THERE is a double-digit tally of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) stallions who have had at least one Group 1 winner at stud, headed by the multiple classic sires Teofilo (101 stakes winners), Frankel (84) and New Approach (58), and the list also includes Gleneagles.

That dual classic-winning miler’s Loving Dream landed the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu and Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes last year, and he also had Group 2 winners in Ireland (Insinuendo and Velocidad) and France (Baby Rider), plus the runaway Group 2 German 1000 Guineas heroine Novemba, backed up by a string of other stakes winners. His burgeoning profile augurs well for the prospects of his ‘cousin’, Decorated Knight.

The Irish National Stud’s multiple Group 1-star had a successful freshman campaign in 2021, and while we can expect to see him get plenty of juvenile winners and some who will be blacktype horses at that age, it is as three-year-olds and older, from a mile and upwards, that we should see his best results.

Pearling (Storm Cat), his dam, is a full-sister to multiple Group 1-star and multiple US champion sire Giant’s Causeway, multiple Grade 1-sire Freud, and the blue hen You’resothrilling, one on the tiny list of gems that have produced at least four flat top-level winners since the pattern began. She is the dam of Gleneagles, Marvellous, Happily and Joan Of Arc, plus the Group/Grade 1-placed pattern winners Coolmore and Taj Mahal (yearlings in 2022), all by Galileo.

Decorated Knight has an outstanding stallion’s pedigree. He was runner-up to Commemorative, who won a Group 3 next time, in a mile maiden at Doncaster on his only start at two and was a lightly-raced dual mile winner before picking up his first blacktype, finishing third to Time Test in the Group 2 Joel Stakes at Newmarket.

He was a listed winner on his first attempt at 10 furlongs and, having been short-headed by Tullius in the Group 3 Diomed Stakes at Epsom two weeks later, ran up a hat-trick that started with the Group 3 Meld Stakes, his final run at four, and culminated in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan. That nine-furlong contest was the first of three Group 1s he landed that year, the others being the Tattersalls Gold Cup and that memorable defeat of Poet’s Word in the Irish Champion Stakes. Decorated Knight also chased home Highland Reel in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes and went to stud with eight wins and over £1.3 million in prize money to his name.

Decorated Knight is a bright prospect who looks likely to develop his profile across the classic range of distances, and it should not be long before we see his first stakes and group winners emerge.

DECORATED KNIGHT (GB), Chesnut 2012. Won eight races, £1,325,886, from 1 mile to 1 mile 2 furlongs, 3 to 5 years including, Emirates Airline Jebel Hatta, Meydan, Gr.1, QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes, Leopardstown, Gr.1, Tattersalls Gold Cup, Curragh, Gr.1, ICON Meld Stakes, Leopardstown, Gr.3, Al Basti Equiworld Festival Stakes, Goodwood, L, Betway Winter Derby Trial Stakes, Lingfield Park, L, also placed second in Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Investec Diomed Stakes, Epsom Downs, Gr.3, and third in Shadwell Joel Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.2.

Retired to Stud in 2018, and sire of the winners of 11 races, and £156,906

Stands at: Irish National Stud, Tully East, Kildare, Co Kildare, R51 DD56, Ireland.

Contact: Gary Swift or Conor Hyland

Telephone: +353 (0)45 521251 or +353 (0)86 6031979 (Gary) or +353 (0)85 1299236 (Conor)

Email: gswift@irishnationalstud.ie

Web: www.irishnationalstud.ie

Fee: €7,500