DUAL Group 2 winner Battle Of Marengo, one of the leading colts of his generation at two and three, is to retire to Ballyhane Stud for 2015. His fee has been set at €6,000.

A son of multiple champion sire Galileo, Battle Of Marengo emerged as one of the top Irish two-year-olds of 2012 when winning three of his four starts.

After winning his maiden at Gowran Park by 11 lengths Battle Of Marengo then stepped to listed level for the ICON Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf Trial Stakes at Leopardstown where he defeated for the subsequent Irish Derby winner Trading Leather. He then ended his season with a commanding success in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes.

A leading classic fancy for 2013, Battle Of Marengo embarked on an identical route to the one taken by his sire Galileo by starting his season with victory in the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes.

The following month he returned to Leopardstown for the Group 2 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial where he readily defeated the Group 1-winning two-year-old Loch Garman.

Those victories set him up for an Epsom Derby bid where he posted a commendable effort from the front to be beaten less than two lengths into fourth by Ruler Of The World.

Following a fruitless Meydan campaign last winter and a spell in Newmarket with trainer David Simcock, the horse becomes the second son of Galileo at Ballyhane, alongside Roderic O’Connor.

Joe Foley commented: “I’m delighted to have secured Battle Of Marengo for Ballyhane as I was a big fan of the horse. He’s obviously high-class, has a exciting stallion’s pedigree and is a gorgeous, masculine, athletic horse.”