-level score in the Coolmore Kew Gardens Irish EBF Mares Champion Hurdle at Punchestown this April. Of his 105 black-type performers, he sired 38 graded winners in the National Hunt sphere.

From the extended family of dual Derby hero Kahyasi (Ire) (Ile De Bourbon), several of Milan's daughters are black-type producers, with Coney Island (Ire) (Flemensfirth) and Skyace (Ire) (Westerner {GB}) both Grade 1 winners, the former over fences and the latter over hurdles.

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In the days when Saeed bin Suroor was Godolphin's principal trainer he had masterminded Dubawi's 2-year-old campaign superbly, the colt from the sole crop of Dubai Millennium ending the 2004 season unbeaten after winning the G1 National S. at the Curragh. Shamardal had been with Mark Johnston as a 2-year-old. He too had ended 2004 with a perfect three-from-three record, his hat-trick culminating in victory in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket.  Already Dubaian-owned, he was transferred to bin Suroor's stable after the race and bore the royal blue livery for the rest of his career.

Shamardal was the first to run in 2005 but it was not an auspicious start: he ran poorly on dirt in the UAE Derby and clearly needed longer than four weeks to recover from that chastening experience so he didn't run in the 2,000 Guineas, in which Dubawi started the 11/8 favourite.  On the day Dubawi wasn't good enough, finishing fifth behind Foostepsinthesand (GB) (Giant's Causeway), but thereafter things fell into place perfectly.

Shamardal made a victorious return to European racing 15 days later, taking the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains at Longchamp to initiate a top-level hat-trick, completed by wins in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club over 2100m at Chantilly and, dropping back to a mile only nine days later, the G1 St. James's Palace S. Sadly that proved to be his final race as he went amiss shortly before the G1 Eclipse S., in which he had been due to clash with the wide-margin Derby winner Motivator (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}).

Dubawi, meanwhile, had also kept himself busy. Heading to the Curragh three weeks after Newmarket, he was a ready winner of the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas, beating Oratorio (Ire) (Danehill) by two lengths. Saeed bin Suroor had played his cards perfectly, with both Dubawi and Shamardal ending the spring as Classic winners.

Despite the obvious doubts about Dubawi's potential stamina, Sheikh Mohammed took the sporting option of sending his diminutive star to Epsom two weeks after his Classic triumph. The genuine little horse did his best, but the testing 12-furlong course proved to be a bridge too far as Dubawi weakened in the final two furlongs, finishing third of the 13 runners.  Undaunted, he returned to the fray later in the summer, confirming himself to be a top-class miler with two excellent efforts in weight-for-age company, winning the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville before coming off second best in a terrific duel with the international superstar Starcraft (NZ) (Soviet Star) in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S., run that year at Newmarket.

Happily, the history books now show that the splendid racecourse achievements of Dubawi and Shamardal were merely the first part of their stories as each proceeded to establish himself in the highest echelons of the world's stallion ranks.

Godolphin, of course, is not the only operation to have found itself with the enviable but tricky task of making the most of a strong hand.  It is a problem to have faced both of the O'Briens to have brought glory to Ballydoyle, Vincent and Aidan. For Vincent O'Brien, the year in which Ballydoyle most notably contained a pair of great Classic colts was 1984.

At the start of 1984, all eyes in Europe were on the unbeaten Dewhurst winner El Gran Senor. Bred in partnership by E. P. Taylor, Vincent O'Brien, Robert Sangster and John Magnier, El Gran Senor was a full-brother to the 1977 Dewhurst winner Try My Best and had oozed class from the outset, so much so that his connections had opted to name him in honour of the human 'El Gran Senor', Northern Dancer's trainer Horatio Luro.  The equine El Gran Senor lived up to this compliment during an unbeaten 2-year-old campaign, his final victory coming when he trounced Rainbow Quest (Blushing Groom {Fr}) in the Dewhurst, winning with such authority that Timeform gave him the startlingly high rating (for a 2-year-old) of 131, the same figure with which Nijinsky II (Northern Dancer) had ended 1969.

The highest hopes generally lead to disappointment, but on 2000 Guineas Day the dreams of racegoers came true as a great Classic was run before their eyes. Pat Eddery deployed El Gran Senor's brilliant acceleration to devastating effect. Chasing El Gran Senor home were three outstanding horses: Chief Singer (Ire) (Ballad Rock {Ire}), Lear Fan (Roberto) and Rainbow Quest.

Timeform's Racehorses of 1983 had rated El Gran Senor's chances of staying the Derby distance as “doubtful” but Vincent O'Brien naturally took up the challenge of the greatest race of all, as he had previously done so successfully with the other supposedly doubtful stayers Sir Ivor and Nijinsky after their brilliant 2,000 Guineas victories in 1968 and '70.  It turned out that El Gran Senor was indeed not nearly as effective at a mile and a half as he was at distances up to a mile, but even so he nearly won the Derby (only just touched off by his paternal half-brother Secreto, trained by Vincent O'Brien's son David) before cruising home in the Irish Derby ahead of the valiant Rainbow Quest (himself, of course, subsequently the winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe).  

El Gran Senor's form kept being franked throughout the summer as Chief Singer won successively the G2 St. James's Palace S., the G1 July Cup and the G1 Sussex S., while Lear Fan took the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. However, during this period it became clear that El Gran Senor was not the only outstanding 3-year-old colt in Ballydoyle.

Two members of the stable contested the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh.  One of these had been rated the second best 2-year-old colt in Ireland in 1983, 10lb behind El Gran Senor.  That colt, Sadler's Wells, reappeared in the spring in the same race (the G3 Gladness S. at the Curragh) in which El Gran Senor resumed, finishing a respectful runner-up behind his superior stablemate.

Winner of the G3 Derrinstown Derby Trial on his next start, Sadler's Wells was the less-fancied of the Ballydoyle duo in the Irish Guineas, with stable jockey Pat Eddery electing to ride the shorter-priced Capture Him (Mr Prospector).  This left the mount on Sadler's Wells free for George McGrath, who had ridden him in his two previous races that spring.  McGrath, Ireland's champion jockey of 1965 and '70, was then in the twilight of a distinguished career, employed mainly as a Ballydoyle work-rider. He had won the Irish Derby 11 years previously but it turned out that, Eddery having chosen the wrong horse, he was able to record his most famous victory when Sadler's Wells came home in front, with Capture Him only fourth.

Sadler's Wells's true ability thus having started to appear, it became ever more clear during the coming months, most notably thanks to two great triumphs at weight-for-age in the G1 Eclipse S. and the G1 Phoenix (now Irish) Champion S. at Phoenix Park.  He further demonstrated his class and toughness with second placings behind Darshaan (with Rainbow Quest third) in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and behind the previous year's Derby winner Teenoso (Youth) in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S., ahead of Tolomeo (Ire), Time Charter (Ire) and Sun Princess (Ire).

Earlier comments about Dubawi and Shamardal going on to glory at stud can be applied, of course, even more emphatically to El Gran Senor and Sadler's Wells.  The latter holds the record for the most sires' championships of Britain and Ireland (14), while in one respect El Gran Senor's figures are even better.  Having retired in 1985 to Windfields Farm in Maryland alongside his father, El Gran Senor was bedevilled by poor fertility throughout his stud career, which ended when he was pensioned aged 19 in 2000. All told, he sired fewer than 400 foals, but his 55 stakes winners (12 of whom won at the highest level) gave him a lifetime stakes winners-to-foals ratio of just over 14%.

As numbers in Ballydoyle are now far larger than was ever the case when Vincent O'Brien was at the helm, Aidan O'Brien nowadays can find himself blessed/cursed (delete as applicable) with an even greater embarrassment of riches. This has never been more obvious than was the case in the spring of 2002.

Hawk Wing was the name on everyone's lips in advance of the 2002 season.  Although beaten by his more experienced stablemate Rock Of Gibraltar in the G3 Railway S. early in the summer of 2001, by the autumn Hawk Wing had been promoted to ante-post favouritism for the 2,000 Guineas, having stormed home in the G1 National S. at the Curragh.  He had captured the public's imagination even more than any of his stablemates, notwithstanding that he had plenty of competition from within his own stable: there were 22 juveniles in Europe in 2001 rated 110 or more by Timeform, and Aidan O'Brien trained half of them!

The aforementioned Rock Of Gibraltar had followed up that Railway S. victory by winning the G2 Gimcrack S., the G1 Grand Criterium and the G1 Dewhurst S.  In the last-named he led home a Ballydoyle trifecta, beating Landseer (GB) (Danehill) and Tendulkar (Spinning World).  Landseer had previously won the G2 Coventry S. at Royal Ascot, with Rock Of Gibraltar only sixth.

Arguably the pick of the squad, though, was another Royal Ascot winner.  Johannesburg (Hennessy) had won all seven of his races as a juvenile including, uniquely for a 2-year-old, top-level contests in four countries: the G1 Phoenix S. at Leopardstown, the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville, the G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Belmont. Another Group 1-winning juvenile for Ballydoyle in 2001 had been High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), successful in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.

