CHAMPIONS DAY DOUBLE FOR GALILEO
As you'd expect, Coolmore Stud's prolific champion sire Galileo (by Sadler's Wells) was on the scoresheet on British Champions Day. In fact, he supplied two of the card's five pattern winners.
Order Of St George, the Group 1 Gold Cup and dual Group 1 Irish St Leger star who finished fourth in the Arc on his most recent prior outing, left it late in the Group 2 Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup but stayed on strongly to land the spoils by half a length from Torcedor.
Now a winner of 11 of his 22 starts, the Paget Bloodstock-bred five-year-old is trained by Aidan O'Brien, he is the best of five blacktype earners out of Another Storm (by Gone West), and his grandam is the US Grade 1 star and juvenile champion Storm Song (by Summer Squall).
She is a half-sister to Grade 2 scorer Diamond Omi (by Giant's Causeway), and out of Hum Along (by Fappiano), a half-sister to Group 3 Musidora Stakes winner and Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes second Cassis (by Red Ransom).
Each of the next three dams was a multiple stakes winner in the USA, with fifth dam Fleet Victress (by King Of The Tudors) and sixth dam Countess Fleet (by Count Fleet) being track record setters.
Although his stamina is likely to see him attract the attention of National Hunt breeders, $550,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale graduate Order Of St George could be the sort of stallion who, given the chance, could get high-class offspring in the mile to 12-furlong range, in addition to the stayers and jumpers he will no doubt produce.
Galileo's double was completed by fellow Ballydoyle team member Hydrangea who is now a dual Group 1 winner following her two-length defeat of Bateel in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.
This was a first attempt over 12 furlongs for the daughter of five-furlong Group 2 scorer Beauty Is Truth (by Pivotal) and so she shows more of the stamina of her full-brother The United States – a Group 1 winner at 10 furlongs and Group 2 scorer at 12 furlongs in Australia – than the speed of her half-sister, Fire Lily (by Dansili).
That filly was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac over a mile and in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes over seven furlongs, but got each of her three pattern wins over six.
Beauty Is Truth is a half-sister to the dual classic-placed French nine-furlong listed scorer Glorious Sight (by Singspiel), she is out of Zelding (by Warning) – who is a sprint stakes-winning half-sister to high-class French sprinter Zipping (by Zafonic) – and she comes from a branch of the family of Group 1 sprint and mile ace and influential stallion Last Tycoon (by Try My Best).
Galileo also had a good day on Sunday as both Kenya and Bound enjoyed blacktype success at Leopardstown and Apple Betty picked up a Grade 3 at Keeneland.
Group 3 Killavullan Stakes winner Kenya, who was bred by Lynch Bages & Rhinestone Bloodstock, is out of Tender Morn (by Dayjur) – which makes him a half-brother to Group 1-placed Group 3 scorer Zantenda (by Zamindar) – and his dam is a stakes-placed half-sister to the talented sprinter Diableneyev (by Nureyev).
Both he and Listed Trigo Stakes heroine Bound are trained by Aidan O'Brien.
The filly is a full-sister to pattern scorers Wedding Vow and Beacon Rock, and also to the stable's stakes-winning juvenile Bye Bye Baby, who finished third in the Killavullan.
Their dam, the Group 1 Oaks-placed maiden Remember When (by Danehill Dancer), is a half-sister to the Group 1 stars Dylan Thomas (by Danehill), Homecoming Queen (by Holy Roman Emperor) and Queen's Logic (by Grand Lodge).
Apple Betty, who won easily won the Grade 3 Rood and Riddle Dowager Stakes over 12 furlongs at Keeneland, is out of Absolutelyfabulous (by Mozart) and that makes her a full-sister to classic and Breeders' Cup hero Magician (Ashford Stud, first yearlings in 2017) and to Grade 1-placed stakes winner Outstanding.
Galileo is 19 years old now and his impressive tally of 263 stakes winners (to Wednesday night) includes 70 who have won at the highest level, Foundry and Clemmie being the two most recent new additions to that latter list.
