Auguste Rodin a reminder that Galileo's a top broodmare sire too
John Ingles assesses Galileo's past, present and perhaps future success as a broodmare sire.
Last Saturday, Galileo had one of his last shots at siring another Derby winner with Artistic Star representing him at Epsom. That colt could finish only seventh, but Galileo still had an important part to play in the pedigree of the winner, Auguste Rodin. Aidan O’Brien’s ninth winner of the race is the first foal of Oaks runner-up Rhododendron, the first of Galileo’s daughters to produce a Derby winner.
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Galileo died in July 2021, so while he only has two more crops of three-year-olds in the pipeline, the second of those a very small one, his influence as a broodmare sire will last many more years into the future given that he still has daughters who haven’t yet even reached the track.
Galileo won the last of his dozen sires’ championships in Britain and Ireland in 2020 and that was also the first year he became Europe’s leading broodmare sire. He’s held that title ever since, and with Auguste Rodin among those to represent him in that capacity this season, he looks well placed to retain it for another season at least.
As Andrew Caulfield pointed out in his column in theownerbreeder.com in 2019, Galileo’s sire Sadler’s Wells was 24 before he won the first of seven consecutive titles as champion broodmare sire. Even before Galileo won his first such title at the age of 22, Caulfield forecast that ‘there is little doubt that Galileo is on schedule to beat Sadler’s Wells’ achievements in this area’.
Deep Impact influence
Looking at the Timeform database, no fewer than 29 horses at the time of writing with a rating of 120 or more are out of daughters of Galileo. Auguste Rodin is one of three sired by Deep Impact, and all of them are now classic winners. That’s a phenomenal record for a cross which, for the very practical reason of Deep Impact being on the other side of the world from most of Galileo’s daughters, had relatively few opportunities to be put into practice before Deep Impact died in Japan in 2019.
Deep Impact’s other English classic winners out of Galileo mares were 2018 2000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior (out of Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Maybe) and 2021 Oaks winner Snowfall (out of Give Thanks Stakes winner Best In The World, a sister to Arc winner Found).
Two of the top four highest-rated horses out of Galileo mares have been sired by Dubawi, namely Ghaiyyath and Night of Thunder. Ghaiyyath happens to be out of Galileo’s very first Group 1 winner Nightime, winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas in 2006. Ghaiyyath proved a champion for Godolphin at the age of five, winning the Coronation Cup, Eclipse and Juddmonte International.
Ghaiyyath’s half-sister Zhukova, whose wins for Dermot Weld included the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes, also features among the 29 best horses out of Galileo mares. She’s by Fastnet Rock, as is Via Sistina (out of the unraced Galileo mare Nigh) who is now in the same elite group after an impressive victory in the Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket last month. This is also the same cross which produced Ballydoyle’s 2015 Oaks winner Qualify.
Night of Thunder, who was out of Forest Storm, runner-up in a listed race at the Curragh at two, won the 2000 Guineas and the Lockinge. By winning the 2000 Guineas in 2014, Night of Thunder became the first of four Guineas winners in six years out of Galileo mares and was soon followed by Galileo Gold (by Paco Boy), Saxon Warrior as noted already and Magna Grecia (by Invincible Spirit).
On paper, this combination of Dubawi with Galileo mares makes for a very obvious match. It’s one which brings together the two outstanding sires of their era and their pedigrees complement each other. But for a long while it was politics which largely kept Godolphin-owned Dubawi and Galileo mares, many of them in Coolmore ownership, from meeting in the breeding shed. The other horse of note bred on this cross is Dartmouth whose wins in the royal colours included the Hardwicke Stakes and Yorkshire Cup.
Siyouni success
French-based Siyouni is responsible for the other two colts among the top four horses out of Galileo mares. Interestingly, neither of those mares was among Galileo’s best daughters, yet both produced colts who included the Prix du Jockey Club among their Group 1 successes. St Mark’s Basilica is out of the same mare as Magna Grecia. Cabaret was a useful two-year-old, winning a Group 3 contest at Leopardstown but she was a rare daughter of Galileo who failed to train on, something that clearly didn’t apply to her sons.
Sottsass, who went on to win the Arc as a four-year-old, is out of Starlet’s Sister who failed to win from four starts in France but is also responsible for his very smart half-sisters Sistercharlie (by Myboycharlie) and My Sister Nat (by Acclamation) who also figure among the 29; Sistercharlie won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf and My Sister Nat was runner-up in another edition of the same race.
A third colt of note by Siyouni and out of a Galileo mare is Al Hakeem, a Group 2 winner at Deauville last season who ran his best race when fourth in the Arc.
With a rating of 120, Auguste Rodin’s dam Rhododendron, also winner of the Fillies’ Mile, Prix de l’Opera and Lockinge Stakes, as well as runner-up in the Oaks, is one of Galileo’s highest-rated mares to produce a Group 1 winner of her own. Just ahead of her though, on 122, is Misty For Me, winner of the Moyglare and Prix Marcel Boussac at two and the Irish 1000 Guineas and Pretty Polly Stakes at three. She’s now the dam of two foals among the 29, both of them by War Front. The filly Roly Poly won the Falmouth Stakes, Prix Rothschild and Sun Chariot Stakes, while her brother U S Navy Flag completed the Middle Park/Dewhurst double at two and added the July Cup at three.
War Front, a Kentucky-based son of Danzig, became Coolmore’s go-to stallion for many of its Galileo mares for a time, though none of the others yielded quite the same results with him as Misty For Me. Arc winner Found, mentioned already, produced a smart colt to War Front in Battleground, her only runner to date, in fact, and winner of the Chesham and Vintage Stakes at two and third in the St James’s Palace Stakes at three.
Names to note
More recently, Coolmore have invested heavily in Scat Daddy’s sons as another fresh source of blood from across the Atlantic with the potential for mating with Galileo’s daughters. This has yet to result in anything rated 120+, though among the successes from such matings so far are Midnight Mile (by No Nay Never), last season’s Oh So Sharp Stakes winner for Richard Fahey, The Grey Wizard (by Caravaggio), a Dundalk maiden winner for Joseph O’Brien last year who went on to show smart form when placed in graded company in the States, and last month’s London Gold Cup winner Bertinelli who looks to have a future in pattern races for Ballydoyle. He’s by Scat Daddy’s US triple crown winner Justify out of the Fillies’ Mile winner and Musidora runner-up Together Forever.
Two-year-old City of Troy is a full brother to Bertinelli in training at Ballydoyle, while Justify is also the sire of Misty For Me’s current two-year-old, a filly named Greenfinch. The No Nay Never x Galileo cross is well represented among the Ballydoyle two-year-olds this season, with Democracy, a brother to Midnight Mile, Igor Stravinsky, the first foal of 1000 Guineas winner Hermosa, and The Liffey, an impressive debut winner at the Curragh on Wednesday and half-brother to recent Dee Stakes winner San Antonio, some eye-catching examples.
Galileo’s future success as a broodmare sire might also depend to a large extent on how his daughters fare when more of them are mated with Wootton Bassett, standing at Coolmore these days for €150,000. An early indication that this might prove a fruitful match came from his son Al Riffa, who looked an exciting prospect when winning last season’s National Stakes but who is yet to make his three-year-old reappearance. He’s out of the unraced Galileo mare Love On My Mind, a sister to the dual Sagaro Stakes winner and Gold Cup runner-up Mizzou.
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