A SPEEDY and precocious two-year-old, Buratino scored his first win on the opening day of the 2015 racing season and this good-looking son of Exceed And Excel improved to much higher levels as the months went by. The only horse to defeat the champion juvenile Air Force Blue that year, he is now standing his first stud season at Kildangan at only €5,000 on the Darley Club terms.
Mark Johnston sent Buratino to Newmarket in May to register his second win, this time over six furlongs, and he was even more impressive when he went to the Epsom Derby meeting for the Listed Woodcote Stakes, in which he ran right away from his rivals to win by six lengths.
Only 10 days later Buratino was in action at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, also over six furlongs, and this time he was carrying the colours of Godolphin. He won decisively again, coming home two lengths clear of the Irish star Air Force Blue and 15 others in a fast time.
After that, Buratino was given a short break until the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, in which he was a close third to Air Force Blue and another Royal Ascot winner Washington DC. Finally, Buratino had to take on the Prix Morny winner Shalaa in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket and he made a real battle of it, going down by only half a length, with Steady Pace and Ajaya another two lengths behind him.
In the official European rankings Buratino was rated the joint third best juvenile colt of 2015 in Europe, below only Air Force Blue and Shalaa.
Exceed And Excel, Buratino’s sire and a son of Danehill, was a champion sprinter in Australia, with Group 1 victories in the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington and the Dubai Racing Club Cup at Caulfield.
He won seven of his 12 starts and he has already sired the remarkable total of 127 individual blacktype winners in Europe and Australasia, 10 of which have Group 1 victories to their credit and they include Helmet (second on the leading first crop sires list in Europe in 2016), Outstrip and Excelebration.
Buratino is one of three winners out of his dam Bergamask, a listed-placed winner in France. She is by Kingmambo out of Adonesque, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells who won the Listed Blue Wind Stakes at Cork and is a half-sister to three blacktype winners, including the champion two-year-old and outstanding sire Danehill Dancer, who has 170 blacktype winners to his credit, 21 of them at Group 1 level.
Jt 3rd top rated 2yr old colt in Europe in 2015. Won four races, £170,241, from 5 furlongs to 6 furlongs, at 2 years including, Coventry Stakes, Ascot, Gr.2, Investec Woodcote Stakes, Epsom Downs, L, also placed second in Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.1, Cantor Fitzgerald National Stakes, Sandown Park, L, and third in Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1.
Retires to stud in 2017
Stands at: Kildangan Stud, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
Contact: Gerry Duffy, Eamon Moloney or Anthony O’Donnell
Telephone: +353 (0) 45 527600
Email: enquiries@darleyireland.com.
Web: www.darleystallions.com
Fee: €5,000