The hand of cards which Aidan O'Brien thus had to play in the spring of 2002 was overflowing with aces. The situation became slightly clearer when it was decided that Johannesburg's Classic target in the spring would (understandably) be at Churchill Downs rather than Newmarket. The policy decided upon was to maximise the advantage conferred by strength in depth and though Johannesburg's Kentucky Derby attempt ended in disappointment, in Europe that plan bore fruit. 

Hawk Wing was the stable's first string in both the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby but he was a beaten favourite in both, each time finishing second to a lesser-fancied, Johnny Murtagh-ridden stablemate: Rock Of Gibraltar at Newmarket and High Chaparral at Epsom. Those two horses, of course, went on to compile magnificent records, ultimately retiring with a Group 1 tally of seven and six respectively; while Hawk Wing went on register the admirable feat of winning at the highest level in each of three consecutive seasons, courtesy of wins in the G1 Eclipse S. at three and the G1 Lockinge S. (by 11 lengths) at four.

Charlie Appleby's hand this year isn't quite as strong as the cards which Aidan O'Brien was holding 20 years ago, but it's strong enough. And the certainty is that Appleby, like O'Brien, is a trainer with the skill to play them to best advantage.

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This haul included the four championship prizes, as Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) won the Champion Hurdle, Put The Kettle On (Ire) (Stowaway {GB}) claimed the Champion Chase, Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) took the Stayers' Hurdle and Minella Indo (Ire) (Beat Hollow {GB}) was victorious in the Gold Cup. 

There was more soul searching than celebrating among the British contingent, as the home team won just five races. Whether matters can be turned around this year remains to be seen, but given the Irish are responsible for 23 of 28 ante-post favourites, the early signs are ominous. 

For those immersed in the world of National Hunt breeding, Irish dominance is not a new phenomenon. Results over the last ten years provide a clear illustration, as there have been 276 Cheltenham Festival races run since 2012, and 151 (55 per cent) have been won by a horse bearing the IRE suffix. That is just over four times more than Britain, which has been represented by 37 winners (13 per cent) in the same time frame.

While the action on course generally revolves around Britain versus Ireland, in the breeding stakes French-breds have been a formidable presence with 80 winners (29 per cent) since 2012. The remaining eight winners were supplied by Germany and the US, who delivered four apiece. 

A significant factor in these results looking so lop-sided is the sheer weight of numbers, with Irish breeders producing far more jumps horses than their British counterparts. 

Data published in the latest Weatherbys Fact Book shows that in 2021, Ireland was home to 4,599 National Hunt mares, which is 31.7 per cent of the country's combined broodmare band and 3.8 times more than Britain, which had just 1,213 dedicated jumps mares, 14.8 per cent of its total broodmare population. In turn, Ireland produced 2,722 jumps-bred foals in 2021, which is 3.9 times more than the 696 youngsters born in Britain who are destined to race over obstacles. 

Moreover, not only do Irish breeders have a sizeable broodmare band to call upon, but the balance of National Hunt sire power has long since been based in Ireland. 

It was a notable subplot to Frankel (GB) winning the 2021 Flat sires' championship that he was the first British-based title-holder since Mill Reef, who landed the spoils back in 1987. 

But you have to go even further back to find the last time the champion National Hunt sire crown left Irish soil, with Spartan General (GB) registering a rare success for Britain during the 1978-79 season. It has been one-way traffic since then, with jumps racing titans like Deep Run (GB), who notched a remarkable 14 consecutive sires' championships, Strong Gale (Ire), Be My Native, Supreme Leader (GB) and Presenting (GB) all coming to the fore for Ireland. 

Although Sadler's Wells never claimed a National Hunt sires' championship to go with his record-breaking 14 Flat equivalents, the breed-shaping son of Northern Dancer has exerted a similarly huge influence over the jumping scene. Nowhere has this been more apparent than at the Cheltenham Festival. 

No fewer than 23 of Sadler's Wells' sire sons have been responsible for the winners of 84 Cheltenham Festival races in the last ten years, while another 22 winners have the former Coolmore flag-bearer further back in their paternal pedigree. This means that in the last decade alone, the Sadler's Wells line has been responsible for 106 Festival winners, a huge 38.4 per cent of the 276 races run. 

No stallion has done more to extend Sadler's Wells' influence over the jumping sphere than King's Theatre (Ire), who claimed five sires' championships and also supplied 12 Festival winners in the last decade, a tally that makes him the most prolific Cheltenham sire of recent times. The late Ballylinch Stud resident's Festival roll of honour includes the likes of Brindisi Breeze (Ire), Champ (Ire), Cue Card (GB), Riverside Theatre (GB) and The New One (Ire). 

Among the other successful sons of Sadler's Wells are names such as Milan (GB), source of seven Cheltenham winners since 2012 and the 2019-20 champion, Oscar (Ire), sire of ten Festival scorers, and Glenview Stud's Sholokhov (Ire), whose four successes at the meeting include recent Grade 1 winners Bob Olinger (Ire) and Shishkin (Ire). 

Other noteworthy sire sons include High Chaparral (Ire) and Montjeu (Ire), who were responsible for four-time Festival scorer Altior (Ire) and dual Champion Hurdle hero Hurricane Fly (Ire) respectively, while Montjeu's son Authorized (Ire) gave us the mighty Tiger Roll (Ire). 

While Sadler's Wells' influence has helped cement Ireland's position as the nucleus of National Hunt breeding, he is also responsible for a British heavyweight in Overbury Stud stalwart Kayf Tara (GB), who has sired seven Festival winners since 2012. 

As if all that were not enough, Sadler's Wells' own record includes an important winner from the not too distant past, as Synchronised (Ire) claimed the 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup for JP and Noreen McManus. 

However, despite his ongoing influence, you need to look a little further back to find Sadler's Wells' defining achievement in National Hunt racing, as he is immortalised as the sire of Cheltenham Festival icon Istabraq (Ire), who won three consecutive Champion Hurdles from 1998 to 2000. 

Galileo (Ire), heir of the Sadler's Wells empire on the Flat, also has a handful of Festival winners on his vast stud record, and is the grandsire of a further four, with sons Nathaniel (Ire), best known for supplying queen of the Turf Enable (GB), and Soldier Of Fortune (Ire) each responsible for a brace. With so many high-class sons of Galileo on jumps breeders' radars, including the likes of Coolmore's National Hunt recruits Capri (Ire), Kew Gardens (Ire), Mogul (GB) and Order Of St George (Ire), we can expect his name to appear in prominent jumps pedigrees with increasing regularity over the coming years.

There have been 232 individual winners who have struck at the last ten Festivals, and these have been supplied by 124 different stallions. The diversity among this number means that, while Sadler's Wells has been an almost ubiquitous force in recent Festival history, his line is not alone in having had a significant bearing on proceedings. 

Another name more commonly associated with high-class Flat performers is Danehill, who has been represented by four successful sire sons with eight winners to their credit, namely Aussie Rules, Dansili (GB) and Duke Of Marmalade (Ire), who all have one winner apiece, as well as Castlehyde Stud's Westerner (GB), who has five. 

Danehill's rags-to-riches son Danehill Dancer (Ire) also emerged as a force in the National Hunt world, primarily through the exploits of the much-missed Jeremy, whose five Festival winners include Supreme Novices' Hurdle hero Appreciate It (Ire) and Champion Bumper victor Sir Gerhard (Ire), who are back for more this year. These results have seen Danehill feature in the male line of 15 recent Festival winners. 

The last decade has also seen significant success for descendants of other prominent National Hunt influences such as Alleged, Garde Royale (Ire) and Monsun (Ger). Alleged's name has appeared in the male line of 11 winners in the last ten years, with Shantou responsible for five of those and the mighty Flemensfirth having supplied another four, while Astarabad and Sir Harry Lewis also sired one winner apiece. 

Garde Royale's success owes plenty to Robin Des Champs (Fr), whose ten Festival winners in the last decade include National Hunt celebrities Quevega (Fr) and Vautour (Fr). Garde Royale has also been represented by Kapgarde (Fr), sire of A Plus Tard (Fr), a past Festival winner and a strong contender for this year's Gold Cup. 

As far as furthering their legacies, time may be running out for Alleged, whose breeding sons have either passed away or been retired from active duty, and Garde Royale, for whom Kapgarde is a sole representative between Britain, Ireland and France. Monsun, however, has already left his imprint on 12 Festival winners through six sire sons, and remains well represented among the European stallion ranks. 

Other sire lines may have been a more plentiful source of Festival success, but Monsun can lay claim to the highest-rated Cheltenham winner in recent times thanks to Sprinter Sacre (Fr), the son of Network (Ger) who won an Arkle and two runnings of the Queen Mother Champion Chase. 

