BREEDING Insights had been committed to print last week when the long-awaited 100th Group or Grade 1 winner for Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) appeared at York. He is the first sire to achieve this feat.
Victory for Content, a Group 3 winner at two last year, in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks, was not out of turn, as she had already notched up a couple of placed efforts this season, running second to You Got To Me in the Group 1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks, and finishing third to Bluestocking and Emily Upjohn in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes.
Content’s win at the Knavesmire came just days before her year-younger sibling, Bedtime Story (Frankel), took her unbeaten run to four with victory in the Group 2 Alpha Centauri Debutante Stakes at the Curragh. The trajectory of the latter’s career has seen her progress from a maiden debut win to annexing the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, adding the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown, and now progressing to a Group 2 success. Next stop, the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes? Currently, Bedtime Story is the favourite for the 1000 Guineas next year.
Following the death of their multiple champion Galileo, the team at Coolmore turned their focus to the sire’s son, the unbeaten Frankel, as a mate for their leading sprinter, Mecca’s Angel (Dark Angel). Visits to Galileo resulted in a wide variety of progeny; one unnamed offspring, the winning juvenile Hudson River who only raced twice, the unraced four-year-old filly Sweetest Thing, and Content. The first foal for Mecca’s Angel by the Juddmonte stallion Frankel is the weekend’s Group 2 winner, and this year Mecca’s Angel foaled a full-sister to Bedtime Story.
O’Callaghan-bred
Dual Group 3 winner Markaz (Dark Angel) and his full-sister Mecca’s Angel are the first two foals, and two of three winners, from the listed-placed Atraf (Clantime) mare Folga. The pair were bred in partnership by father and son, Gay and David O’Callaghan. They stand Dark Angel at Yeomanstown Stud, and Content is his second Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire, after Havana Grey.
Mecca’s Angel was sold as a yearling for just 16.000gns and was a revelation as a racemare. European champion older sprinter in 2015, she appropriately had her greatest days at York where she won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes twice. She was successful in eight other contests, and her sole Group 1 placing was gained in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. Mecca’s Angel was acquired privately by Coolmore at the end of her racing career.
Folga was certainly tested when it came to racing, starting 35 times. She won six of them and was placed on 10 occasions. These efforts included a second-place finish in a listed race at Bath behind Enticing. At stud, Folga had just five progeny, all of which were sold as yearlings. It is incredible to think that her best runner could have sold for 16,000gns, while the others realised from 115,000gns to 825,000gns. Folga is one of a pair of stakes-performers among the 10 winners out of Desert Dawn (Belfort), the best of them being Desert Kaya (Bikala). She won a listed race at Deauville, was placed in a similar event at Saint-Cloud, and became a successful winner producer.
No slouch
Desert Dawn was certainly no slouch, winning the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg at Longchamp and a listed sprint at Sandown Park. She was stakes-placed as a juvenile, finishing second in the Group 3 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot when trained by Lord John Fitzgerald. The next two generations of the family contain just a pair of minor stakes-placed runners in the USA.
In addition to all that he has achieved as a sire, winning many titles and siring a slew of top-class runners, Galileo is also the current reigning champion broodmare sire. His daughter Together Forever, one of his century of Group 1 winners, is the dam of another star of the recent York meeting, City Of Troy (Justify).