MASTERCRAFTSMAN went to stud at Coolmore in 2010 at a fee of €20,000. That steadily fell each year until he hit a career low of €12,500 in the year that his first crop hit the track. Those first runners included Kingston Hill, winner of the Group 1 Racing Post, and in 2014 the son of Danehill Dancer’s fee almost trebled to €35,000.

More was to come from that first crop. Kingston Hill doubled his Group 1 tally when he won the St Leger, The Grey Gatsby also became a classic winner, taking the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby before adding the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, while Amazing Maria would go on at four to record a Group 1 double in the Falmouth Stakes and the Prix Rothschild.

Mastercraftsman shuttled to New Zealand and his first crop there, also foaled in 2011, included two Group 1 winners, Saint Emilion and Thee Auld Floozie. In spite of these successes, the stud fee for Mastercraftsman only briefly flirted at a career high of €40,000 in 2015, and for the five seasons after that fluctuated between €25,000 and €35,000.

His apparent lack of popularity with breeders, in spite of further successes, saw him command just €15,000 in his last season in 2021.

Also shuttling to South America, he got top-level winners there, and he achieved some further fame in this part of the world when the great Alpha Centauri emerged from his fifth crop. She won four Group 1 races in a magical three-year-old season, winning the Irish 1000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes, Falmouth Stakes and the Prix Jacques Le Marois. Born four years after her full-sister, Discoveries also became a Group 1 winner, though she did so at two, landing the Moyglare Stud Stakes. Last year Alpha Centauri sold to M.V. Magnier at Goffs for €6 million.

Thanks to his victory on Sunday in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase, the Marco Botti-trained five-year-old Giavellotto now takes Mastercraftsman’s tally of Group or Grade 1 winners globally to 19, a highly commendable achievement. These successes have been gained in Ireland, Britain, France, the USA, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Argentina, and Chile. His daughters are getting plenty of stakes winners, two of which have won Group 1 races.

Giavellotto was bred by Scuderia La Tesa and races for them and Vaibhav Shah. He won on his debut the week before Christmas as a two-year-old, causing quite an upset on the day. The race was an 11-furlong novice on the all-weather at Kempton, and victory was gained at odds of 100/1, and inflicting defeat on the Charlie Appleby-trained favourite, Wild Crusade.

Better company

At three, Giavellotto steadily improved, winning twice before stepping into better company in September. His first attempt at a blacktype race came in the Group 1 St Leger, and though one of the outsiders, he performed well and was promoted to third when the runner-up was demoted. He tackled the St Leger distance again at three, beaten half a length into second place in an Ascot listed race.

Just four starts at four saw him gain a well deserved first stakes win, taking the scalp of the St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup, and he was placed again at the Knavesmire in the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup. He started this year with a placed run, beaten just a length by the winner, in Saudi Arabia, before he was back at York for a second attempt and second victory in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup, at the expense of Vauban.

In July this year, Giavellotto posted a career best effort when beating the Juddmonte duo of Arrest and Time Lock, with the favourite Hamish fourth, in the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket. A visit to Kildare for the Group 1 Irish St Leger saw him finish behind the great Kyprios and Vauban, and then it was all eyes on Sha Tin and his scintillating win by two and a half lengths.

Generations

This is a female family that Scuderia La Tesa has had for a number of generations. Days before Giavellotto won his Group 1, John Bourke’s Hyde Park Stud sold his seven-year-old full-sister Wrightia (Mastercraftsman) for 40,000gns at Newmarket, in foal for the first time to Kodi Bear (Kodiac). She had shown absolutely nothing in six starts at three, on the last occasion pulling up on her only run in a Sedgefield juvenile maiden hurdle.

It would look as though Bourke went in search of Wrightia when Giavellotto emerged, and with a €15,000 cover on her, he surely netted a respectable profit. Wrightia is the only offspring of Gerika (Galileo) not to show any ability as a racehorse. Six of Gerika’s eight foals of racing age have won, the latest being the Marco Botti-trained three-year-old Calumet (Calyx), and he is one to note for next year.

Gerika won six races in Italy trained by Stefano Botti, and she was one of eight winners out of the two-year-old winner Green Tern (Miswaki Tern). Three of that octet won at least one listed race in Italy, while her son Almufti (Toronado) was placed in the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes at two.

Green Leaves

Every generation of this family produces lots of winning offspring.

Giavellotto’s third dam was Green Leaves (Rheingold) and she was a stakes-placed winner of four races. A third of her nine winners (all her runners) won blacktype races in Italy, one of which, Savin, was a full-brother to Green Tern. However, the best of the trio of stakes winners was Green Senor (El Gran Senor).

He notched up 11 wins in his racing career, was the champion stayer in Italy at three, and that was the year that he became a classic winner, crowning his season with victory in the Group 3 St Leger Italiano. He was also third that same year n the Group 1 Gran Premio d’Italia. How very different the racing scene was then in Italy. This was 1991, the race was worth more than £100,000 to the winner, and was won by André Fabre with Pigeon Voyageur.

Runner-up that day in the Gran Premio d’Italia was Lester Piggott on the Jim Bolger runner Retinospora, Michael Kinane was fourth on Paul Kelleway’s Marcus Thorpe. The next three finishers were trained by Luca Cumani, Michael Jarvis and Dermot Weld, while Clive Brittain had the ninth horse home in a field of 11 runners.