SPEED and precocity are two traits that many seek in prospective stallions and these are two that Caravaggio exhibited with great effect.
He made a winning debut in mid-April of his juvenile year, won the Listed Marble Hill Stakes a month later, added the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Ascot and then rounded off that first campaign with a four-length score in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh.
A wide-margin Group 3 success first time out at three was followed by defeat of Harry Angel in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Ascot and he also took the Group 2 Flying Five Stakes before retiring to stud the winner of seven of his 10 starts.
One of over 90 stakes winners by the late Scat Daddy (by Johannesburg), Caravaggio represents a branch of the Storm Cat (by Storm Bird) line, which will make it interesting to see what sort of results he gets with mares from its Giant’s Causeway branch.
There is a perception here that Scat Daddy was a source of pure speed, and when his runners in Europe have included Caravaggio, Acapulco, Lady Aurelia and No Nay Never, it is easy to understand how that has come about. He was, however, a Grade 1 winner at eight and nine furlongs and primarily a source of top-class performers over the classic distances, so we should not be surprised if the Scat Daddy stallions get some milers and 10-furlong horses among their best representatives.
Caravaggio is out of Mekko Hokte, a daughter of the brilliant Holy Bull (by Great Above), and that makes him a half-brother to six-and-a-half-furlong Grade 2 scorer My Jen (by Fusaichi Pegasus) and to a first-crop American Pharoah colt for whom Coolmore paid $1 million at the recent Keeneland January Sale.
His third dam Silver In Flight (by Silver Series) was a Grade 2-placed five-time winner, her dual Grade 3-winning grandson Sharp Performance (by Kris S) was third in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes, and the plethora of group/graded winners who appear under the fourth generation include top-level scorers Bien Bien (by Manila), Spring At Last (by Silver Deputy), Sharp Lisa (by Dixieland Band), Foundry (by Galileo) and Oh Susanna (by Street Cry).
Caravaggio represents a speed-oriented branch of what was largely noted as a mile and middle-distance family and, given the sort of mares his race record makes it likely will come his way, it is mostly two-year-olds and sprinters that many will expect him to produce at stud.
CARAVAGGIO (USA), Grey 2014. 3rd top rated 2yr old colt in Ireland in 2016. Won seven races, £724,463, from 5 furlongs to 6 furlongs, at 2 and 3 years including Commonwealth Cup, Ascot, Gr.1, Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1, Coventry Stakes, Ascot, Gr.2, Derrinstown Stud Flying Five Stakes, Curragh, Gr.2, EMS Copiers Lacken Stakes, Naas, Gr.3, Cold Move EBF Marble Hill Stakes, Curragh, L, also placed 3rd Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1.
Retires to stud in 2018.
Stands at: Coolmore Stud, Fethard, Co Tipperary, Ireland.
Contact: Christy Grassick, David O’Loughlin, Eddie Fitzpatrick, Tim Corballis, Maurice Moloney, Gerry Aherne, Mathieu Legars or Jason Walsh
Telephone: +353 (0)52 6131298
Email: sales@coolmore.ie
Web: www.coolmore.com
Fee: €35,000
Read more on new stallions who have joined Coolmore Stud: The globe-trotting Highland Reel, a son of Galileo, will join the stallion ranks at Coolmore Stud in 2018