STRADIVARIUS won a third successive Group 1 Ascot Gold Gup in 2020 with consummate ease for his owner/breeder Bjorn Nielson, beating Nayef Road and Cross Counter, and in so doing he surpassed Cloth Of Gold as the leading money-winner for his sire, the Gilltown Stud-based Sea The Stars (Cape Cross).

That is an honour he continues to hold, thanks to another couple of successful seasons racing, and he retired last year having won 20 of his 35 starts, amassing some €3.9 million. Also a son of Sea The Stars, the brilliant Baaeed, is another to have won in excess of €3 million, while Cloth Of Stars (€2.9 million), Crystal Ocean (€2.3 million) and Harzand (€2 million) are among 10 of his sons and daughters to be racing millionaires.

In all, Stradivarius won seven Group 1 races, and he was also a four-time winner of the Goodwood Cup. The champion stayer in Europe on no less than three occasions, Stradivarius was offered for sale in Book 1 of the 2015 Tattersalls October Sale but failed to reached his breeder’s expectation on value and was retained at 330,000gns. What good fortune that turned out to be.

Winner of a mile maiden at two, Stradivarius was successful in every one of seven seasons he raced. At three he won the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot, and was placed behind Capri in the Group 1 St Leger. He won his first Ascot Gold Cup at four, from Vazirabad, beat Dee Ex Bee in the race at five, and did the treble the following year.

Keeping his form throughout his career, he was only out of the first four three times in all, he won the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup at eight, and was placed behind Kyprios in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup (second) and Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup (third).

One of 19 Group 1 winners for his sire, one of the best racehorses of the modern era, Stradivarius is the best of six winning produce of the stakes-placed mare Private Life (Bering). She was sold as a five-year-old, carrying the subsequent seven-time Danish winner Perfectionist (Fantastic Light), for 220,000gns. Four years later she was reoffered, carrying to Azamour (Night Shift), for just 70,000gns and the following year her son Persian Storm (Monsun) became a dual Group 3 winner.

Now Private Life’s six winners comprise a pair of group winners and a pair of stakes-placed winners. She is also closely related to another champion. One of nine winners from the winning Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) mare Poughkeepsie, Private Life is a half-sister to the French juvenile stakes winner Parisienne (Distant Relative). While the latter did not produce a runner as talented as herself, she is the grandam of German Group 1 winner Perfectionist (Monsun) who went on to land the Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

STRADIVARIUS (IRE), Chesnut 2014. Champion older stayer in Europe in 2018. Won twenty races, £3,458,971, from 1 mile to 2½ miles, at 2 to 8 years including, Ascot Gold Cup, Ascot, Gr.1 (3 times), Goodwood Cup, Goodwood, Gr.1 (4 times), Doncaster Cup, Doncaster, Gr.2, Lonsdale Cup, York, Gr.2, Magners Doncaster Cup Stakes, Doncaster, Gr.2, Mansionbet Yorkshire Cup, York, Gr.2 (twice), Qipco Brit. Champions Long Distance Cup, Ascot, Gr.2, Queen’s Vase, Ascot, Gr.2, Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup Stakes, York, Gr.2 (twice), Yorkshire Cup, York, Gr.2, Sagaro Stakes, Ascot, Gr.3, also placed second in Goodwood Cup, Goodwood, Gr.1, Prix du Cadran, ParisLongchamp, Gr.1, Prix Foy, ParisLongchamp, Gr.2, Qipco Brit. Champions Long Distance Cup, Ascot, Gr.2, and third in Ascot Gold Cup, Ascot, Gr.1, Coronation Cup, Newmarket, Gr.1, William Hill St Leger Stakes, Doncaster, Gr.1, British Champions Long Distance Cup, Ascot, Gr.2 (twice).

Retired to Stud in 2023.

Stands at: The National Stud, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 0XE, England.

Contact: Anna Kerr

Telephone: +44 1638 675929

Email: stallions@nationalstud.co.uk

Web: www.nationalstud.co.uk

Fee: £10,000