HENRI Matisse found one too good for him in the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien Stakes, but a colt named after another famous painter, Jan Brueghel, has yet to be beaten, and he took his tally of victories to four this year when beating his stablemate, and fellow Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) colt, Illinois in the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster.

Bred by David and Diane Nagle at their world famous Barronstown Stud in Co Wicklow, Jan Brueghel is Group 1 winner number 101 for Galileo who died in the year of the classic winner’s birth, 2021. He is the second classic winner for his dam, the Group 2-placed Devoted To You, and she is a daughter of Danehill Dancer (Danehill).

By my reckoning, Galileo on Danehill (Danzig) mares have been responsible for 18 of those Group and Grade 1 winners, while the sire on Danehill Dancer has given us stars such as Jan Brueghel, seven-time Group 1 star Minding, Oaks and Breeders’ Cup winner Tuesday, Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Empress Josephine, triple Group 1 winners Alice Springs and Circus Maximus, Derby winner Serpentine, French classic and Sussex Stakes winner The Gurkha, and Jan Brueghel’s Irish Derby-winning full-brother Sovereign.

About 40

I am note sure even David and Diane Nagle have an accurate tally on the number of Group 1 winners they have bred, but it must be about 40 at this point. The Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby winner Sovereign won his maiden at Galway at two, while Jan Brueghel opened his account in a maiden at the Curragh in late May of this year on his debut. Their dam Devoted To You carried the colours of Diane Nagle to a maiden success at Galway, before running second to Lillie Langtry in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes at Leopardstown.

While she did not win again, at thee Devoted To You was runner-up at the start of the year in the Group 3 Lodge Park EBF Park Express Stakes at the Curragh, while towards the end of the season she divided Famous Name and Choose Me when second in the Listed Trigo Stakes back at Leopardstown.

Sovereign and Jan Brueghel are not the first classic winners in the immediate removes of this female line. Their third dam bred Balanchine (Storm Bird) and she added the Group 1 Irish Derby to a prior success in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom and a second placed finish in the Group 1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. Balanchine won twice at two for Robert Sangster but attracted the attention of the Maktoum family who bought her privately and sent her to join the then experimental Godolphin team. This was in 1993. She was sent to spend the winter in Dubai and on her return to England went straight for the 1000 Guineas.

Bold move

After her Oaks win, the decision was then made to take on the colts in the Irish Derby at the Curragh. Balanchine justified the bold move and stayed on strongly to win by four and a half lengths from the Derby runner-up King’s Theatre. Less than three weeks later she contracted colic and became gravely ill. An emergency operation and intensive veterinary treatment saved her life. She ran three times at four, her best effort coming in the Group 2 Prix Foy at Longchamp when she finished a short-head second to the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Carnegie.

Devoted To You is responsible for eight winners, all bar one of which are by Galileo. They also include Dawn Rising, who placed in the Group 1 Irish St Leger and is a Grade 3 hurdle winer, and the Grade 1 Royal Bond Novice Hurdle second Triplicate. One of the few sons or daughters of Devoted To You to be offered at public auction, three-time Australian winner Forever You (Galileo), realised €1.1 million at the Goffs Orby Sale.

On October 1st, in Book 1 of this year’s Orby Sale at Goffs, buyers will have a rare opportunity to purchase a daughter of Devoted To You. Lot 187 is a St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) half-sister to two classic winners, thanks to Jan Brueghel’s update, while the Nagles have a Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) filly foal at home in Grangecon.

Nine winners

Devoted To You is one of nine winners from a dozen starters out of the unraced Alleged Devotion (Alleged), four of which are stakes winners and seven of which were stakes performers. The Grade 3 winner Humble Eight (Seattle Battle) bred a couple of stakes winners for John Gaines, while one of Devoted To You’s unraced progeny, Luxury (Storm Cat,) is the dam of a pair of Group 2 winners in Japan.

Balanchine’s half-sister Red Slippers (Nureyev), winner of the then Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes, bred the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner West Wind (Machiavellian), is grandam of the dual Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow (Helmet), and third dam of Coroebus (Dubawi), winner two years ago of the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes and 2000 Guineas.