WALDGEIST covered triple-digit books of mares in his first two seasons and got off to an eye-catching start when 11 foals in his first crop made €40,000 or more last year, headed by a pair of six-figure lots: a €180,000 Goffs filly and a €100,000 Arqana colt.

Such popularity is understandable. First, he is a son of the phenomenal Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). The list of Galileo stallions with at least one Group/Grade 1 winner on the flat is long, and in 2021 he had his first son to hit the 100 stakes-winners mark. That was Teofilo, whose Group 1-winning son Havana Gold is the sire of Group 1 winner and popular young stallion Havana Grey. It’s possible that newly crowned champion sire Frankel (83) will hit that landmark figure in 2022.

Second, his is a family that seems to have at least one notable winner pretty much every year, and in 2021 Waldkonig (by Kingman) was the more notable of two who are close-up on the page. He is out of Group 3-scorer Waldlerche (Monsun), so a half-brother to Waldgeist, and he landed the Group 3 Gordon Richard Stakes on the second of just two starts. Half-sister Waldlied (New Approach) is a prior winner of the Group 2 Prix de Mallaret, whereas their dam’s siblings feature the Group 1 St Leger winner Masked Marvel (Montjeu).

Third, there is his outstanding race record. Timeform 111p-rated after a two-year-old season in which he beat the subsequent multiple Group 1-star Best Solution in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud, Waldgeist was short-headed by Brametot in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby at three and he raised his Timeform rating from 122 to 127 at four and to 132 at five.

Waldgeist won four pattern races in a row as a four-year-old, the runner-up in the first three already or subsequently a Group 1-scorer: Way To Paris, Dschingis Secret and Coronet. Those were all over 12 furlongs – the Group 3 Prix d’Hedouville, Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly, Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and Group 2 Prix Foy (easily from Talismanic) – and were the lead-up to his first attempt at the Arc.

He finished an honourable fourth to Enable that first Sunday in October but would flip that one-and-three-quarter-length margin around 12 months later, ending his career in a blaze of glory and denying the champion a unique treble.

That final season included another Prix Foy, this time beating old rival Way To Paris, but also a wide-margin defeat of Study Of Man in the Group 1 Prix Ganay over 10 and a half furlongs, which preceded his third to Crystal Ocean and Magical in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes over 10 furlongs at Ascot.

WALDGEIST (GB), Chesnut 2014. Jt Champion older horse in Europe in 2019. Champion older horse in France in 2019. Won nine races, £4,298,560, from 1 mile to 1½ miles, 2 to 5 years including, Criterium de Saint-Cloud, Saint-Cloud, Gr.1, Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Saint-Cloud, Gr.1, Prix Ganay, Parislongchamp, Gr.1, Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Parislongchamp, Gr.1, Grand Prix de Chantilly, Chantilly, Gr.2, Qatar Prix Foy, Parislongchamp, Gr.2 (twice), Prix d’Hedouville, Parislongchamp, Gr.3, also placed second in Qipco Prix du Jockey Club, Chantilly, Gr.1, Prix Greffulhe, Saint-Cloud, Gr.2, Gigaset Cumberland Lodge Stakes, Ascot, Gr.3, and third in King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Prix de Conde, Chantilly, Gr.3.

Retired to Stud in 2020, first crop now yearlings.

Stands at: Ballylinch Stud, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, R95 DK51, Ireland.

Contact: John O’Connor, Eoin Fives (nominations)

Telephone: +353 (0)56 7724217

Email: info@ballylinchstud.ie or eoin@ballylinchstud.ie

Web: www.ballylinchstud.ie

Fee: €15,000