On this day 25 years ago, Galileo was just another Derby aspirant.
He was a Derby aspirant whose aspirations were real, of course. The Ballysax Stakes winner, the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial winner, like Sinndar the year before and, although we didn’t know it then, like High Chaparral the year after. We didn’t know then either that, after High Chaparral, the third Derrinstown winner in a row who would go on to win the Derby, there wouldn't be another horse who would complete that double for 24 years at least.
The world was obviously a very different place in 2001 to the one that we inhabit today. Twitter was still five years away and X was a letter with which you struggled when you were doing an A to Z of something. Manchester City were relegated from the Premier League in 2001 and AI was something that was okay for cattle, but not for thoroughbreds.
Aidan O’Brien had yet to train a Derby winner in 2001. This is The-Beatles-had-yet-to-have-a-Number-One-hit-single territory. Galileo was Aidan O’Brien’s ‘From Me To You’, and he was obviously much more besides.
Strange to think now, but Galileo wasn’t clear favourite for the 2001 Derby. Unbeaten in three runs he may have been, the Ballysax winner, the Derrinstown winner. Sinndar had won the Derby the previous year, but Sinndar was the first Irish-trained Derby winner since Secreto 14 years earlier. The world wasn’t used to Irish-trained Derby winners back then.
As well as that, he was taking on Golan, the Sir Michael Stoute/Lord Weinstock colt who had won the Guineas, who had the pedigree to stay the Derby distance, and who shared the favourite’s mantle with him on the day.
Galileo was smooth through the race, and Michael Kinane had him perfectly positioned from early. He was just behind the front rank and no more than three wide – no horse to the outside, make your move when you want – and in a three-way share of third place as they roller-coastered around Tattenham Corner and straightened up for home. They had just left the three-furlong marker behind them when Kinane gave his horse a little squeeze and, in a beat, Galileo was upsides the leaders. Momentum up, his rider said go and he hit the front. More than two furlongs to go in the Derby, but Galileo didn’t stop.
We would learn later that Galileos didn’t stop.
Golan was in his slipstream, Pat Eddery had his sights trained on the back of Michael Kinane’s helmet from early in the piece, and he made his way past toiling rivals and into second place, but he was never going to catch his rival. Golan finished second, an admirable second, he held on by a neck from Tobougg to claim the runner-up spot, but the 2001 Derby was Galileo’s Derby.
He was Sadler’s Wells’ first too. Coolmore’s extraordinary stallion had had five Derby runners-up before 2001, and he had had four Oaks winners, but that Derby win had proved elusive until Galileo came along. It would have been an anomaly, a state of disequilibrium – up there with Sir Anthony McCoy not riding the winner of the Grand National, if he hadn’t – had Sadler’s Wells not sired a Derby winner. Then he sired another the following year in High Chaparral.
There was talk of Galileo dropping down in trip after the Derby and taking in the Eclipse but, instead, he went to The Curragh and added the Irish Derby to his burgeoning CV, remarkably, Michael Kinane’s first Irish Derby. Then he went to Ascot and retained his unbeaten record when he beat his elders in a cracking King George, leaving five fellow Group 1 winners in his wake.
One of those elders was Fantastic Light, two years his elder, who didn’t have a great run through the race at Ascot but still got closest to Galileo, and who came to Leopardstown for the re-match in the Irish Champion Stakes. And so, on Leopardstown’s green baize in September 2001, one of the most iconic horse races of modern times played out. Up there with Grundy and Bustino at Ascot. Where were you for the 2001 Irish Champion Stakes?
That race had it all, two superstar racehorses, the two powerhouses in the world of horse racing, Coolmore v Godolphin, Aidan O’Brien v Saeed bin Suroor, Michael Kinane v Frankie Dettori. And a re-match. The sporting world loves a re-match. And the tactics. Fantastic Light got home by a head, and the world went wow.
Defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park on his final run – his first run on dirt, his first run in America, at the end of a long season, his seventh run of 2001 – was eminently forgivable and did nothing to tarnish Galileo’s reputation. Then he went about establishing himself as one of the greatest influencers in the modern world of thoroughbred racing.
You could never have imagined that Galileo would achieve all that he achieved as a stallion. Nobody could have. Not even those who were closest to him. But he started early. His first crop included the 2006 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Nightime, and the 2006 Lancashire Oaks winner Allegretto, who would go on to win the Henry Ii Stakes and the Goodwood Cup and the Prix du Cadran the following year. It also included Sixties Icon, who won the St Leger in 2006, when he was chased home by The Last Drop and Red Rocks, to provide the brand new stallion with a remarkable 1-2-3 in the oldest Classic. Two months later, Red Rocks went to Churchill Downs and won the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Teofilo was in Galileo’s second crop, champion two-year-old of 2006, as was Soldier Of Fortune, Irish Derby winner of 2007, both bred by Jim Bolger. New Approach was in his third crop, Rip Van Winkle was in his fourth, Cape Blanco was in his fifth.
Frankel was in his sixth crop of foals, his 2008 crop.
Galileo’s figures as a stallion are astonishing. When Content won the Yorkshire Oaks in 2024, she brought up Galileo’s 100th Group 1 win, and that is staggering. The Coolmore stallino was champion sire in Britain and Ireland in 2008, and he was champion again in 2010, and every year thereafter until 2020. He lost his crown to his own son Frankel in 2021.
He had that extraordinary 1-2-3 in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2016 with Found, Highland Reel and Order Of St George, all three trained by Aidan O’Brien, and his progeny have won the Derby five times.
It is 25 years this weekend since Galileo himself won the Derby, and history tells you that he is much more than a Derby winner.
More to read on the Betfred Derby
- Timeform big-race preview and analysis
- Graham Cunningham's Epsom File
- Podcast Tips: Who will win the Derby?
- Betfred Derby: What the trainers say
- Horse-by-horse guide and Nic Doggett verdict
- Betfred Derby preview Podcast
- Weekend View from Andrew Asquith
- Stamina is key according to Simon Holt
- What do pedigrees say and who will stay best?
- Timeform's Derby greats down the years
- Frankel holds the key to Epsom glory
- Egypt the each-way play according to Alex Hammond
- The "most thrilling 90 minutes in horseracing"?
- Aidan O'Brien's unshakeable faith in Pierre Bonnard
- Final field of 14 and Derby draw details
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