With several more crops left in the pipeline, John Ingles sees further success for a while yet for Coolmore's late stallion.
Wootton Bassett completed his fourteenth and, as it sadly turned out, his final northern hemisphere covering season at Coolmore this spring. He was back in Australia for his fifth season of stallion duties in the southern hemisphere when his death was announced at the age of 17 earlier this week.
On the one hand, therefore, Wootton Bassett was a well-established stallion, at least in Europe. But at the same time, it’s still early days in his hard-won climb to join the ranks of the elite sires, with his demise coming in a year when he had reached new heights. That final book of mares in Ireland was covered at a new high fee of €300,000, while his results on the track this year make him the leading stallion in France at the time of writing and second only to Night of Thunder in Great Britain and Ireland.
It was less than a year ago that I covered Wootton Bassett’s rise from humble beginnings at stud in France, with a first crop of just 23 foals and a fee that was as low as €4,000 at one stage, to becoming the most expensive stallion on Coolmore’s Irish roster.
The move to Coolmore in 2021 proved transformational for Wootton Bassett’s stallion career, resulting in an instant upgrade to the mares he was covering with his stud fee more than doubling to €100,000. That same year, Coolmore had also lost the mighty Galileo. There was no replacing the twelve-times champion sire of course, but as a son of the Zafonic stallion Iffraaj, Wootton Bassett’s pedigree was sufficiently ‘different’ to make him a suitable match for Galileo’s daughters and those of other more mainstream sire-lines.
After a hugely successful autumn for Wootton Bassett’s first crop of Irish-conceived two-year-olds last season, it’s no surprise that the same generation has flourished at three – though that’s something which Wootton Bassett did not do in his own racing career.
Whirl had been her sire’s eighth individual Group-winning two-year-old when successful in a Group 3 at the Curragh last autumn, which was one more than either Galileo or another former Coolmore champion sire Danehill had ever achieved. This year, the same filly has developed into the best example of the Wootton Bassett/Galileo cross of either sex among the current classic crop, winning the Musidora, Pretty Polly and Nassau as well as running stablemate Minnie Hauk to a neck in the Oaks. Al Riffa, recent winner of the Irish St Leger, had been Wootton Bassett’s first Group 1 winner out of a Galileo mare when successful in the National Stakes three years earlier.
As well as Sahlan, winner of the Prix du Moulin earlier this month, Wootton Bassett’s three-year-old colts include the Ballydoyle pair Henri Matisse and Camille Pissarro, not only both classic winners in France earlier this year, but also both out of mares by Pivotal. Of Wootton Bassett’s 16 Group 1 winners to date, eight of them have been successful at that level in the last 12 months.
Members of his latest crop of two-year-olds are showing promise for bigger things, with Constitution River winning the Futurity Stakes and Puerto Rico landing the Champagne Stakes, while his two-year-old fillies include Debutante Stakes winner Composing and the Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Beautify.
Perhaps Wootton Bassett’s most eagerly awaited youngster in his current crop of two-year-olds is Amo Racing’s 4.3 million guineas purchase at Tattersalls last October. Named Poker, the colt is in training with Karl Burke, holds a Futurity Trophy entry and could make his debut at Haydock on either Friday or Saturday.
Speaking of the October Yearling Sale, Wootton Bassett has 30 lots catalogued for this year’s sale in a fortnight’s time. Given his success this year and the now ‘limited edition’ status of the yearlings and foals he has left behind, interest in his stock is sure to be huge. Those lots include a filly out of a half-sister to Lope de Vega, another filly out of a half-sister to the King George and Oaks winner Taghrooda, and a filly who is out of a half-sister to the dam of Field of Gold.
A potential sale-topper, given he’ll make obvious appeal to both Coolmore and Godolphin, is Wootton Bassett’s colt out of Nightime who became Galileo’s first Group 1 winner when successful in the Irish 1000 Guineas. Nightime is already the dam of eight winners, most notably top-class middle-distance performer Ghaiyyath.
Wootton Bassett was still young enough for his owners to have expected plenty more covering seasons from him; Galileo was aged 23 when he died, while Dubawi, who is still going strong, will turn 24 next year. It’s an obvious blow to lose a stallion at the height of his powers as Wootton Bassett seemed to be, though there’s every chance too that he’ll achieve even more posthumously. Success for a stallion frequently lasts beyond his own lifetime; Wootton Bassett’s final classic crop will be racing in 2029, so there’s plenty of opportunity yet for him to continue to make his mark for several seasons to come, perhaps even as champion sire.
The loss of Wootton Bassett puts more of the focus in the short term on Justify, Coolmore’s other leading sire of the post-Galileo era, who may be based in Kentucky but has followed City of Troy last year with two more British classic winners, Ruling Court and Scandinavia, this season.
Wootton Bassett’s demise also gives added significance to Delacroix’s imminent retirement – if he hasn’t already run his last race – to join Coolmore’s stallion roster. Ever since the Eclipse, Aidan O’Brien has been stressing how important an addition the son of Dubawi will be and, like Wootton Bassett, he has the pedigree to be a good fit for mares from the Northern Dancer sire line.
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