TOPGEAR, a Group 2 winner by Wootton Bassett, will stand at Ger O’Neill’s Capital Stud in Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, next year. Trained in France, the six-year-old won seven of his 18 career starts including three Group 3 contests and the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket in a career that spanned from the age of two to six.

A spokesperson for Capital Stud described Topgear as “an exceptionally good-looking horse, very much in the mould of his sire that realised €200,000 as a yearling; one of the highest prices paid for a Wootton Bassett yearling colt in Europe that year.”

Topgear’s racing owner Hisaaki Saito has retained shares for his stallion career and reportedly “will support him with mares and by purchasing his progeny at the sales.”

O’Neill said: “We are offering equity shares in Topgear to the public, so we look forward to partnering with multiple breeders and going on this journey together for what will hopefully be a great long-term success for everyone that gets involved.

“We are still a relatively new stallion farm on the scene, but being able to offer a horse of this standard to breeders is what it’s all about for us, so we’ll be doing everything we possibly can to make a success of him.”