WHATEVER Coolmore spent on Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) to acquire him for their farm, it was money well spent.

The Co Tipperary stallion roster is all the better for having him spearhead a selection of sires that enjoyed a magical few days at the weekend, and also something of a big disappointment too. More of that anon.

Oh, and by the way, have you been reading about the ‘quiet start’ to the 2025 season that Aidan O’Brien is supposed to be having? Social media would have its users believe that something is amiss at Ballydoyle, and yet the evidence is very much to the contrary. I suppose that when you are the greatest trainer in the world, expectations for the measure of your success are different from everyone else.

As I pen this column from a very warm and distant land, my tally is that O’Brien has saddled winners of 16 listed and pattern races already this year, and that count has been almost bookended by Henri Matisse, now a dual top-level winner for Wootton Bassett. The three-year-old homebred set a new course record for the mile at ParisLongchamp when winning the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, and he had another son of his sire, last year’s Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner and fellow Ballydoyle challenger Camille Pissaro, back in third.

O’Brien and the team in Coolmore/Ballydoyle have not spared Henri Matisse, and this was the colt’s eighth start and sixth victory. His sole defeats came in the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes to Scorthy Champ, and when fifth to Camille Pisarro in the Lagardere. He made up for both those reversals when he triumphed at Del Mar in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, adding to earlier wins in a pair of Group 2s at the Curragh, the Futurity Stakes and Railway Stakes.

A sixth winner of the first classic race of the season in France, Henri Matisse warmed up for it when he got Aidan O’Brien off the mark at stakes level this year in the Group 3 Ballylinch Stud “Red Rocks” Stakes at Leopardstown, 70 minutes before Delacroix added the Group 3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes. The latter put himself in the Derby picture with a weekend win at Leopardstown in the Group 3 Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial Stakes.

Amazing success

It has been an amazing run of success recently for Ballydoyle in a variety of classic trails, and their full list of stakes winners this season is completed by Garden Of Eden (Darley Irish EBF Naas Oaks Trial Stakes), Puppet Master (Lingfield Derby Trial Stakes), Giselle (Oaks Trial Fillies’ Stakes), Illinois (Group 3 Ormonde Stakes), Mount Kilimanjaro (Dee Stakes), Lambourn (Group 3 Boodles Chester Vase), Minnie Hauk (Weatherbys ePassport Cheshire Oaks), Los Angeles (Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes), Officer (Tetrarch Stakes), Kyprios (Vintage Crop Stakes), Whistlejacket (Committed Stakes) and also Swagman (Group 3 Classic Trial). Every trainer in the world would love such a ‘quiet start’.

Henri Matisse is the sixth foal, fifth winner, third pattern winner and second Group 1 winner out of Immortal Verse, a dual Group 1 winning daughter of the exceptional broodmare sire Pivotal (Polar Falcon). She sold for a sale-topping 4,700,000gns in 2013 to BBA Ireland, was the champion filly at three in England and the second-best in Europe, and she too is proving to be value for her hefty sale price. While her first three foals did not set the world alight, the next three, all trained at Ballydoyle, have set the record straight. There will be huge pressure, in time, on her yearling colt by Justify (Scat Daddy).

First for Immortal Verse came Tenebrism (Caravaggio), and she was followed a year later by Statuette (Justify). Both became stakes winners, with the former being crowned a champion at two. Tenebrism gave Aidan O’Brien his 360th Group 1 flat success as a trainer when she landed the Cheveley Park Stakes, and she added the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat to her roll of honour at three. Statuette was the first winner in Europe for Justify (Scat Daddy), but, unfortunately, we only saw her once more when she won the Group 2 Balanchine Stakes at the Curragh.

French artist

Named by Sue Magnier in honour of Henri Émile Benoît Matisse, a French visual artist, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but known primarily as a painter, his equine namesake has an outstanding female family. Immortal Verse is a full-sister to Go Lovely Rose (Pivotal), the winning dam of Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes runner-up Roseman (Kingman), and Baradar (Muhaarar) who was a Group 1-placed juvenile.

Daughter of the French stakes winner and group-placed Side Of Paradise (Sadler’s Wells), Immortal Verse is a granddaughter of Mill Princess (Mill Reef). That winning mare’s 11 successful runners were led by Last Tycoon (Try My Best) who won eight of his 13 starts, including the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes, Group 1 William Hill Sprint Cup and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile, and he was a successful sire.

Five of Mill Princess’s offspring won stakes races, while two more were stakes-placed. She is grandam of the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas winner Valentine Waltz (Be My Guest), another winner of the same race in Tie Black (Machiavellian), and the Grade 1 Matron Stakes winner Sense Of Style (Thunder Gulch), while her descendants also include the Group 1 winning siblings The United States, Hydrangea and Hermosa, all by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

Denis McDonnell’s unfortunate classic disappointment

WHILE the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas winner Zarigana is reviewed opposite, it would be unfair not to include a mention of the filly she was runner-up to as the pair passed the post, but was subsequently demoted to second place.

Denis McDonnell bred Shes Perfect, a daughter of Sioux Nation (Scat Daddy), and this is the second time the two main protagonists on Sunday faced each other, with Shes Perfect going down by a neck on their respective three-year-old debuts this year in the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte. At two, Shes Perfect won on her Haydock debut before running second in a valuable fillies’ series’ final at Goodwood. She is improving by leaps and bounds, and a blacktype win is almost certainly assured.

This classic demotion came just a day after a daughter of Sioux Nation, still awaiting his first northern hemisphere Group 1 winner, sold to Godolphin at the Arqana Breeeze-Up Sale for €1 million. The Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes winner has sired the Group 1 Queensland Oaks winner Socks Nation down under. The next one cannot be far away.

McDonnell purchased the dam of Shes Perfect, the unraced Mrs Regalado-Gonzalez-bred Galeaza (Galileo), for 31,000gns as a four-year-old carrying the dual winner Caius College Girl (Royal Applause). That filly sold for 20,000gns as a yearling, though it has to be said that McDonnell has had mixed results with Galeaza’s subsequent offspring. He received £80,000 for Macho Time (Camacho), a three-time winner, and as little as €1,000 for one that we will overlook. This year he will likely be offering for sale a yearling half-sister to Shes Perfect by Calyx (Kingman).

Mixed reception

Shes Perfect had a mixed reception at the sales. Retained for €20,000 as a foal at Goffs, she sold in Book 2 of the Orby Sale for €35,000. She is also a graduate of last year’s Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, when it took a private transaction at €50,000 to secure her. Shes Perfect’s grandam Desertion (Danehill) was a show-stealer in the sales ring. Bred by the Irish National Stud, she commanded IR650,000gns as a yearling, won a couple of races, and sold as a seven-year-old for 400,000gns. With just four ordinary winners to her credit, Desertion suffered the indignity of realising just 17,000gns at the age of 13.

Her previous big values were due to the fact that she was a full-sister to Desert King (Danehill), an Irish and European champion who won the Group 1 National Stakes at two, and went on to win both the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and Group 1 Irish Derby at three. He also holds the distinction of being Aidan O’Brien’s first top-level winner on the flat in 1996.