ALMOST lost among the plethora of talent on show at Ballydoyle recently, Aidan O’Brien had this to say about one of the unexposed three-year-old colts in his care, Causeway (Wootton Bassett).

“We have an eye on the [Irish Racing Writers Association] Madrid Handicap for him this weekend at Naas. He could be a Paddington-type of horse, but will stay. He won his maiden very easily second time out at the Curragh.” The Paddington reference was to the fact that this premier handicap, for which Causeway carried top-weight of 9st 12lbs, was won in 2023 by the son of Siyouni after a two-start career at two that saw him also win a maiden at the Curragh.

Paddington captured the imagination of many outside racing too following a stellar season that saw him go on to win five more races, graduating from a listed success in the Tetrarch Stakes to winning four Group 1 contests, namely the Irish 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes, the Eclipse Stakes and the Sussex Stakes. Now at stud in Coolmore, Paddington’s first crop are yearlings.

Bred by Coolmore, Causeway had to battle for victory on Sunday, leading many to wonder if O’Brien had perhaps overhyped the colt when mentioning him in the same breath as Paddington. However, his pedigree suggests that he will improve with time, and the trainer was keen to stress that he believes Causeway will mature, and needs to go further than the seven furlongs over which both his wins have come.

Causeway’s year-older full-sister Island Hopping (Wootton Bassett) won a two-year-old maiden over a mile at Gowran, and put up a career-best performance last year when third to Minnie Hauk in the 12-furlong Group 1 Irish Oaks. She was beaten half a length in a Group 3 at Cork, and on her final outing last year she was tried over two miles at the Curragh. Ten furlongs and more will suit Causeway.

Island Hopping and Causeway are the first two foals, followed by a yearling son of Contrail (Deep Impact), out of Heaven Of Heavens (Galileo). She made a couple of inauspicious starts at two, but her pedigree was so strong that there was never any doubt that she would be whisked off to stud and covered by the best stallions available. Two of her older full-sisters, Rhododendron (Galileo) and Magical, had been racing stars for Ballydoyle, and the former has already made her mark as a dam.

Dozen wins

Magical’s dozen wins included seven victories in Group 1 company, among them two wins each in the Irish Champion Stakes and the Tattersalls Gold Cup. Her other top-level wins were in the Champion Stakes and the British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes at Ascot, and the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh. On seven other occasions she was runner-up at the highest level, notably to Enable and Tarnawa in separate editions of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Rhododendron ‘only’ won three Group 1 races, one each in the three seasons she raced. On two of these occasions she beat Hydrangea by a head, in the Fillies’ Mile at two and the Prix de l’Opera at three, while as a four-year-old she again showed her battling qualities to capture the Lockinge Stakes by a short head. More importantly now, Rhododendron’s first foal is the dual Derby hero and six-time Group/Grade 1 winner Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact).

What an inspired purchase Demi O’Byrne made 20 years ago, in 2006, when he gave €450,000 at Goffs for a filly who turned out to be the dam of Magical and Rhododendron. Halfway To Heaven (Pivotal) went on to win the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas, Group 1 Nassau Stakes and Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes, three of her four successes. While she was doing this, and later becoming an outstanding broodmare, her own family’s success was exploding.

Cassandra Go

Two of Halfway To Heaven’s half-sisters bred Grade 1 winners, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf scorer Victoria Road (Saxon Warrior) and dual winner at the highest grade, Photo Call (Galileo). Halfway To Heaven’s dam Cassandra Go (Indian Ridge) was a high-class sprinter, winning the (now Group 1) King’s Stand Stakes. The best of nine winners from her dam, a number of Cassandra Go’s siblings have also become very successful broodmares, and other Group 1 winners appearing in the family include the likes of Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter (Teofilo), and last year’s most-improved three-year-old colt, Bay City Roller (New Bay).

The loss of Wootton Bassett was a huge blow to Coolmore and the wider breeding community, and his final crop of foals are on this ground this spring. He will have many more opportunities to add to his current tally of 19 Group/Grade 1 winners. Could Causeway be one in the future?

Gorgeous looks odds-on to be a star

THE final leg of a treble for Aidan O’Brien at Naas was delivered by the three-year-old debutante Drop Dead Gorgeous. If there is a better-bred filly in training, I would love to know who she is. “We think this is a very smart filly” was the trainer’s comment recently, and the manner of this win at Naas did nothing to change that view I am certain.

This was O’Brien’s fourth win in the race in six years, and his trio of other winners comprises the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Empress Josephine, Group 1 Oaks heroine Tuesday, and the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera runner-up Jackie Oh. Drop Dead Gorgeous has much to live up to, but she must be odds-on to do so.

Drop Dead Gorgeous is a daughter of the exceptional Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), and the ninth foal and ninth winner for her Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes-winning dam You’resothrilling (Storm Cat).

The previous eight include four Group 1 winners, six pattern winners, and seven stakes winners. Her only non-stakes winner, Vatican City, was less than two lengths behind Siskin in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas. All of these first eight offspring are sons and daughters of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), and You’resothrilling’s tenth foal is a yearling colt by Frankel (Galileo).

One can only imagine how precious the Frankel yearling must be, in the hope that one day he will be good enough to join the stallion roster at Coolmore.

Three of his dam’s Group 1 winners are mares, Happily (Moyglare Stud Stakes and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere), Joan Of Arc (Prix de Diane-French Oaks) and Marvellous (Irish 1000 Guineas), but the colt is none other than Gleneagles. Successful in the Group 1 National Stakes at two, he went on to become the best miler of his generation at three with wins in 2000 Guineas in Ireland and England, and the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Best racehorse

Gleneagles has sired 28 group winners, six of them at the highest level, and he is currently enjoying time in the limelight thanks to the exploits of his son Calandagan, the best racehorse in the world at this time. That Aga Khan Studs-bred gelding this weekend aims to take his tally of Group 1 victories to five, and in a fourth racing territory.

This elite family of Drop Dead Gorgeous does not stop at You’resothrilling and her progeny. Her dam is one of two stakes winners out of the dual Grade 2 winner Mariah’s Storm (Rahy). The other is You’resothrilling’s full-brother Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat). What a racehorse he was, winning six Group 1 races, and he went on to become a champion sire, with some 36 Group/Grade 1 winners at stud. He sired 196 stakes winners on the flat, and another dozen over jumps.