Wootton Bassett, one of the world’s great sires, has died at Coolmore Australia, having suffered from choke and subsequently developing an acute pneumonia which deteriorated rapidly.

A statement issued by Coolmore said: "Despite round-the-clock care from a dedicated team of vets, overseen by Dr Nathan Slovis from Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Kentucky, he was unable to be saved."

Wootton Bassett’s story as a sire is a unique one. Nicolas de Chambure got him off to an incredible start at Haras d’Etreham in France before he was acquired by Coolmore in 2020.

In his time at Coolmore, he developed into a world-class sire, with 25 stakes winners and six Group 1 winners from his current two and three-year-old crops conceived in Ireland.

Included amongst these are multiple Group 1-winning sons Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse, as well as this season’s multiple Group 1-winning filly, Whirl.

His current two-year-old crop in Europe already includes six Group winners. Albert Einstein, who defeated subsequent Group 1 winner Power Blue in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes, is considered by both Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore to be one of the best two-year-olds ever seen in Ballydoyle.

Two more colts, Constitution River and Puerto Rico, have won Group 2 races in recent weeks, while a pair of fillies, Composing and Beautify, both scored at the same level.

Coolmore’s clients have three more crops in the pipeline, the first of which will come under the hammer at the yearling sales in the weeks ahead.

In Australia, his first crop is highlighted by this year’s Golden Slipper runner-up and first colt home Wodeton, who lines up in the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes this weekend for Chris Waller.

Background

Wootton Bassett was by Iffraaj (by Zafonic, by Gone West, by Mr Prospector) out of a mare named Balladonia (by Primo Dominie) who only won one of her 18 starts in Britain. The mare was sold for 27,000gns and acquired by Colin and Melba Bryce of Laundry Cottage Stud in Hertfordshire. They bred Wootton Bassett and sold hm for £46,000 as a yearling in Doncaster to agent Bobby O'Ryan.

Trained by Richard Fahey in Malton for owners Frank Brady and the Cosmic Cases, Wootton Bassett was unbeaten in five starts as a two-year-old in 2010, culminating in a comfortable success in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagadere at Longchamp.

He failed to train on as a three-year-old, when his four unplaced starts included being beaten 14 lengths by Frankel at Royal Ascot.

He found a home at stud in France where be made an immediate impact with his first crop, his juvenile stakes-winning son Almanzor becoming a middle-distance champion at three. That Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and Champion Stakes standout, was bred by Haras d’Etreham, stands there, shuttles to the southern hemisphere, and is already sire of his first Group 1 winner in Manzoice.

Joseph O’Brien’s Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes winner and recent Irish St Leger winner Al Riffa was the sixth Group 1 winner for Wootton Bassett, and the fifth since the stallion was purchased by Coolmore in the summer of 2020. These were conceived at fees as low as €4,000. His stud fee this year was €300,000.

Wootton Bassett’s other early top-level stakes winners included Wooded who ended his career with victory in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp; he now stands at Haras de Bouquetot and has his first yearlings on the ground. That same day, Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet heroine Audarya finished third to Tarnawa in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera. Then she landed the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Another daughter, Incarville, won the 2021 Group 1 Saxon Warrior Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary, and then Zellie placed herself among the elite juveniles of that year when she captured the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

More recently he has been represented by Champion Stakes winner King Of Steel, Pretty Polly Stakes scorer Whirl, Bucanero Fuerte, Unquestionable, Twain, Sahlan, Tennessee Stud and Chindit.

His current crop of two-year-olds includes Group 2 winners Puerto Rico, Composing and Constitution River, the exciting Albert Einstein and Daytona, and the Richard Hughes-trained Nobody Knows,

Wootton Bassett was bred 5x4x5 to Northern Dancer, via The Minstrel, Nureyev and Danzig, but has no Sadler’s Wells, Galileo or Danehill in his pedigree. His sire got the top-level winners Chriselliam and Turn Me Loose out of Danehill (Danzig) mares and Group 1 scorer Wyndspelle out of a High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells) one.

Balladonia (Primo Dominie), Wootton Bassett’s stakes-placed dam, comes from the family of the Group 1 victors Silver Patriarch (Saddlers’ Hall) and Papineau (Singspiel).