GALILEO sired the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Kyprios last Thursday, and he continued to have a great deal of influence on the last two days of the royal meeting.

His son Changingoftheguard won the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes, another son Australia sired the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner Broome, his Cheveley Park Stud-based stallion son Ulysses was responsible for the shock Listed Chesham Stakes winner Holloway Boy, while the meeting ended on Saturday with a second victory in the Queen Alexandra Stakes for Stratum (Dansili), a son of the Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Lunar Phrase.

Changingoftheguard was given a great ride by Ryan Moore, and showed no ill effects of his recent run in the Derby at Epsom. Bred by Ben Sangster, Changingoftheguard is the first winner from Lady Lara, a daughter of Excellent Art (Pivotal) who was a listed winner in England before becoming a multiple stakes winner in the USA at up to Grade 2 level.

Lady Lara’s third dam Dancing Rocks (Green Dancer) won the then Group 2 Nassau Stakes, and three of her nine winners achieved success at stakes level. Significantly, she is the grandam of Mahler (Galileo) and Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway), and her descendants include Power (Oasis Dream), Superstar Leo (College Chapel), One Master (Fastnet Rock), and a number of other Group 1 winners.

Breeder Denis Brosnan was at Royal Ascot to witness at first hand Broome’s return to form in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes. This was the eighth win for the son of Australia (Galileo), and these are headed by his Group 1 triumph in the last year’s Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Broome’s career earnings of £1.4 million are some reward for the 150,000gns he brought as a yearling, and he is a full-brother to last season’s ultra-smart juvenile Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up Point Lonsdale (Australia). That colt was also successful at the 2021 royal meeting in the Listed Chesham Stakes.

The last mentioned race was won this year by Holloway Boy, bred by Cheveley Park Stud who stand the colt’s sire Ulysses (Galileo). The colt, a 60,000gns yearling buy, was making his debut, and he is out of an unraced mare by Cheveley Park’s great stallion Pivotal (Polar Falcon), a champion broodmare sire.

This is not the first Royal Ascot win in the family, as Holloway Boy’s third dam Gay Gallanta (Woodman) won the Group 3 Queen Mary Stakes in 1994 – also as a maiden – before going on to add the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Maybe Holloway Boy’s win was written in the stars! He is the second stakes winner, after today’s Group 1 Irish Derby challenger Piz Badile, for Ulysses, one each from his first two crops.

Finally, Stratum’s 11th win gave Galileo another Ascot success for one of his daughters. The nine-year-old son of Dansili, a full-brother to a winner, is out of a winning half-sister to a listed winner in France. Stratum’s third dam was the Aga Khan’s Tarwiya (Dominion), a Group 3 winning juvenile who was second in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, and third in the Group 1 Goffs Irish 1000 Guineas, to Marling and Market Booster.