The other sons of Monsun to supply a Festival winner are Arcadio (Ger), Gentlewave (Ire), Maxios (GB), Schiaparelli (Ger) and Shirocco (Ger). There were eight sons of Monsun standing across Britain and Ireland in 2021 – namely Axxos (Ger), Gentlewave, Getaway (Ger), Masterstroke, Maxios, Ocovango (GB), Schiaparelli and Vadamos (Fr) – and between them they covered 940 mares, which gives an indication of the sire line's ammunition for the years ahead. 

Given that National Hunt horses have longer career cycles than their Flat counterparts, by the time most jumps stallions reach the peak of their powers plenty have either been pensioned or passed away, as evidenced by Milan being the only serving champion jumps sire at present. With so many high achievers no longer in action, breeders will be looking to Cheltenham to reveal who is capable of filling the void. Once again the Irish ranks look to hold all the aces. 

Among those with a strong hand are the likes of Sadler's Wells' son Yeats (Ire), who sired four winners last year and will be represented by leading fancies Conflated (Ire), Flooring Porter (Ire), Mount Ida (Ire) and Party Central (Ire) this time around. Another member of the Sadler's Wells line with a strong team is Grange Stud's Walk In The Park (Ire), sire of past Festival scorers Douvan (Fr) and Min (Fr). 

The son of Montjeu could start the week with a bang when Jonbon (Fr), a brother to Douvan who fetched a record £570,000 at the Goffs UK Yorton Sale in November 2020, lines up in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle on Tuesday. Walk In The Park will also be represented by the progressive Ginto (Fr) and Champion Bumper favourite Facile Vega (Ire), who is out of six-time Festival heroine Quevega. 

Glenview Stud's Blue Bresil (Fr) could also be set for a good week, with the son of Smadoun (Fr) set to field the likes of Blue Lord (Fr), Constitution Hill (GB), Redemption Day (GB) and Royale Pagaille (Fr). 

The French ranks will be typically well represented, not least by the progeny of Doctor Dino (Fr), who stands at a record fee for a jumps sire at €18,000. The Haras du Mesnil resident looks set to supply well-fancied runners such as Dinoblue (Fr), Fil Dor (Fr) and State Man (Fr), while his compatriots No Risk At All (Fr), sire of Allaho (Fr) and Epatante (Fr), and Kapgarde, source of A Plus Tard and Prengarde (Fr), could also make an impact. 

There are also a host of younger names for whom a first Festival winner would mark a major milestone in their upwardly mobile careers. These include Arctic Tack Stud's Jet Away (GB), source of Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle second favourite Brandy Love (Ire), Haras de la Tuilerie's Masked Marvel (GB), who is responsible for Champion Hurdle challenger Teahupoo (Fr), and Kilbarry Lodge Stud resident Diamond Boy, sire of Brown Advisory Novices' Chase fancy L'Homme Presse (Fr). 

During a busy weekend of sport, Ireland were made to work hard for their 32-15 victory over England in Saturday's Six Nations contest at Twickenham, with the gloss added to the final score only inside the last six minutes. When the Cheltenham roar goes up and the countries renew their rivalry at the Festival this week, all known form suggests that matters will prove much more one-sided. 

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Galileo, like his father, was an immediate star at stud, notwithstanding that his first juveniles did not make anything like the impression that had been created by Sadler's Wells's first bunch of 2-year-olds. By the time that Galileo's first crop had been racing for two seasons, he had sired two Classic winners, Nightime (Ire) having won the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Sixties Icon (GB) having taken the St Leger, as well as a Dewhurst Stakes winner (his second-crop son Teofilo (Ire)). In retrospect, Sixties Icon's St Leger can be said to have foretold the subsequent changing of the guard which would later see Galileo inherit his father's mantle: Galileo sired the first three colts across the line while the fourth and fifth place-getters were sons of Sadler's Wells.  

Things progressed nicely from there, with Galileo's third crop headed by New Approach (Ire) who became his father's second Dewhurst winner and the first of his five (so far) winners of the Derby. With such a galaxy of stars, for a few years it seemed as if it would be hard to provide a definite answer to the identity of Galileo's best son or daughter, never mind his best sire-son.  However, a member of Galileo's sixth crop provided so clear-cut an answer to that one that we knew that, however many crops the great horse went on to produce afterwards, Frankel (GB) was and always would remain the best racehorse sired by Galileo. As Sir Henry Cecil, a man whose natural modesty had led him spend his career shying away from superlatives and avoiding making extravagant claims on behalf of his charges, was eventually forced to concede after Frankel's final race, that Frankel wasn't just the best horse whom he had ever trained nor even the best horse whom he had ever seen, but “probably the best horse anyone has ever seen”.

That was all well and good, of course; and Frankel's flawless 14-from-14 racing record certainly ensured that he was given every chance when he retired to stud by virtue of stellar early books of mares. But when any horse ceases racing and retires to stud, the clock is turned back to zero. Success as a racehorse implies a strong possibility of success at stud, but it certainly doesn't guarantee it, irrespective of how well supported a young sire may be. In fact, there can be an element of tall poppy syndrome when people contemplate the likelihood of a great racehorse excelling at stud. One will always find people ready to peddle the myth that top-class fillies/racemares are unlikely to become good broodmares, and one can always find people who will brush an outstanding colt off as having been 'a freak', unlikely to display similar excellence as a stallion. In Frankel's case, of course, an element of that is inevitably true because it is nigh on impossible that he could sire a horse as talented a racehorse as he himself had been. But, even so, in retrospect it was folly to predict anything but stardom for Frankel the stallion.

We do, of course, have the benefit of hindsight, but now that we have had time to digest the evidence of the 2021 racing season (which ended with Frankel as champion sire of Great Britain and Ireland, relegating Galileo to the runner-up position) the conclusion is inescapable: Frankel has stepped into his father's shoes as seamlessly as Elisha took up Elijah's mantle. If only the correlation between racing ability and success at stud was always so strong! It is going to be very interesting to see how things go from here, not least because, although Galileo may have died in July, there remains a handful of seasons in which he will still be sufficiently well represented to have a realistic chance of increasing his haul of General Sires' Championships.

Sadler's Wells holds the record for the most British/Irish sires' titles. His final year as champion sire, 2004, saw him take the title for the 14^th time, passing the record of 13 (which he had equalled the previous year). The magnitude of the achievement is shown by the fact that he was breaking a record which had stood for over 200 years, the previous record-holder Highflyer (GB) having won his 13^th and final championship in 1798. Galileo's total of championships currently stands at 12, courtesy of his being champion sire in 12 of the 13 seasons from 2008 to 2020 inclusive. (The sole interruption in his reign came in 2009 when his fellow Coolmore resident Danehill Dancer (Ire) topped the table).

Many of us had blithely assumed that Galileo would remain as champion sire for the next few seasons, would equal Sadler's Wells's total in 2022 and would pass it in 2023. The season just ending has blown that assumption out of the water, with Frankel winning the sires' championship almost as emphatically as he used to win his races. He will end the current season with progeny earnings in Great Britain and Ireland in excess of £5.25 million, not far off £1.5 million clear of the sum earned by Galileo's offspring. In fact, third-placed Dubawi (Ire), fourth-placed Sea The Stars (Ire) and fifth-placed Dark Angel (Ire) are all set to finish considerably closer to Galileo than Galileo will finish to Frankel. Looking ahead, it is, of course, very possible that Galileo could regain his crown in 2022, although the current ante-post market for the Derby is not encouraging in that respect: five horses, including two trained by Aidan O'Brien, are at odds shorter than 25/1 for the great race and none is a son of Galileo, which by recent standards is an almost unthinkable situation.

What the next 12 months will bring for Frankel is also, of course, impossible to predict. But the one thing which we can say is that, if the past is any guide to the future, his career will continue to thrive. What he has achieved so far, even allowing for the fact that he was blessed with first-class support from the outset, has been phenomenal.

Frankel's achievement which has been given the most air-time is perhaps the fact that this year he became the fastest sire to reach 50 Group winners in history. Obviously this record is meaningless compared to what stallions achieved up to and including the 1980s, when it was still the norm for stallions to cover no more than 45 mares each season and to be restricted to one stud season per year (because dual-hemisphere shuttling had not yet become an accepted practice). However, the explosion in the size of stallions' books and the widespread acceptance of shuttling took place over 30 years ago now, and there have been a lot of good sires, including Galileo obviously, whose stud careers started in the last 30 years. Furthermore, Frankel has never shuttled, although obviously he has been able to gain extra representation by covering a limited number of mares at Banstead Manor to southern hemisphere time to produce progeny to race in the Antipodes or South Africa.

An obvious example of this type of mare is Harlech (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) whom he covered in the late summer of 2016 and who produced Hungry Heart (Aus) in August 2017. Hungry Heart did plenty to boost Frankel's worldwide progeny earnings in 2021, taking the G2 Phar Lap S. at Rosehill in March, then both the G1 Vinery Stud S. at Rosehill and the G1 ATC Australian Oaks at Randwick in April. These were the first two of the 14 Group/Grade 1 races won by sons and daughters of Frankel in 2021, won by eight individual horses and spread over six countries. In fact, it is a remarkable aside to Frankel's sires' championship that fewer than half of the top-level triumphs recorded by his progeny during the year actually counted towards the title. In fairness, it has obviously helped that his two brightest stars this year have both been trained in England: Adayar (Ire) and Hurricane Lane (Ire), whose wins between them have included the Derby, Irish Derby, King George And Queen Elizabeth Stakes and St. Leger.

