IN pursuit of a new record number of Group or Grade 1 wins in a calendar year, beating one set by himself in 2017, Aidan O’Brien is relying on the input of old friends, and none more so than Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).
The Ballydoyle master took his tally to 18 with Delacroix (Dubawi), Precise (Starspangledbanner) and Scandinavia (Justify) at the weekend, and the latter two are out of daughters of the champion sire. Galileo mares were also responsible for Group 1 winner Al Riffa (Wootton Basset), Group 2 juvenile winner Puerto Rico (Wootton Bassett), while sons of Galileo got in on the act, Teofilo’s listed-winning daughter Livia’s Dream getting the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes winner Santorini Star (Golden Horn), and a Frankel mare producing the French Group 3 two-year-old winner Nighttime (Wootton Bassett).
Precise was the only one of that trio of Group 1 winners to be successful at this level for the first time, adding the Moyglare Stud Stakes to an earlier Group 3 victory at Goodwood. In doing so she became the ninth top-flight winner for Starspangledbanner (Choisir), and 70 minutes after that win, a son of that Coolmore sire, Gstaad, failed by a head to make it a juvenile Group 1 double on the day in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.
With 120 or more yearlings on the ground, and many due under the hammer in the coming weeks, it will be an exciting time for those with sons and daughters of the multiple British and Australian Group 1 winner Starspangledbanner on offer, and little wonder.
The 19-year-old, who stood for €45,000 this year, has seen a quarter of his juvenile winners this year succeed at stakes level, and in addition to the Group 1 performers Precise and Gstaad, he has Group 3 winner Suzie Songs (dam is a Galileo mare), the unbeaten colt Avicenna (out of a Galileo mare), and Secret Hideaway.
Avicenna was bred by Sue Ann Foley and sold to Godolphin as a yearling for 450,000gns. His dam Love Potion (Galileo) was bred by Foley and won on her debut for David Wachman. After he gave up training, she moved to Ballydoyle but failed to win again. Love Potion is now dam of three winners, Avicenna winning a listed race over seven furlongs at Doncaster on his second start, and this is a significant boost to the sale prospects of the colt’s full-sister in Book 2 at Tattersalls next month.
Starspangledbanner
Precise joins Prix Morny winner The Wow Signal and Cheveley Park Stakes winner Millisle as juvenile Group 1 winners sired by Starspangledbanner, while multiple winners at this level are State Of Rest (four times) and California Spangle (three wins). His record is all the more meritorious given that he suffered from sub-fertility in his early years. Remember that Starspangledbanner had 33 foals in his first crop, 11 in the second, and returned to training for two years. Could the best be yet to come?
The Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Precise is the third progeny of Way To My Heart (Galileo) to win, the others doing so in the USA and Sweden. Here is another major update for a yearling coming up for sale, as Precise’s Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) half-brother is in Tattersalls Book 1. The combination of a red-hot sire and an exciting classic prospect should see plenty of demand for the colt. Bred by Annemarie and Aidan O’Brien, Precise has the great Sonic Lady (Nureyev) as her fourth dam.
The O’Brien couple are no strangers to the family, as Annemarie gave just €25,000 for the third dam of Precise, Lady Icarus (Rainbow Quest), back in 2004. Four of her five winners won stakes races, two were Group 1 classic-placed, and a couple of daughters bred Group 1 performers, all by Galileo, and they were Kingfisher (second in the Ascot Gold Cup and Irish Derby), High Definition (runner-up in the Tattersalls Gold Cup), and Innisfree who chased Kameko home in the Vertem Trophy.
THE Group 1 Irish St Leger winner Al Riffa, bred by Haras d’Etreham and partners, looks primed for a serious assault on the Group 1 Melbourne Cup in November after he took his tally of top-flight wins to three on Sunday.
I recall connections telling me in advance of his victory in the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes three years ago that Al Riffa was something special. Last year he won a Group 1 in Germany, has taken another now, and his yearling full-sister comes up for sale at Goffs later this month. His unraced dam Love On My Mind (Galileo) sold in the year that Al Riffa was foaled for just €11,000, but it would have taken a lot more to buy her subsequently.
Al Riffa cost €31,000 as a foal, and 150,000gns as a yearling when bought by Joseph O’Brien. Even the latter figure is well short of the prices achieved by his grandam and third dam, Moments Of Joy (Darshaan) and Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille winner My Emma (Marju) 20 years ago. Coolmore gave 1,650,000gns for Moments Of Joy, and BBA Ireland spent 1,300,000gns on My Emma.
Scandinavia is a very interesting colt, and gave Aidan O’Brien a big race double at the weekend. There are few three-year-olds with a better pedigree for a stallion prospect, and I would not be alone in suggesting that he not be considered as just a National Hunt stallion prospect. The son of Justify (Scat Daddy) is improving, is related to a brilliant racehorse and sire in Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat), and to the multiple Group 1 sire Gleneagles (Galileo).
Could the genius that is Aidan O’Brien get him back to winning at 10 furlongs, or a mile and a half?
I know, he won the two-mile Group 1 Goodwood Cup, and dropped back to win the weekend’s classic at Doncaster, the Group 1 St Leger. Scandinavia is by the unbeaten US Triple Crown winner Justify, and one of nine Group/Grade 1 winners he has sired in his first three crops. This year’s three-year-olds also include the ill-fated 2000 Guineas winner Ruling Court. Meanwhile, Coolmore sire City Of Troy is the standout in Justify’s second crop.
Absolutely Fabulous
Scandinavia is the second Group 1 winner for the unraced Fabulous, after the Prix Saint-Alary heroine Above The Curve (American Pharoah). Fabulous is a half-sister to Giant’s Causeway, and to the Group 2 winner You’resothrilling (Storm Cat), dam of eight (that’s correct) Group 1 performers by Galileo, including the winners Gleneagles, Happily, Joan Of Arc and Marvellous.
On what was a memorable weekend for Wootton Bassett (it seems every weekend is), he sired Group 1 winner Al Riffa, and two good juvenile pattern winners. Puerto Rico placed second in two Group 2 contests in Ireland, but got the win he deserved in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster.
Puerto Rico is the first foal out of the group-placed April Showers (Galileo), an own-sister to Group 1 winners Misty For Me and Ballydoyle. Misty For Me is herself dam of a pair of top-level winners in Roly Poly (War Front) and her full-brother U S Navy Flag.
In France, the Wertheimer homebred juvenile Nighttime (Wootton Bassett) won his third on the trot, adding the Group 3 Prix La Rochette to a listed win. He is a second group winner for Daytime (Frankel) after Halfday (Lope De Vega), who was victorious in last year’s Group 3 Prix Cleopatre. Daytime is a daughter of the six-time Group/Grade 1 winner Midday (Oasis Dream).