THE final three 2025 Group 1 races in Europe for two-year-olds were won by colts trained at Ballydoyle, and served to emphasise how strong a hand Aidan O’Brien and Coolmore are likely to have for the classics next year.
Any trainer would happily go into winter quarters with any one of the three colts, Hawk Mountain and Puerto Rico, both sons of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), and Pierre Bonnard (Camelot), while other Group 1-winning juveniles they have are the fillies Diamond Necklace (St Mark’s Basilica) and True Love (No Nay Never).
Additionally, Ballydoyle has celebrated pattern wins with two-year-olds Dorset (Wootton Bassett), Sugar Island (Dubawi), Christmas Day (Camelot), Benvenuto Cellini (Frankel), Mission Central (No Nay Never), Composing (Wootton Bassett), Constitution River (Wootton Bassett), Daytona (Wootton Bassett), Beautify (Wootton Bassett), Charles Darwin (No Nay Never), Albert Einstein (Wootton Bassett) and Gstaad (Starspangledbanner).
That is quite some list, and the preponderance of Wootton Bassett among the roll of honour testifies to the importance Coolmore placed on the sadly deceased sire, and what a loss he is to the organisation. That said, they can gain comfort from having so many of his sons and daughters, and their stallion ranks will be boosted by the retirements announced recently of his classic-winning sons Henri Matisse and Camille Pissaro, both of whom also won at the highest level at two.
Classic winners
Aidan O’Brien has now saddled the winner of the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster on 12 occasions, Hawk Mountain being the first to do so since Auguste Rodin in 2022. Other classic winners for Ballydoyle to land the honours in that contest include Magna Grecia, Saxon Warrior, Camelot and High Chaparral. The homebred Hawk Mountain’s only blot on his copybook was to finish fifth on his debut to Geryon at the Curragh, but he had that colt more than three lengths in arrears when they met in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes.
Hawk Mountain is the fourth foal and third winner for the outstanding racemare Hydrangea (Galileo), and all three are stakes winners. The mare’s first foal, a colt by Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), was never named, and her fifth is a yearling full-brother to Hawk Mountain. Hydrangea’s only daughter, Wingspan (Dubawi) was two lengths behind Kalpana in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies/Mares Stakes at Ascot last year, having beaten One Look in a listed race at Gowran Park.
Hydrangea’s second named foal, the three-year-old colt Officer (Dubawi), was sold for only 40,000gns at the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale on Tuesday. Winner of his sole start at two last year, he added the Listed Tetrarch Stakes at the Curragh second time out this year, before running down the field behind Field Of Gold in two Group 1s, the Irish 2000 Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Superb start
While only in its infancy, Hydrangea’s superb start at stud still has some way to go to match the achievements of her dam Beauty Is Truth (Pivotal). While just half of that mare’s 14 foals won, they included three Group 1 winners, and a filly who was runner-up in two of the best Group 1 races for juvenile fillies. Second in the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Prix Marcel Boussac, Fire Lily (Dansili), won three Group 3 races and was a very smart sprinter.
Hydrangea was second at two in both the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, and at three she was classic-placed in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas. After she won a Group 1, the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown, she added a second, at Ascot when annexing the British Champions Fillies/Mares Stakes.
Her two Group 1-winning siblings were also by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).
The United States rose to prominence in Australia, where he won and placed in the Group 1 Ranvet Rawson Stakes. He is now at stud in South Africa. Hermosa matched Hydrangea’s two Group 1 wins, hers coming in the English and Irish 1000 Guineas. She has started well at stud, being the dam of Trinity College (Dubawi) who won the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, and followed up by running second in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris. He has now joined Chris Waller.
As if this was not enough, there was a further major update to the family this year, courtesy of a full-sister to Hydrangea. Whirl (Wootton Bassett) was runner-up in the Group 1 Oaks before going on to win two top-flight contests, the Group 1 Nassau Stakes and Pretty Polly Stakes. She is the first produce of Salsa (Galileo) who won a maiden on the penultimate start of her 10-race career.
A DEVASTATING loss to the stallion ranks, the successes enjoyed by Wootton Bassett’s offspring will be reminder for some time to come how much he will be missed. At the age of just 17, he could have been around for some time to come, and this year his own sire Iffraaj (Zafonic) covered 24 mares at Dalham Hall, ironically at the age of 24!
Standing this year at Coolmore for €300,000, Wootton Bassett covered more than 200 mares, and the list is a who’s who of outstanding mares and the dams of top-class winners. Last week, Martin Stevens in this column detailed the impressive mares who made up this list, and it is worth looking back on.
When Puerto Rico added the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud to his win three weeks earlier in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, he reconfirmed how much he has improved this season. He did not win until his sixth start, Doncaster’s Group 2 Champagne Stakes, but he has performed with credit in pattern company prior to that. He is one of eight Group 1 winners this year for Wootton Bassett, and over the course of his career to date the stallion has given us 19 top-flight winners. His tally of stakes winners stands at 75 at the time of writing.
The importance of Wootton Bassett to Coolmore and its exceptional broodmare band can also be gauged by the following list, all pattern winners and Group 1-placed runners, by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Savour this mouthwatering roll of honour: Al Riffa, Puerto Rico, Whirl, Hawk Mountain, Maranoa Charlie, Green Impact, Dorset, Juwelier, Thrice, Swagman, Angeal, Serious Contender, Expanded, Italy, and Island Hopping. Many more are by sons of Galileo, notably Zellie.
April Showers
The April Showers Syndicate bred Puerto Rico, while his dam was bred by Coolmore. April Showers (Galileo) won once in 12 starts, a Navan maiden, while her placed efforts included finishing runner-up to Insinuendo in the Group 2 Kilboy Estate Stakes, and going down by half a length in a listed race at Cork.
April Showers is a full-sister to three stakes-winning fillies, all by Galileo, and they are Misty For Me, Ballydoyle and Twirl. Misty For Me is the standout, a champion at two and three and the dam of two Group 1 winners.
Misty For Me won four Group 1 races, the Moyglare Stud Stakes, Prix Marcel Boussac, Irish 1000 Guineas and Pretty Polly Stakes. Her daughter Roly Poly (War Front) and son U S Navy Flag (War Front) both have three Group 1 wins each to their credit.
Ballydoyle was another to win the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac and she was champion of her sex at two in France. Classic-placed at three, Ballydoyle has two stakes winners. While Twirl was not in their class on the racecourse, she is grandam of last year’s US Grade 1 Debutante Stakes winner Tenma (Nyquist).
April Showers is out of an unraced own-sister to Fasliyev (Storm Cat), the European champion juvenile in 1999.