Overall, one has to say that Frankel's concentration of top-level triumph is remarkable. For a stallion who has recently recorded his 50^th individual Group winner, to have sired as many as 20 Group 1 winners (as he has) shows an abnormal concentration at the elite level of the stakes programme. But that's Frankel: his statistics go way beyond what in the modern world is regarded as an achievement. Historically, it used to be the case that a figure of 10% stakes winners to foals was the benchmark of a very good stallion, but the onset of big books meant that reaching the 10% mark came to be regarded as more or less unattainable. Frankel, though, has reached it comfortably. At the time of writing, and including only horses currently aged two or more, Frankel has sired 777 foals, 548 runners, 361 winners of 896 races, and 83 stakes winners of 154 stakes races, including 57 Group winners of 95 Group races. These statistics produce some stunning percentages: 10.7% stakes winners to foals, 7.3% Group winners to foals, 15.1% stakes winners to runners, 10.4% Group winners to runners. Ultimately, of course, the percentages for these crops will be even higher than this as plenty of the current two-year-olds who will turn out to be stakes performers have not yet run, never mind won at stakes level.

It would be premature to say that Galileo's ultimate total of sires' championships has been reached, or that Frankel's progeny achievements over the next, say, three seasons will outshine what the sons and daughters of Galileo will achieve in the same period. However, we can say that Frankel's annus mirabilis in 2021, following on from the very successful seasons which he had enjoyed in every year from 2016 (when he was represented by his first crop of 2-year-olds) onwards, an heir apparent to Galileo has definitely emerged. The fact that that horse happens to be the one who was himself the best racehorse ever sired by Galileo merely adds a further layer of quality for lovers of top-class thoroughbreds to savour.

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An Epsom Derby winner himself, Galileo entered stud at four in 2002, and his first 3-year-olds raced in 2006. His five Epsom Derby winners through 16 crops of 3-year-olds are New Approach (Ire) (in 2008), Ruler of the World (Ire) (2013), Australia (GB) (2014), Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (2019), and Serpentine (Ire) (2020).

In addition to Adayar for Frankel this year, New Approach's Masar (Ire) won in 2018, giving the Galileo branch of Sadler's Wells seven winners in the 16 years that Galileo has had foals old enough to contest the Derby.

New Approach is an accomplished sire, but Frankel, already with 17 Group/Grade 1 winners, is an exceptional one, and he's creating some history because it's a long-held view among pedigree historians that exceptional sire sequences last at most three generations before hegemony crumbles.

We're possibly witnessing this phenomenon in real time with the sequence of Northern Dancer/Sadler's Wells/Montjeu (Ire), for example. Like Galileo, Montjeu was a top-class racehorse and a great stallion in his own right, and with four winners of the Epsom Derby, he's tied with several others in second place. Had he not died early at 16, it's possible he'd have had more and been able to compete with Galileo, but to date he hasn't had a sire son like Galileo of the caliber of Frankel, though Camelot (Ire) is good.

Coolmore's Derby Dominance…

Sadler's Wells was raced by Robert Sangster and stood at Coolmore, and as outstanding as he was as a stallion, he didn't get his first Epsom Derby winner until he was 20, and that horse was Galileo. He did get a second winner in High Chaparral (Ire) the next year, but that was it.

Northern Dancer had three: Nijinsky (1970), The Minstrel (1977), and Secreto (1984). All of them were trained at Ballydoyle, the first two by Vincent O'Brien, and Secreto by Vincent's son David O'Brien. Secreto, who raced for Luigi Miglietti, famously upset his father's highly fancied Northern Dancer colt El Gran Senor, flying the Sangster silks, in 1984.

At that time, Coolmore boss John Magnier, whose wife Sue is Vincent O'Brien's daughter, was the junior partner in the Sangster/O'Brien group, but after O'Brien, who trained six Epsom Derby winners, retired from training in 1994, Magnier installed Aidan O'Brien (no relation to Vincent) as trainer at Ballydoyle in 1996. Two years later Galileo was born to the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea. He was bred on a foal share between David Tsui, who owned and raced Urban Sea, and Magnier's breeding entity Orpendale. The colt initially raced in Sue Magnier's colors and later in partnership with Michael Tabor. Derrick Smith arrived a few years later and together they comprise what we now call the Coolmore racing partners, with John Magnier the senior member.

The arrival of Galileo at the races coincided with the retirement of Montjeu and reignited the Derby fortunes of both Coolmore, where Sadler's Wells was aging, and Ballydoyle, which had gone through a dry spell between the two O'Briens. Montjeu had raced in Tabor's colors and had been trained by John Hammond, but from Galileo onwards, most of the Coolmore partners' big guns have been trained by Aidan O'Brien, including all the top Galileos–and there have been many.

Because of Galileo, Sue Magnier and Michael Tabor have been recognized as the owners with the most number of Epsom Derby winners, with nine–a mind-boggling achievement. Aside from Galileo (2001) and High Chaparral (2002) by Sadler's Wells, their winners (the later ones in partnership with Smith and others) are four by Galileo referenced earlier–Ruler of the World, Australia, Anthony Van Dyck, and Serpentine; two by Montjeu–Pour Moi (2011) and Camelot (2012); and one–Wings of Eagles (Fr) (2017)–by Pour Moi (Ire).

In the broader picture, each Derby winner is a member of the Sadler's Wells sire line, and keep in mind that these nine Epsom Derby wins have come over a period of 21 years, essentially meaning one every other year.

Aidan O'Brien…

Aidan O'Brien is the leading trainer of Epsom Derby winners with eight. He trained all of the above except for Pour Moi, who was trained by Andre Fabre, and he makes no secret of the fact that Galileo is the racehorse and stallion he holds well above any other.

Galileo gave O'Brien his first Derby and has supplied him as a sire with four others, so he knows what he's talking about.

In November of 2018, I made a trip to Ireland to specifically pay homage to Galileo and to speak to O'Brien, who at the time had won the Derby six times. The year before, O'Brien had won a record 28 Group 1 races, many of them with sons or daughters of Galileo, and I needed an explanation from the trainer to digest the sheer volume of gaudy numbers.

The first thing that struck me when I saw Galileo in the flesh was his size. He'd been listed at 16 hands but looked more like the 15.2 of his grandsire, whom he resembled in shape as well, if not as robustly made. But, even as an old man, he had a swagger to him and an intelligent eye that suggested a sound, bomb-proof constitution.

Meanwhile, Aidan O'Brien, who'd been at Ballydoyle for 23 years, still had a youthful appearance to him that belied his own experienced wisdom from learning about and training the great horse and his progeny for almost two decades. He's also unfailingly pleasant and polite and never fails to mention your name frequently in conversation.

When I asked him what is it about the Galileos, he said, “Sid, It's not about the exterior with them. It's not physical. It's a mental trait, Sid.”

And this is what he told me, which I'd published in this space two years ago but will reproduce again as it is poignant in remembering Galileo:

“Galileos are, like, very strange horses, meaning that they try so hard. And always with the Galileos, all you're trying to do is slow them down and relax them. With most other horses, it's the complete opposite. But Galileos, they never remember what happened yesterday. Say they got really tired–and when a horse gets really tired, they feel a bit of pain–some horses get very clever to that and they don't want to go back there anymore. So what happens is that when they start controlling that, you can only train them to a certain level because they won't let you push them any further. But with Galileos, they will give their absolute 150% every day. It's very strange. It's a mental trait, not a physical trait. Of all the horses we've ever trained, we've never seen it in another horse before. It's a gene that will carry on. It's a pure remind of him.”

That “try” that O'Brien described is a rare attribute that needs careful handling and development, something that could go awry without proper recognition and training. A lesser trainer, or one without an understanding of the Galileos, might squander what they see too early and overcook a horse before he's had a chance to show his potential, but O'Brien is meticulously patient in his handling of the Galileos, whom he oversees from as early as the time they are sent to Ballydoyle as yearlings in the autumn to be readied to race at two.

His is the type of symbiotic horsemanship that has brought out the best in the Galileos, and together they've had a mutually beneficial run that has lit up the record books.

O'Brien has won two more Derbys with sons of Galileo since my visit, and I wouldn't be surprised if he attempted to win a Gl Kentucky Derby with a colt from one of the stallion's remaining crops. It's something he mentioned to me, and as one of the architects of Galileo's success, he knows that it's a prize he'd like next to the great horse's name.

And, of course, the trainer will be looking to share a few more Derby wins at Epsom, too, with Galileo.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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Galileo is the sire of 92 worldwide Group 1 winners-more than any other stallion in history and with the latest poignantly coming on Saturday evening courtesy of Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) in the Belmont Derby-and he has arguably had a greater influence on the breed than any sire since his own grandsire Northern Dancer. Galileo has sired 338 stakes winners and 228 group winners, for earnings of over $285-million and counting.

