THERE are no guarantees in life, but it will be something of a shock if Gleneagles fails to become a sire of note.
Group 1 star at two and three, a Timeform rating of 128 ranked him joint-fifth best European three-year-old of 2015, equal with New Bay and behind Golden Horn, Muhaarar, Jack Hobbs and Order Of St George, but unlike them his effective season was cut short by the weather and the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot was the last time he would get his preferred fast ground.
Gleneagles is a son of the dual Derby hero and prolific champion Galileo (by Sadler’s Wells), so he is by the sire of the classic stallions Teofilo and New Approach, who are among his earliest sons at stud.
Successful sires
One of the things that we look for in assessing the potential of a stallion is the presence of any successful sires in his family, and as Gleneagles is out of a pattern-winning full-sister to Giant’s Causeway (by Storm Cat) one could argue that he is the most qualified of all the new recruits to succeed.
Giant’s Causeway, a prolific Group 1 star and triple US champion sire, was an instant hit at stud with Group/ Grade 1 winners Shamardal (Group 1 sire), Footstepsinthesand (Group 1 sire), Maids Causeway, Aragorn and My Typhoon in his first crop, and he looks set to remain prominent in pedigrees for a long time.
In addition to producing Gleneagles, Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes winner You’resothrilling is also responsible for the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Marvellous (by Galileo) and for last season’s Group 3 C L Weld Park Stakes winner Coolmore, and the trio are her first three foals.
Her Group 2-placed full-brother Freud is a prolific blacktype sire whose progeny include the Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes winner Giant Ryan, and her pattern-placed full-brother Tumblebrutus has sired Grade 1 and Grade 2 winners in Chile.
Ill-fated Roar Of The Tiger (by Storm Cat) and South African-based Tiger Dance (by Storm Cat), both blacktype-placed, have also sired pattern winners.
Her half-sister Love Me Only (by Sadler’s Wells) is the dam of last year’s dual classic-placed Group 2 scorer Storm The Stars (by Sea The Stars), her dam is the US Grade 2 heroine Mariah’s Storm (by Rahy), and others of note in the family include the Group 2 winner Panoramic (by Rainbow Quest) and the Grade 1 star and US joint juvenile champion Dearly Precious (by Dr Fager).
As a Group 1-winning Galileo horse from this stallion-producing family, it must be a shade of odds-on that Gleneagles will sire at least one Group 1 star in his earliest crops.
Champion 2yr old colt in Ireland in 2014. Won seven races, £934,200, from 7 furlongs to 1 mile, at 2 and 3 years including, Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1, Qipco 2000 Guineas, Newmarket, Gr.1, St James’s Palace Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas, Curragh, Gr.1, Galileo EBF Futurity Stakes, Curragh, Gr.2, Japanese Racing Authority Tyros Stakes, Leopardstown, Gr.3, also placed third in Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere Grand Criterium, Longchamp, Gr.1. Retires to Stud in 2016.
Stands at: Coolmore Stud, Fethard, Clonmel, 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: info@coolmore.ie
Website: www.coolmore.com
Fee: €60,000