Nine months ago, the bloodstock world was witness to one of most high-profile stallion acquisitions in living memory.
Wootton Bassett had been getting astounding results in France from miniscule crops and low fees and represented a vital and promising outcross for many of the finest race mares both in Coolmore and wider Europe. The son of Iffraaj has done nothing but reinforce confidence in his purchase since last August with seven Stakes winners including victories from Audarya and Wooded at the highest level.
The latest representative on the board was last year’s Champagne Stakes winner Chindit who made a winning sophomore debut in the Greenham Stakes on Sunday and hails from the first of Wootton Bassett’s more expensively-bred French crops. The bay colt joined the likes of Frankel, Kingman, Mohaather, Barney Roy, Muhaarar and Danehill Dancer when winning the famed Guineas trial on Sunday.
And with Wootton Bassett now covering the crème de la crème of elite mares in Tipperary at €100,000, it is inevitably only more familiar we are going to become with his name in the headlines.
This, however, leads us to another sire who had notable results at the weekend and who has been having a Wootton Bassett-esque beginning in France in general.
That horse is Galiway. And his significant story has been created by the passion and dedication of one man.
Let's go back in time a little. To 2007 to be precise, when French businessman Guy Pariente decided to build and establish Haras De Colleville in Normandy.
In that same period, Pariente owned a horse by the name of Kendargent whose best form was beating Passager and Champs Elysees in a conditions event, as well as placing fourth in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat and second in a Group 3 at Chantilly.
Pariente, determined and optimistic, showed full faith in his horse and retired Kendargent to stud which ended up being one season in the South of France before the newly-built Haras De Colleville was ready to house him.
That first crop bred off a €500 fee comprised of seven starters, five of whom were winners, and included Group 2 winner Restiadargent (who was also half a length third to Black Caviar and Moonlight Cloud in the Diamond Jubilee) and Group 3 winner (also Group 1-placed) Kendam. Both of whom were bred by Pariente himself.
The ball kept rolling and winners and Group winners coming from insignificantly-sized crops and fees until in 2013 his fee was hiked to €6,000 – a figure which was followed by €15,000 and then reached a high of €22,000. Kendargent, now 18 years old, has bred 33 Stakes winners from 595 starters including 12 at Group level.
This brings us on to the Wertheimer & Frere-bred Galiway who joined the Colleville roster in 2016 after a Listed win at Maisons-Laffitte, Group 3 placings at both two and three and a fifth-place finish in the French Guineas.
Whatever Galiway may have lacked on race record, he made up for on pedigree as he boasts the infamous cross of Galileo over a Danehill mare (think Frankel, Highland Reel, Alice Springs, Circus Maximus, Teofilo, Japan, Maybe, et al.).
And not just any Danehill mare, Galiway is out of Danzigaway – Group 3 winner and Group 1 performer from a very successful Wertheimer & Frere family. Danzigaway also bred Silent Name and the dam of Group 1 performers Slalom and Folamour, while also being a sister to Group 1 producing sire Gold Away.
Galiway commenced his new career at a modest fee of €3,000 which resulted in 30 foals, while his second crop bred off the same fee resulted in 55 foals.
Here is where it gets particularly good.
Galiway has had 47 starters to date. Twenty of those are winners and they include five Stakes winners headed by last year’s eight length Group 1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardere winner Sealiway (who also placed second on his three-year-old debut at Longchamp on Sunday).
It could be next stop @keenelandracing and the @BreedersCup for Sealiway after this amazing #WinAndYoureIN Lagardere victory!..
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) October 4, 2020
Also flying Galiway’s flag is Sunday’s Listed Prix Jacques Laffitte winner Kenway, who also won the Group Three Prix La Rochette last year as well as several other Listed events.
And Galova, Wanaway, Galik and Gregolimo complete his black-type performers list to date, all produced from €3,000 fees and the tiny crop numbers. Galiway’s 10.6% Stakes Winners to Runners percentage is higher than the likes of fellow young sires No Nay Never, Make Believe, Mehmas, etc. In fact he outperforms nearly all in this regard bar his fellow third crop sire Night of Thunder.
But what is more is that each of Galiway’s six Stakes performers so far have all been bred by Guy Pariente himself. And four of them, including Sealiway and Kenway, are out of Kendargent mares who Pariente bred when getting that initial sire off the ground. Sealiway and Kenway are actually out of two of Kendargent’s very first Stakes winners.
Naturally, these results did not go unnoticed or unrewarded. The first crop juvenile performances boosted Galiway’s fee to €10,000 last year, and the second crop juvenile Group One winner, again bred off a €3,000 fee, encouraged his fee to rise to €12,000 for the 2021 breeding season.
After all of this it is difficult not to mention Haras De Colleville’s third stallion, Goken - a son of Kendargent who Pariente also bred and raced to win two Group Three races in France and place third in the King’s Stand at Royal Ascot.
Goken retired to Colleville the year after Galiway and stood for the slightly higher fee of €5,000 for his first two years. His first runners hit the track last year - 47 of them to be exact. And 19 became winners of 30 races including two at Group Three level – Livachope and Go Athletico.
Goken’s fee which had dipped to €3,000 in his third and fourth season covering, was hiked to €15,000 for this year.
Cream will always rise to the top of the bucket, even if there is only a teaspoon mixed through.
So, like Wootton Bassett, and owing to the faith and determination of one man, Galiway and Goken are names we may well become more accustomed to reading in the headlines. Watch this space.