Galileo's flagbearers have included Frankel (GB), who many consider the greatest racehorse of all time; the $10-million globetrotter Highland Reel (Ire); seven-time Group 1 winning-fillies Magical (Ire) and Minding (Ire); and a record five Derby winners, including the successful sire New Approach (Ire).

“It is a very sad day, but we all feel incredibly fortunate to have had Galileo here at Coolmore,” said Coolmore's John Magnier, who co-bred and raced Galileo and stood him at stud. “I would like to thank the dedicated people who looked after him so well all along the way. He was always a very special horse to us and he was the first Derby winner we had in Ballydoyle in the post M V O'Brien era. I would also like to thank Aidan and his team for the brilliant job they did with him. The effect he is having on the breed through his sons and daughters will be a lasting legacy and his phenomenal success really is unprecedented.”

Bred by David Tsui and Coolmore under the Orpendale banner, Galileo entered the world on Mar. 29, 1998 with a heavy burden of expectation on his shoulders, being impeccably bred as he was. By the Irish 2000 Guineas, Eclipse S. and Champion S. victor Sadler's Wells–who had just earned his sixth straight champion sire title in a run that would eventually extend to 13 consecutive and a record 14 overall–Galileo was the third foal out of Urban Sea, who was already famed as a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victress but who would go on to outdo herself as a broodmare. John Magnier's wife Susan is known for adorning Coolmore's bluebloods with the most discerning of names, and her choice for the Sadler's Wells/Urban Sea colt indicated the stratospheric hopes that they harbored for him: he was named in honour of the famed Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, whose discoveries revolutionized his field.

Galileo was placed into training with the then 31-year-old Aidan O'Brien during the fledgling trainer's fourth season at Ballydoyle, he having taken over from the legendary Vincent O'Brien in 1996. In an interview with the TDN's Emma Berry earlier this year, O'Brien recalled the aura surrounding Galileo in his early days.

“Unusually with him, before he came to Ballydoyle the world was thought of him and I suppose that was because he is out of an Arc winner and he's by Sadler's Wells,” the trainer said. “Sue named him Galileo very early.”

Galileo's debut was delayed by a cough plaguing the O'Brien yard that season, but he eventually made his keenly anticipated first trip to post at Leopardstown on Oct. 28, 2000 under the ownership of Sue Magnier, going off the even-money favourite under Mick Kinane and obliging with a 14-length victory over heavy ground.

Recalling what set Galileo apart from the many champions he has trained, and what star power he has imparted to his numerous high-class progeny, O'Brien said, “He didn't walk, he prowled. It was a very unusual thing with a horse. Horses usually come up to walk but when he used to walk, he would get down to walk. When you'd ask him to go forward the first thing that would go out and down was his head. Most horses when you ask them to go forward, up goes the head and they walk up, but he used to walk forward and walk out. His walking stride was so long and there was so much power from his front and back.”

Galileo made two starts in the run up to the Derby in the spring of his 3-year-old campaign, starting favourite both times and winning the Listed Ballysax S. over stablemate and eventual G1 St Leger scorer Milan (GB) (Sadler's Wells) and subsequent four-time G1 Irish St Leger victor Vinnie Roe (Ire) (Definite Article {GB}), and the G3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial with Michael Tabor joining the ownership line.

The stage was set at Epsom on June 9, 2001 for a showdown with Lord Weinstock's G1 2000 Guineas winner Golan (Ire) (Spectrum {Ire}), and those two were dispatched as 11-4 joint favourites. Poised two lengths off the lead and in the clear in the three path under Mick Kinane with Golan racing on his heels, Galileo loomed ominously rounding Tattenham Corner. Put to a drive by Kinane upon straightening, Galileo inhaled the front-running Mr. Combustible (Ire) and Perfect Sunday in a matter of strides and was never in danger thereafter, drawing clear to win by 3 1/2 lengths eased down as Golan closed in vain to take second. It was a monumental first Derby win for O'Brien, who in the 20 years since has racked up a record eight victories in the blue riband, all of whom descend from Sadler's Wells via Galileo or Montjeu (Ire). It was also an important first for Sadler's Wells, who by that stage had collected 10 champion sire titles and counted four Oaks winners and two 2000 Guineas winners among his honor roll, but who had not yet had a son take the Derby. Sadler's Wells would double up the following season with the O'Brien-trained High Chaparral (Ire).

Galileo was, naturally, made the heavy favourite for the G1 Irish Derby off his scintillating Epsom score. The bay was stationed slightly further back at The Curragh and pinned down on the fence, but that proved to be no problem. Creeping ominously closer to the frontrunners rounding the turn, he split rivals at the top of the straight and hit the front under a mere hand ride from Kinane, sprinting clear with one reminder of the whip and winning again eased down by four lengths.

With superiority among his generation firmly established, Galileo headed to Ascot in late July for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. and a date against elders, chief among them Godolphin's four-time Grade/Group 1-winning 5-year-old Fantastic Light (Rahy). Sitting a similar trip to the Irish Derby, Galileo got first run on Fantastic Light in the lane and, despite his rival soon escaping from a pocket and coming to eyeball him in the final quarter-mile, turned him back to post a two-length victory. The King George proved to be Galileo's highest-rated victory, and placed him among an elite group to have done the Derby double and the King George, the others being Nijinsky, Grundy (GB), The Minstrel, Troy (GB), Shergar (GB) and Generous (Ire).

The stage was set for the continuation of a budding rivalry at Leopardstown in September in the G1 Irish Champion S., and Galileo and Fantastic Light didn't disappoint. This time, Galileo spotted Fantastic Light a length in midpack. He was forced wide by a tiring Give The Slip (GB) turning for home, which may have left him at a disadvantage as Fantastic Light ducked through an opening on the rail, but it is anyone's guess as to what the outcome may have been otherwise, with each horse incredibly game as they battled down the stretch. Fantastic Light held on to his narrow advantage and handed Galileo his first ever defeat.

Though races like the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe or Champion S. would have served as a fine conclusion to Galileo's glittering racing career, connections again advertised their lofty opinion of the colt by taking a highly unconventional route and signing him up for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park. Galileo proved flat footed after chasing a hot pace on the dirt that day, coming home sixth behind the epic battle of defending winner Tiznow (Cee's Tizzy) and Arc winner Sakhee (Bahri).

“With the benefit of hindsight it was an unrealistic target to ask him to do that after having such a tough season and racing against the older horses, but it was the belief that was in him, the belief that everyone had in him, that we thought it could be possible that it could happen,” O'Brien recalled. “I remember when he came in, he was after trying so hard he was almost crying. He was so genuine.”

An important chapter at Ballydoyle came to a close thereafter, as Galileo retired with six wins from eight starts, earnings of £1,621,110, a Timeform rating of 134 and European champion 3-year-old honours. But for all he accomplished in his own right from the world's most famous yard, what he has given back to it in the ensuing years has been simply transcendent.

By the time Galileo went to stud, Sadler's Wells's champion sire title count had extended to 11, and Urban Sea's half-brother King's Best (Kingmambo) had done his part to boost the pedigree in winning the millennium G1 2000 Guineas. Galileo entered stud at Coolmore in 2002 for 50,000 Irish Pounds, and had dipped to €37,500 by the time his first runners hit racecourses in 2005.

From a first crop of 126 foals, Galileo got off to a solid start in his first season with runners, with 13 winners headed by the listed-winning Innocent Air (Ire) and the stakes-placed Galileo's Star (Ire) and Global Genius (Ire). While his debut season was promising, Galileo's potency was a secret no more by the end of his second, with Nightime (Ire)-now the dam of multiple Group 1 winner Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Grade I winner Zhukova (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus})-becoming his first Classic winner in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas, Sixties Icon (GB) his second in the G1 St Leger and Teofilo (Ire) his first 2-year-old champion on the merit of victories in the G1 Dewhurst S. and G1 National S. Teofilo's Jim Bolger-trained stablemate New Approach mirrored that juvenile Group 1 double the following season, just months after Galileo's Soldier Of Fortune (Ire) won the G1 Irish Derby, and New Approach would the following year go on to emulate his sire in the Derby and take the Irish Champion and Champion S. en route to a successful stud career that has included his own Derby winner in Masar (GB). From the same crop as New Approach and likewise trained by Bolger–who continues to be rewarded by a significant early investment in Galileo–Lush Lashes scooped the G1 Coronation S., G1 Yorkshire Oaks and G1 Matron S. in 2008.

By the time New Approach and Lush Lashes were doing their best work, Galileo's fee had been switched to private, having been listed at €150,000 the season prior, which is the way it remained for the rest of his stud career. By the end of 2009, Galileo had sired 63 stakes winners, 12 of those at the highest level. His flagbearer that season was Rip Van Winkle (Ire), who had to settle for second behind Galileo's Guineas, Derby, and Arc-winning half-brother Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) in the G1 Coral-Eclipse but who went on to win the G1 Sussex S., G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. and the following year's G1 Juddmonte International.