He is still short of the 294 stakes winners and 73 Group 1 stars that represented his own sire, Sadler's Wells (by Northern Dancer), and that great and prolific champion sire is himself a long way behind the world's number one on those two measures – Danehill (by Danzig).
Another former Coolmore colossus and prolific champion sire, Danehill's figures were greatly augmented by years spent shuttling to the southern hemisphere, and his tally of 348 stakes winners, which included 83 Group/Grade 1 scorers, is truly remarkable.
Even if Galileo is active into old age, it may be difficult for him to beat 348, but with the rate at which he has been clocking up Group 1 stars in the past few years, it would be no surprise to see him eventually add at least the 14 needed to let him take over the mantle as the world's number one supplier of top-level winners.
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DARK ANGEL BREAKS NEW GROUND
Yeomanstown Stud stallion Dark Angel (by Acclamation) has had a tremendous year in which his string of blacktype winners features the brilliant Group 1 sprint stars Battaash and Harry Angel, rated 136 and 132 respectively by Timeform.
At Ascot on Saturday, he made it three top-level winners in 2017 when Persuasive beat Ribchester and Churchill to take the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and although she is not her sire's first notable winner over the mile, she is his first to succeed at the highest level over that trip.
The John Gosden-trained grey, who is now due to join the broodmare band at Cheveley Park Stud, won six of her 10 starts, only finishing out of the frame once.
And like 2012's Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Excelebration, she was bred by John Tuthill of Owenstown Stud – a remarkable double.
Persuasive, a €180,000 Goffs Orby Sale graduate, is the second foal out of Choose Me (by Choisir). Her older half-brother Amazour (by Azamour) has won five times, and so has her three-year-old half-sister Tisbutadream (by Dream Ahead), a pattern-placed and stakes-winning miler in the David Elsworth stable.
Choose Me, a listed scorer over seven and a half furlongs and who stayed 10, is a half-sister to the stakes-winning sprinter Shanghai Glory (by Exceed And Excel), and her dam, Hecuba (by Hector Protector), is a winning half-sister to several smart performers.
They include the pattern winners Bad Bertrich Again (by Dowsing) and Prolix (by Kris) and their dam, Ajuga (by The Minstrel), was a daughter of the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Champion Stakes heroine Cairn Rouge (by Pitcairn).
There are many other notable horses to be found in the various branches of this famous family, and in addition to being a star on the track, Persuasive has the potential to make quite an impact at stud too.
Dark Angel, of course, has two other Group 1 winners to his name: July Cup and Diamond Jubilee Stakes winner and successful freshman sire Lethal Force, and dual Nunthorpe Stakes heroine Mecca's Angel.
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GROUP 1 WINNER FOR MOUNT NELSON
Eclipse Stakes and juvenile Group 1 scorer Mount Nelson (by Rock Of Gibraltar) left his long-time home home at Newsells Park Stud to join the team at Boardsmill Stud, where he has now completed a first season.
He has got his stakes and pattern horses over a wide variety of distances and notched up a first Group 1 winner on Saturday when the Dean Ivory-trained Librisa Breeze took the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes over six furlongs.
The former mile to 10-furlong performer dropped to seven furlongs last year, showing marked improvement, and he went in to 2017 on an official rating of 113.
This season he has been tried over both seven and six furlongs, he chased home Massaat in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes, finished fourth to The Tin Man in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, and now looks likely to play a prominent role in the sprinters' division in 2018.
Librisa Breeze was bred by Newsells Park Stud, he is the first foal of the stakes-placed 10-furlong winner Bruxcalina (by Linamix), and so is out of a half-sister to the Group 3 Prix La Force winner and Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) third Baraan (by Dalakhani).
Another sibling, Brampour (by Daylami), has been a Grade 2-placed Grade 3 scorer over hurdles, and they are out of Brusca (by Grindstone), a half-sister to nine-furlong US Grade 1 star Somali Lemonade (by Lemon Drop Kid).
