GALILEO. An Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath.

Well, a polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas and who has extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge.

If we replace a few words in that sentence, it could instead read – an equine whose brilliance spans a significant number of racing and breeding areas, and who has extraordinarily broad and comprehensive influence.

It was be futile for me to try and justify how great Galileo was, and continues to be. He was bred to be a champion, and that was what he duly became as a racehorse and as a sire. He won the Derby at Epsom, followed up at the Curragh, and won and lost two great battles with Fantastic Light, beating him in the Group 1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and then narrowly going down to the same colt in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.

When Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) went to stud, few believed that we would ever in our lifetime see another stallion as good as he was, and look what happened. Galileo raised the bar even higher, and went on to sire a further behemoth in Frankel.

Given that he achieved legendary status as a sire of flat runners, it was almost inevitable that Galileo would end up with some good runners over jumps. J.P. McManus (below) was in an enviable position to be able to use Sadler’s Wells for some of his jumping mares, and Synchronised and Don’t Push It were examples of a couple of the great winners he sired. It has been the same story with Galileo.

Roscommon races on Monday would not immediately strike you as a meeting that might produce a winner who would be getting a write-up in Breeding Insights, but this week was something a little different. Three sons of Galileo – Churchill, Australia and Order Of St George – all sired winners there over hurdles, while the bumper winner was out of one of his daughters. Not to be outdone, the Adare Manor Opportunity Maiden Hurdle was won by a six-year-old son of the great multiple champion sire himself.

Racing in the colours of J.P. McManus, who sponsored the race, and owned in partnership with Sue Magnier, Vicar Street was bred by Coolmore and McManus’s Martinstown. Put in training with Willie Mullins, he made a belated debut last August and finished a reasonable fourth in a two and a quarter mile bumper at Galway. Any disappointment felt then was replaced with delight when Vicar Street stepped up to an extended two and a half miles at Roscommon, and was a very comfortable winner.

Great racemare

Galileo on top is just one half of the story of Vicar Street, however. The gelding is the first foal from the great racemare Vroum Vroum Mag, herself a daughter of Voix Du Nord (Valanour). Willie Mullins was the obvious choice to be handed the task of training a son of one of countless Grade 1-winning mares he has had in his care. Perhaps Vicar Street will be joined at Closutton by Vicar Street’s siblings, as he has four and three-year-old half-brothers by Camelot (Montjeu), in addition to a two-year-old half-sister and yearling half-brother by, you guessed it, Walk In The Park (Montjeu).

A three-time Grade 1 hurdle winner, Vroum Vroum Mag earned great praise from Mullins on her retirement to stud. He said: “She was a terrific jumper of hurdles and fences.

“She had the scope to do that and she stayed well, but she surprised us with the speed she showed on occasions. In a race you could put her to sleep or make the running.

“She was able to win at Grade 1 level over two miles and three miles.”

The year before she retired, Mullins had entered her at Cheltenham for the Gold Cup, Ryanair Chase, Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle, Champion Hurdle and Mares’ Hurdle.

Vroum Vroum Mag started her racing career in France, where she won over a mile and a half on the flat and was also successful over jumps. She won 12 times for Susannah Ricci, equally divided with wins over hurdles and fences, but all her three Grade 1 triumphs came over the smaller obstacles.

Great year

Cheltenham’s Grade 1 success for Vroum Vroum Mag was in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle; at the Punchestown Festival she landed their Champion Hurdle, while in that great year, 2016, she completed the Grade 1 winning sequence with her victory in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown. In all, she won 14 of her 21 starts, and was twice runner-up in Grade 1 company. Her family is constantly throwing up a Grade 1 winner.

Vroum Vroum Mag and her listed hurdle-winning half-sister Cabriole Mag (Gris De Gris) are among six winners for Naiade Mag (Kadalko) who took until the age of six to gain her sole success. That mare’s half-brother Saint Are (Network) won the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, and a listed chase there too, and he showed a real love for Liverpool when he was runner-up in the Grand National. A half-sister to Naiade Mag is the unraced Courtisane (Charming Groom), and she bred one of the best young horses in France last year, Grade 1 chase winner Kolokico (Cokoriko).

We are not finished yet. Vicar Street’s fourth dam Alconea (Brezzo), a dual winner, is the grandam of Kargese (Jeu St Eloi)), and that five-year-old was described as “having the heart of lion” after she won the Grade 3 County Hurdle at Cheltenham this year. She was already a two-time Grade 1 winner as a juvenile hurdler.