And just when it became apparent that Galileo's progeny could do it all, from champion 2-year-olds to brilliant milers, hard-knocking stayers and everything in between, along came the colt that would outshine them all, and now, in the stud barn, appears poised as his sire's heir apparent.

By the time Frankel (GB) appeared on race day for the first time at Newmarket on Aug. 13, 2010, word was out on Khalid Abdullah's homebred who, like his sire, has been bestowed with the name of a legend in his field, this time the American Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel. Frankel's victory that day over Nathaniel (Ire)-also by Galileo and the subsequent winner of the King George and Eclipse S.-kicked off a procession of 14 wins from 14 starts for trainer Sir Henry Cecil, from seven furlongs to a mile and a quarter and encompassing 10 Group 1s. Frankel's six-length front-running blitz of the 2011 2000 Guineas was one of the most visually astonishing performances in the race's history, while his highest-rated victories came courtesy of his 11- and seven-length scores in the G1 Queen Anne S. and G1 Juddmonte International the following season. Frankel's Timeform rating of 147 is the highest ever assigned to a flat horse, and he has continued to build on a quick start at stud, with shades of his sire in his accomplishment of siring both this year's English and Irish Derby winners.

Though he was doubtless the star turn, Frankel was far from a one-horse show for Galileo at the turn of the decade, other standouts including the Irish Derby, Irish Champion S. and triple American Grade I-winning Cape Blanco (Ire); dual French Classic victress Golden Lilac (Ire); Irish Derby and GI Secretariat S. winner Treasure Beach (GB); Oaks and Irish Oaks winners Was (Ire) and Great Heavens (GB); and Irish Guineas winners Misty For Me (Ire) and Roderic O'Connor (Ire).

In 2013 Galileo provided his second Derby winner when Ruler of the World (Ire) obliged in just his third start for Aidan O'Brien, the day before Intello (Ger) gave their sire another Derby double when taking the G1 Prix du Jockey Club. Australia (GB) made it back-to-back blue ribands for Galileo in 2014, and emulated his sire with the double in the Irish Derby before dropping back in trip to take the Juddmonte International.

Gleneagles (Ire) was the headline act in 2015, doubling up in the 2000 and Irish 2000 Guineas in addition to victory in the G1 St James's Palace S. Found (Ire) became her sire's third winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf in 2015 before leading home a trifecta for her sire in the following year's Arc, while Highland Reel became his fourth Breeders' Cup Turf winner the following season in the midst of a career that would see him win seven Group 1s in three countries, becoming Galileo's highest-ever earner. Minding (Ire), likewise, won seven Group 1s across 2015/16, and her full-sister Empress Josephine (Ire) took the latest renewal of the Irish 1000 Guineas in May.

Other standouts in the latter half of the decade included dual Group 1-winning juvenile and dual Guineas winner Churchill (Ire); multiple Group 1-winning stayer Order Of St George (Ire); Arc winner Waldgeist (Ire); four-time Group 1 and Classic winner Winter (Ire); triple Group 1 winner Decorated Knight (GB); multiple Group 1-winning sisters Magical (Ire) and Rhododendron (Ire); Oaks winner Forever Together (Ire) and dual Guineas winner Hermosa (Ire). Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) and Serpentine (Ire) became Galileo's fourth and fifth Derby winners in 2019 and 2020 for O'Brien, and last June Peaceful (Ire) became Galileo's record-breaking 85th Group 1 winner, with the baton passed from Danehill. This year, the standard-bearer is champion 3-year-old filly Love (Ire), who made a belated return worth the wait with a stirring victory in the G1 Prince of Wales's S. last month at Royal Ascot. The aforementioned Empress Josephine is one of two filly Classic winners this year for Galileo, the other being the G1 Prix de Diane scorer Joan Of Arc (Ire).

Galileo has been champion sire in Britain and Ireland all bar one year since 2008 and earned his first champion broodmare sire title in 2020, a category in which he is way out in front currently in 2021.

Aidan O'Brien said on Saturday, “He was an unbelievable horse for everybody involved with him. What he did was exceptional. John [Magnier] did an incredible job managing him and recognised the mares that were going to suit him. He recognised how good he was very young, and he was always so highly thought of before he even came to Ballydoyle. He was our first Derby winner from Ballydoyle, and we were so fortunate to have him. It's an incredible story, and obviously we'll probably never see it ever again. What made him very special was the attitude that he put into his stock. We'd never seen anything like that.

“He looked different as well going through his races–he didn't look like any other Thoroughbred. He had loads of genuine power. His stock had that as well, and the determination to put their heads out the same way he galloped. He'll be sorely missed by us all.”

Sorely missed, indeed, but not soon forgotten, with a legacy sure to shine bright for generations to come through his sons and daughters.

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Undoubtedly there will have been Victorian scientists who owed their own existence to the loss of a mother. But sometimes that cruel trade-off might be redressed by another: having survived, the infant could be raised to contribute to the sum of human knowledge; could even improve our understanding of why these things happen, and how to make them happen less often.

A similar calculation applies to our quest for greatness in Thoroughbreds. We know that these animals are fragile, that their very existence—being predicated on exercise, competition and breeding—will inevitably expose them to a degree of risk. But we also know that we can proceed with a clear conscience, when our management of the breed can yield a champion as glorious as Frankel (GB). So while there will doubtless be grief among those who have tended this venerable mare for many years, they must console themselves that her service to the breed amply redeems the relatively marginal risk it entailed.

That comfort, moreover, will be shared by all those who lavish no less care—in all weathers, 365 days a year—on Thoroughbreds that contribute nothing to the breed, other than a hint as to the kind of breeding formula to avoid in future. Because all these endeavours share the same purpose; and we all need the example of a freak like Frankel to make sense of the collective enterprise.

Many of us will have shared the same immediate reaction, on hearing that Kind had succumbed to complications arising from the delivery of a Kingman (GB) colt last week: how poignant, that one of the pillars of this extraordinary breeding empire should have crumbled so soon after the loss of its founder. And not only how poignant but also, on some inexpressible level, how apt. But you can be sure that Prince Khalid Abdullah himself would be anxious to share the credit, for Kind, with those who had cultivated her family with the same far-sighted principles that characterised his own intervention.

The Prince welcomed his first homebred winner in 1982, a thrill that sustained a period of around 15 years during which—with the particular assistance of James Delahooke—he targeted well-bred, well-shaped females from various sources: at auction, both as yearlings and broodmares; in private deals with other breeders; and absorbing such carefully curated herds as came with Belair Farm and Ferrans Stud.

Then, in 1983, came the mares kept by John Hay 'Jock' Whitney at Mount Coote Stud in Ireland. These famously included Rockfest, the granddam of Kind. But the line had passed relatively briefly through Whitney's hands, Jeremy Tree having bought him Rockfest's dam Rock Garden as a yearling in 1971. (Tree had meanwhile become The Prince's first trainer and was instrumental in securing the Whitney herd.) Kind's family had much deeper roots in the Oxfordshire stud of Lady Wyfold, whose father-in-law had bought a pregnant mare at a dispersal sale in Berkshire, in the last weeks of peace before World War I. The filly she delivered in the spring of 1915 was the first in a chain of half a dozen Sarsden graduates extending to Rock Garden.

These included the 1942 Queen Mary winner Samovar, who incidentally produced two highly accomplished siblings in Zabara (GB) (1000 Guineas) and Rustam (GB), a sharp juvenile who stood at Mount Coote for a while. Samovar is the sixth dam of Kind.

Rock Garden, a Chepstow maiden winner, had delivered Rockfest after Whitney sent her to his homeland for a date with Stage Door Johnny, whose success in the 1968 Belmont S. defused one of the most explosive Triple Crown series in history. That's another story, but I think Stage Door Johnny is close enough in Frankel's pedigree to be credited with some role in the hard-running style we often see in his stock. He's a tremendously wholesome influence, for sure: his sire Prince John was by Princequillo and proved a particularly effective broodmare sire; and his dam was by Ballymoss (GB), that deep well of stamina.

Rock Garden was a fairly mediocre producer, Rockfest proving the most distinguished of her foals as runner-up in the G3 Lingfield Oaks Trial. In turn, Rockfest produced her only really worthwhile dividend as a broodmare in Rainbow Lake (GB). Being by a staying influence as thorough as Rainbow Quest (GB), unsurprisingly Rainbow Lake's keynote performance came with an emphasis on stamina, winning the G3 Lancashire Oaks by seven lengths. That qualified her as hot favourite for the G1 Yorkshire Oaks, but she ran poorly then and in her only subsequent start.

Rainbow Lake, of course, became the dam of Kind—whose own strengths, as a prolific sprinter trained by Tree's Beckhampton successor Roger Charlton—tell us much about the astounding capacities of her sire Danehill.

