THERE was strong demand for Buratino’s first foals at the Goffs November Sale last year, when the colt out of Gin Twist sold for €35,000 and the daughter of Pivka made €33,000, with three other foals selling for €20,000 or more. One of the three best two-year-old colts of 2015, Buratino has excellent fertility with 76 foals born in 2018.
Buratino was a really speedy and precocious two-year-old, who scored his first win on the opening day of the 2015 racing season and this good-looking chesnut son of Exceed And Excel improved to much higher levels later that year. He was the only horse to defeat the champion juvenile Air Force Blue that season, yet he is now standing his third stud season at Kildangan at only €5,000.
Yorkshire trainer Mark Johnston sent Buratino to Newmarket in May to register his second win, this time over six furlongs, and he was even more impressive when he went to the Epsom Derby meeting for the Listed Woodcote Stakes, in which he led a quarter of a mile from home and ran right away from his rivals to score by six lengths. Only 10 days later, Buratino was in action at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, also over six furlongs, and this time he was carrying the colours of Godolphin. He won decisively again, coming home two lengths clear of the Irish star Air Force Blue and 15 others in a fast time.
After that, Buratino was given a short break until the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, in which he was a close third to Air Force Blue and another Royal Ascot winner, Washington DC. Finally, Buratino had to take on the Group 1 Prix Morny winner Shalaa in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket and he made a real battle of it, going down by only half a length, with Steady Pace and Ajaya another two lengths behind him. In the official European rankings, Buratino was rated the joint third best juvenile colt of 2015 in Europe, below only Air Force Blue and Shalaa.
Exceed And Excel, Buratino’s sire and a son of Danehill, was a champion sprinter in Australia, with Group 1 victories in the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington and the Dubai Racing Club Cup at Caulfield. He won seven of his 12 starts and he has already sired the remarkable total of 150 individual blacktype winners in Europe and down under, 14 of which have Group 1 victories to their credit, including Helmet (sire of the 2018 Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow), Outstrip and Excelebration, as well as the top sprinting filly Margot Did.
Buratino is one of four winners out of his dam Bergamask, a listed-placed winner in France. She is by Kingmambo out of Adonesque, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells, who won the Listed Blue Wind Stakes and is a half-sister to three blacktype winners, including the champion two-year-old and outstanding sire Danehill Dancer.
BURATINO (IRE). Jt 3rd top rated 2yr old colt in Europe in 2015. Won four races, £170,241, from 5 furlongs to 6 furlongs, at 2 years including, Coventry Stakes, Ascot, Gr.2, Investec Woodcote Stakes, Epsom Downs, L, also placed second in Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.1, Cantor Fitzgerald National Stakes, Sandown Park, L, and third in Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1.
Retired to Stud in 2017, first crop now yearlings
Stands at: Kildangan Stud, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
Contact: Eamon Moloney, Anthony O’Donnell or Caoimhe Doherty
Telephone: +353 (0) 45 527600
Email: enquiries@darleyireland.com.
Web: www.darleystallions.com
Fee: €5,000 SLF