Chic Shrine (by Mr Prospector), the fourth dam of Librisa Breeze, won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes, fifth dam Too Chic (by Blushing Groom) won the Grade 1 Maskette Stakes, and the many other notable horses who appear in these branches of the family include the Grade 1 stars Queena (by Mr Prospector), Brahms (by Danzig), and Serra Lake (by Seattle Slew).
If you go back even farther then you will find that sprinting's newest Group 1 star is a direct descendant of 1962 Oaks heroine Monade (by Klairon), who is his seventh dam.
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FRANKEL'S GROUP 1 SON
With an all-time high Timeform rating of 147 to his name, it's unlikely – though not impossible – that Frankel (by Galileo) will ever sire a horse better than he was, but the star of his first crop is already better than the best that most stallions will ever produce.
Dual Derby-placed Cracksman looked star material when posting wide-margin wins in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes and Group 2 Prix Niel, moving up to a Timeform rating of 127p, and that figure has been raised to 136 after his seven-length demolition job in the Group 1 Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot on Satruday.
Anthony Oppenheimer's homebred bay is trained by John Gosden, he is one of 17 stakes winners from his sire's first crop, and already there are three pattern winners to have emerged from the second crop (up to Wednesday night).
A half-brother to Group 3 Solario Stakes winner Fantastic Moon (by Dalakhani), Cracksman is out of nine-furlong listed scorer Rhadegunda (by Pivotal), a mare whose siblings include the stakes-placed dual-purpose gelding Halla San (by Halling), who came within a head of winning the Northumberland Plate.
She, in turn, is out of St Radegund (by Green Desert), which makes Cracksman inbred 4x4 to Danzig (by Northern Dancer), and that twice-raced seven-furlong winner was a daughter of On The House (by Be My Guest).
She won both the Group 1 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Sussex Stakes in 1982, she was rated 125 by Timeform, and her descendants also include Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner Leo (by Pivotal) and, more distantly, Group 2 Prix Robert Papin scorer Irish Field (by Dubawi).
If you go back another generation then you will find branches leading to a variety of notable performers, including that other recent outstanding Oppenheimer champion Golden Horn (by Cape Cross).
That Timeform 134-rated Derby, Eclipse, Irish Champion Stakes and Arc hero stands at Dalham Hall Stud and his first foals arrived this year.
A total of 20 stakes winners at this stage of the game is a remarkable total for a stallion, even allowing for the elite nature of the mares he has covered.
Japanese juvenile champion Soul Stirring has given him a first classic star – she won the Grade 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) – Cracksman is his first Group 1-winning son, and it seems unlikely that we'll have to wait too long for Frankel's next top-level winners to be crowned.
Whether or not he can go on to rival his great sire Galileo, or his great grandsires Sadler's Wells and Danehill, remains to be seen, but as a second crop sire he's clearly outstanding.
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NEW GROUP 1 STAR FOR NAYEF
Nunnery Stud stallion Nayef (by Gulch), the Group 1-winning half-brother to classic sires Nashwan (by Blushing Groom) and Unfuwain (by Northern Dancer), notched up his third Group 1 scorer when Ice Breeze beat Vazirabad in the Prix Royal-Oak at Saint-Cloud on Sunday.
The Juddmonte homebred is trained by Pascal Bary, he won the Group 2 Prix Chaudenay on his previous start, and this three-year-old son of Winter Silence (by Dansili) is a rising star in the stayers' ranks.
His full-brother Snow Sky won the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup and Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes, finished third in the Group 1 St Leger, stands at Ballycurragh Stud and had his first foals this year.
His stakes-placed dam is a half-sister to the Group/Grade 1 scorers Meteor Storm (by Bigstone) and Polish Summer (by Polish Precedent) and she is out of Hunt The Sun (by Rainbow Quest), a full-sister to the Group/Grade 1 stars Raintrap and Sunshack.
Nayef's other top-level winners are Prix de l'Opera heroine Lady Marian and dual Group 1 mile ace Tamayuz, the Derrinstown Stud stallion whose daughters Precieuse (Poule d'Essai des Pouliches) and Blond Me (E.P. Taylor Stakes) have won at the highest level in 2017.