Frankel famously combines those twin highways to the breed-shaping Northern Dancer, Sadler's Wells and Danzig, through their most important respective sons in Galileo and Danehill. When Rainbow Lake was sent to Sadler's Wells, in 1999, she duly came up with a top-class middle-distance operator in Powerscourt (Ire), whose sustained bid for a glamorous prize over 10 furlongs eventually paid off in the GI Arlington Million but who stayed well enough to have closed to within a length of Vinnie Roe (Ire) (Definite Article {GB}) in the G1 Irish St Leger. For her next cover, Rainbow Lake went to Danehill and came up with this 103-rated, stakes-winning sprinter, Kind.

Sure enough, when Kind was herself sent for consecutive coverings by Sadler's Wells, Galileo and then again Galileo, the idea was that she might come up with the optimal equilibrium between speed and stamina. As aspirations go, pretty hackneyed. The results, as we all know, were not quite so standard.

Yes, the Sadler's Wells earned his place in the Derby by making all the Lingfield Trial: but Bullet Train (GB) bombed out at Epsom, and Sir Henry eventually decided that since all he could do was keep going, he could serve his kid brother as pacemaker. He performed this role dutifully in the last six starts of his career.

Frankel had by then become the closest many of us have seen to the grail, that elusive blend sought by so many breeders who usually end up with slow sprinters or short-winded stayers. I have always said that the way he carried his speed, once he had calmed down, would have made Frankel no less a legend on dirt. It's a shame that circumstances did not permit that experiment—nor indeed much else in the way of adventure, with maybe a crack at the Arc instead—once he had established his dominion on home soil. As a stallion, however, he has been a conduit for the trademark assets of Galileo (let-me-run-through-that-wall) to the extent of winning a Leger.

So it's been fascinating to follow Noble Mission (GB), his brother, both on the track and at stud. He never had Frankel's brilliance, but showed much of his indomitability in winning three Group 1s—notably when bowing out, just like his brother, with a slugfest in the Ascot mire. Sadly, things have not worked out for the Bluegrass farm that tried to live up to his name, even though he produced a Kentucky Derby runner-up at the first attempt. It proved as hopeless a mission as it was a noble one, trying to overcome the local commercial prejudice against turf, and the horse was recently exported to Japan. In their mutual aversion to bloodlines tested on each other's preferred surfaces, American and European breeders are vying with each other in myopia. And in amnesia, too, looking at the game-changing traffic of years past. As it is, the Japanese are picking up the pieces, and will have the last laugh.

Juddmonte did subsequently attempt to repeat the kind of twist that had paid off with Rainbow Lake, giving Kind a couple of home-farm dates with a faster stallion in Oasis Dream (GB). This was around the time Oasis Dream came up with his decoy Midday (GB), however, so possibly that was a fairly equivocal gamble. Anyhow the results were a decent handicapper at a mile and, a priceless bequest to the broodmare band, a dual stakes-winning sprinter in Joyeuse (GB).

In fairness, it's not as though Danehill was simply a conduit of Danzig speed. Certainly his versatility looks commercially vital to Frankel, given all those stamina influences loaded elsewhere: Galileo, Rainbow Quest, Stage Door Johnny. Actually it may be that Frankel tempered these with some of the dash concentrated in all those Sarsden House mares, who were by largely forgotten English stallions. Rock Garden, for instance, was by the miler Roan Rocket (GB); while her granddam was by a July Cup winner (and, as already noted, out of a Queen Mary winner).

A long game, this, after all. Genetic legacy is about accretion; about noticing the pale glimmers rising and fading somewhere within the dark tangle, and patiently working those strands closer to the surface. Some people have talked of Kind as though she were some kind of token in the nicking manual (“insert Danehill mare here”). That view is too fatuous to dignify with attention on the day when we mourn her passage from flesh and blood to a vicarious afterlife, through Frankel, Joyeuse and others, within the binding of the Stud Book.

It does sound as though age had, in recent years, increasingly recalled Kind to her mortal limitations. But who knows? Perhaps her orphaned colt will thrive for a foster mare, and someday extend the legacy anew. Regardless, the same, natural processes of maternity that have now taken her away have long since guaranteed her immortality.

The post Mourning a Kind of Immortality appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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We've all seen 2-year-olds burn brightly in their maidens only to fizzle out when put to the sword in Classic trials. History, of course, relates that this would not be the case for Galileo. Born to be a champion, he more than fulfilled that birthright on the racecourse, making the diverse challenges of Epsom and the Curragh look like Sunday afternoon strolls before being involved in two epic battles with the outstanding older horse of the time, Fantastic Light, at Ascot and Leopardstown. 

Despite all the prowess displayed by the colt, those involved with him throughout his racing days could not have dared to imagine the level of success that would follow in his stud career. Or could they?

Aidan O'Brien, who trained Galileo for John and Sue Magnier and Michael and Doreen Tabor, is the man that knew the young horse best. He says, “Unusually with him, before he came to Ballydoyle the world was thought of him and I suppose that was because he is out of an Arc winner and he's by Sadler's Wells. Sue named him Galileo very early.”

There's no shortage of Ballydoyle horses with portentous names but it wasn't just Galileo's breeding that led his owners and trainer to dream that his destiny was written in the stars. Though medium-sized and not obviously physically imposing, the athleticism of the colt made an instant impression.

“He didn't walk, he prowled,” O'Brien continues. “It was a very unusual thing with a horse. Horses usually come up to walk but when he used to walk, he would get down to walk. When you'd ask him to go forward the first thing that would go out and down was his head. Most horses when you ask them to go forward, up goes the head and they walk up, but he used to walk forward and walk out. His walking stride was so long and there was so much power from his front and back, so I suppose the lads had him as a king before he came here.”

Just last week St Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr})—himself out of a mare by Galileo—was confirmed as the eleventh champion 2-year-old produced by Aidan O'Brien in his 28-year training career. Galileo, having just had that one outing, wasn't one of them, but he would soon atone for his later start.

“We got him ready a few times to run but there was a bit of coughing in the yard that season,” O'Brien recalls. “We thought he was going to be our Dewhurst horse but we never got him out, so he ran in a maiden at Leopardstown, Michael Kinane rode him and he won by 12 or 14 lengths. Everything about him was always very different but obviously we would never have expected what happened to happen.”

Galileo's road to the Classics was altogether smoother, navigated initially alongside another son of Sadler's Wells, Milan (GB), who would go on to win the St Leger.

“He did everything with Milan and went everywhere with him until we saw what Milan was,” says their trainer.

Indeed, Milan was runner-up to Galileo in the Ballysax S. on their first outing of the season, with subsequent four-time Irish St Leger winner Vinnie Roe (Ire) completing a classy trifecta. Galileo's final tune-up for Epsom came in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, the third run of his life and the third time that the horse with the big walk and bigger reputation would line up as favourite.

By the time Derby Day 2001 dawned, Sadler's Wells had already been champion sire ten times. Though his list of Oaks winners by that stage featured Salsabil (GB), Intrepidity (GB) and Moonshell (Ire), and Entrepreneur (GB) and King Of Kings (Ire) had both won the 2000 Guineas, there was a glaring omission from the great stallion's stud record: Epsom's blue riband. Galileo delivered not just his sire's first victory in the Derby but also the first of eight—and counting—for his trainer.

“I remember walking the track with Michael before the Derby and he said what he was going to do, and exactly where he was going to ride him and where he was going to have him at full stretch,” says O'Brien. “It was incredible really, he just turned in and [Michael] had him balanced and slowly let him go, and I remember that his stride just opened up and started getting longer and longer. He pulled up full of running, he didn't look anywhere near empty at the line.”

Galileo's three-and-a-half-length victory over Ballymacoll Stud's 2000 Guineas winner Golan (Ire) made him odds-on to bring up the Derby double back on his home turf at the Curragh. This he did with ease, his four-length victory delivering another first, this time for Kinane, who won his 'home' Derby at his 18th attempt. Galileo may have got noticeably warm at the start, but it was no sweat for Kinane throughout the Irish Derby as he unleashed his cruising mount two furlongs from home before easing him ahead of the line.

With the Breeders' Cup Classic, over ten furlongs on the dirt, nominated as Galileo's unorthodox end-of-season target as early as midsummer, the colt nevertheless remained at a mile and a half for arguably the best performance of his life. The regard in which the Derby winner was held was evident in the fact that he was chalked up as as the odds-on favourite for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. ahead of Godolphin's 5-year-old Fantastic Light, who arrived at Ascot on the back of wins in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup and G1 Prince of Wales's S. 

In its Racehorses of 2001 annual, Timeform noted, “On a sweltering afternoon and before a record crowd of 38,410, Ascot, it seemed to some, was to be the scene not of a contest but of a coronation.”

'The King', as he had long been regarded by his co-breeders at Coolmore, was crowned. Galileo joined an elite group of horses to have won the Derby, Irish Derby and King George, adding his name to the illustrious sextet of Nijinsky, Grundy (GB), The Minstrel, Troy (GB), Shergar (GB) and Generous (Ire).  

This sixth consecutive victory would prove to be Galileo's last but his following race, back to ten furlongs and again up against Fantastic Light in the Irish Champion S., would go down as one of the most memorable duels of the modern era. Once their respective pacemakers had cried enough, the Leopardstown straight was there for the taking, royal blue and dark blue locked in battle as Fantastic Light, getting first run up the rail when Galileo was forced wide around Give The Slip (GB), maintained his advantage to the line by a rapidly diminishing head. 

“I think it's harder than we realise for the 3-year olds going up against the older horses in the summer,” says O'Brien. “A 3-year old against a 4-year old is very tough but a 3-year old against a 5-year old is even tougher. I think they need every bit of it [the weight allowance] and it's only the very good ones who can do it. Age at that stage—from three to four, four to five—age is an awful advantage, that toughness and the foundation. Really 3-year-olds are only babies, especially those middle-distance horses at that stage.”

With Galileo apparently never considered to be given the chance to emulate his mother's Arc victory, America beckoned, but not for the potentially easier and more obvious target of the Breeders' Cup Turf. Galileo became the greatest to gallop around Southwell's fibresand during an away day in preparation for his trip to Belmont Park for the Breeders' Cup Classic, a race which would see him take on the previous year's winner Tiznow and Arc winner Sakhee. Just a nose separated that pair at the wire with Galileo battling home in vain to take sixth.

“With the benefit of hindsight it was an unrealistic target to ask him to do that after having such a tough season and racing against the older horses, but it was the belief that was in him, the belief that everyone had in him, that we thought it could be possible that it could happen,” O'Brien reflects.

Timeform noted that Galileo returned from the race with swollen eyes and sore heels and his trainer recalls the effect the dirt kickback had on him.

He says, “I remember when he came in, he was after trying so hard he was almost crying. He was so genuine.”

If that at the time felt an inauspicious end to Galileo's career, in truth it was only the beginning of something far greater. His phenomenal run at stud continues apace: with 12 champion sire titles he is closing in on his own outstanding sire's record of 14. He has already surpassed Sadler's Wells's tally of Group 1 winners and last year set a new record of 85, passing another Coolmore great, Danehill, when Peaceful (Ire) won the Irish 1000 Guineas. Moreover, the Derby winner of 20 years ago is now the most successful Derby sire of all time, with Serpentine (Ire) becoming his fifth winner of the Epsom Classic in 2020.

Galileo's success is far from restricted to his own former stable but he has had an extraordinary influence on the fortunes of Ballydoyle as well as the rampant training career of Aidan O'Brien, with whose name he will forever be entangled. That his own athletic genes have been imparted so successfully is beyond question but the trainer knows that preparing racehorses goes beyond just getting them fit. Young Thoroughbreds must be mentally equipped to deal with the challenge and it is in this sphere which Galileo's own natural blend of talent and fortitude gives his offspring an edge.

“The mental attitude is vital. That's what makes them different to others,” says the man who has trained more of Galileo's stock than any other. “You can't see it physically when you see a Galileo, because it's in their mind, but when you start working them and galloping them, then you see it. It's that will to win and that absolute genuineness. It's the way they move and that action which makes them get down and gallop and it doesn't allow them to give up. Most horses when they're starting to get tired, they come back and curl up, but Galileos, their movement and their determination doesn't allow them to do that. It's very rare and I think that's why his influence will continue for a long, long time.”

Of Galileo's contribution to Coolmore and Ballydoyle over the last two decades, he adds, “It's incredible really, and to have that for John, Sue, Michael and Doreen, it was incredible. I suppose what made it very different was because they had called it all the way with him. John was so sure about his pedigree and the way he was bred, and John and Michael had it in their heads, the mares that were going to suit him, even before it happened really. It's incredible the amount of individual Group 1 winners by him that we've had, from six furlongs to two-and-a-half miles.”

In Galileo's Classic season, O'Brien also trained Imagine (Ire) to win the Oaks, the filly leading home a 1-2-3 for Sadler's Wells, while Galileo's erstwhile workmate Milan went on to win the St Leger. Of course, with Galileo, Sadler's Wells is only one half of a heady combination. His dam Urban Sea already looked a special broodmare by the time he won the Derby and her extraordinary development into a true blue hen has been aided especially by Galileo's half-brother, Sea The Stars (Ire), whose superior racing versatility saw him win the Guineas as well as the Derby and retire in a blaze of glory following the Arc. When discussions turn to the best racehorses of the recent era, opinion is usually divided between Sea The Stars and Galileo's own masterpiece, the outstanding Frankel (GB).

Inevitably, though, the son will always be measured against the father in the pantheon of champion sires and Galileo will not be found wanting.

“I don't think anyone could have believed that there was ever going to be another horse even anywhere close to Sadler's Wells,” says O'Brien.

For we fortunate followers of breeding and racing in the 21st century, it has been a privilege to watch history in the making. 

The post Twenty Years On: Recalling Galileo’s Classic Season appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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I suspect the only daughter of Chati bred to the keystone of Coolmore was Gossiping, a foal of 1981 who is the fourth dam of Charmaine's Mia, the winner of the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 9, when she ran the six furlongs in 1:07.81.

That swift time is listed as a new course record. While a sprint record might seem peculiar for a descendant of the great European classic sire, Gossiping was the third foal from the fine producer Minstinguette (Boldnesian) and was a year younger than her half-sister, European highweight sprinter Committed (Hagley).

A winner of 13 races from 22 starts, including a trio of Group 1 sprints in Europe, Committed was a racehorse of a very high order. Her half-sister was notably different, winning only a single race from 19 starts. Nonetheless, Gossiping was a half-sister to the great mare, and as Minstinguette produced two more stakes winners and a stakes-placed performer during her distinguished career as a broodmare, Gossiping was clearly a desirable broodmare.

She was, moreover, as big a success at stud as she had been disappointing on the racetrack. Gossiping's second foal was Idle Talk (Assert), who ran third in the Oaks Trial in England; her fourth foal was Musicale (The Minstrel), who won six of eight starts, including a quartet of G3 stakes at two and three; and the mare's sixth named foal was Grapevine (Sadler's Wells), who finished second in the Cheshire Oaks.

Grapevine's year-older full-sister was Wild Rumour, who was a winner from four starts. She produced Sadler's Trick, a stakes-placed racer by champion Favorite Trick among her seven winners, and the second dam of Charmaine's Mia was an unplaced daughter of Metropolitan Handicap winner Honour and Glory named Sadler's Charm. This mare produced two winners from 10 foals, but one of those winners was the Bernstein mare Charming Vixen, who was successful in the 2011 Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Charmaine's Mia is the first foal of Charming Vixen, and the 5-year-old has won five races from 26 starts, earning $232,976. Victory in the Las Cienegas made Charmaine's Mia the 30th stakes winner and ninth graded winner for her sire, the War Front stallion The Factor.

Josh Stevens signed for Charming Vixen as a broodmare prospect at the 2014 Keeneland January sale on behalf of Gunpowder Farm (Tom Keithley and Erica deVinney).

Stevens said, “Charming Vixen was a solid prospect, and we gave $80,000 for her. I was working for Margaux at the time and signed it that way, as agent. The mare was a pretty mare, and when we bought Charming Vixen, the owners were hoping to reinvigorate [the Round Table-line stallion] K One King and also breed something that was commercially viable.”

Bred in Kentucky by Gunpowder Farm, Charmaine's Mia had a rocky reception at sales. She was a $40,000 RNA as a weanling, then sold for $4,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September sale; that price placed the filly in the bottom decile among yearlings by her sire, whose 63 yearlings averaged $47,922 that year.

Clark Shepherd was a partner in the consigning agency, Allied Bloodstock, and he recalled the filly, saying, “When we presented her at the sales, she was kind of small, and The Factor wasn't strong in the marketplace at that time. That combination, with a physical that wasn't appealing to the market, put a formidable cap on the filly's commercial place in the sale.”

Fortunately, racehorses aren't the same as sales horses, and sometimes those who are not tall keep growing; some who are immature progress to strength; and some who are last at the sales are first at the finish. Stakes-placed in the Catch a Glimpse Stakes at two, Charmaine's Mia has clearly left her sales appraisal far behind.

After purchasing Charming Vixen, Stevens left Margaux to become the racing manager for Gunpowder Farm and now is an independent bloodstock agent. He said, “Gunpowder Farms had a couple of really good years at the racetrack with horses like Divisidero and others, and this is the kind of racehorse that Gunpowder was trying to breed.”

Charming Vixen's second foal is Boatloadofnerve (Magician), who is a winner from eight starts, and that now-4-year-old filly sold as a yearling for $1,100 at 2018 Keeneland September sale.

At the 2017 Keeneland November sale, Charming Vixen herself sold for $20,000 in foal to Hit it a Bomb. The buyer was KOID, and Charming Vixen produced a bay filly of 2018 in Korea that has since been named Charming Boom. The mare has been barren the last two years.

Charming Boom was unplaced in her first two starts, both late last year at two. Considering this family, however, progress at three would be a reasonable expectation.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: The Unlikely Path Of Charmaine’s Mia appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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