The first yearlings by Galileo were just heading to the sales when the first edition of this magazine went to press in September 2004. At the time, Sadler’s Wells was on his way to a record 14th sires’ championship, making it almost inconceivable that his place as the dominant sire of the recent era would be challenged before too long.
Come the end of 2005, it was still very much watch and see when it came to Galileo. There had been just the one stakes winner, Juddmonte’s homebred Washington Singer Stakes scorer Innocent Air, among those first two-year-olds. In fact, I vividly remember one industry player declaring that it was Fantastic Light, a major rival to Galileo on the track who also had his first two-year-olds that year, who was then showing the most promise at stud.
Looking back, of course, it is unfathomable that Galileo should have been questioned. Within 12 months, there had been a first Classic winner in Nightime, the first three home in the St Leger led by Sixties Icon and a Breeders’ Cup Turf winner in Red Rocks ahead of a stud career that would redefine the idea of brilliance.
Much of what this magazine has covered in the years since then has been influenced in some way or another by Galileo. There were the 12 British and Irish sires’ championships, one achieved with an incredible total of £12 million in 2017, the year that Churchill, Hydrangea, Rhododendron, Waldgeist and Winter combined to carry all before them for the sire. There were the five Derby winners, New Approach, Australia, Ruler Of The World, Anthony Van Dyck and Serpentine, enough to make him the most successful sire in the race’s history, and of course the horse regarded by many as the barometer of excellence, Frankel.
For all his strengths, Sadler’s Wells was more inclined to throw a middle-distance horse, sometimes with a knee action more suited to softer ground. Galileo, a medium-sized horse with tremendous balance and athleticism, had no such restrictions and in that had the upper hand; send him the right mare and there was the possibility that a champion two-year-old, Classic-winning miler, Derby winner or Ascot Gold Cup winner could follow.
Crucially, however, he clicked with faster mares far more effectively than his sire ever did, an asset that appropriately came to the fore in the case of his 100th Group/Grade 1 winner, Content.
Content’s win in the Yorkshire Oaks at York’s Ebor meeting last month came on the same track that her dam, Mecca’s Angel, won back-to-back Nunthorpe Stakes for Michael Dods. With Content having inherited a major dose of stamina from her sire, mother and daughter posses very different race records save for their Group 1 class. But the Coolmore homebred is yet another example of Galileo shining with a fast mare, thereby replicating the pattern behind the likes of Gleneagles, Churchill, Adelaide, Winter, Magician, Seventh Heaven and of course Frankel.
It is also very appropriate that Galileo’s century of top-flight winners should arrive in the form of a filly in the hands of Aidan O’Brien, the man behind so many of the stallion’s best horses. It’s long been a symbiotic partnership; O’Brien knows how to get the best out of the Galileos and the typical one by the stallion thrives on the Ballydoyle regime.
“Galileo is incredible, they are so honest and so genuine,” O’Brien said following the Yorkshire Oaks. “The mark he’s going to leave on pedigrees is incredible, from generation to generation. Content is a typical example of Galileo. Even if there’s no more left, if their legs can move they put them out there and that’ what she did.
“Right to the end, Ryan said there was no stopping her. Ninety-nine per cent of thoroughbreds will get to that stage and hold up the flag, but Galileos don’t. They’re so genuine and they could be tired today and come out the next day and still put up their best. It’s a very unusual trait in an animal.”
Galileo’s achievement of siring a century of top-flight winners is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon. However, also very worthy of recognition is the achievement of his son Frankel in hitting 100 Group/Graded winners, a landmark which arrived in early August courtesy of another Ballydoyle inmate in Lake Victoria, winner of the Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket.
Frankel achieved his century in a record time of 3,144 days, a timespan that sits ahead of the likes of Danehill, Deep Impact, Galileo and Dubawi. Out of a particularly fast mare in Kind, a 5f Listed winner for Roger Charlton more in the mould of her sire Danehill than her middle-distance family, Frankel is another whose variety of assets includes clicking with a range of mares.
Like Galileo, those high-quality fast mares have served as a complement on various occasions; Lake Victoria, as a daughter of Haydock Sprint Cup heroine Quiet Reflection, is a case in point as is Content’s unbeaten half-sister Bedtime Story, who brought up Group/Graded stakes winner number 99 for her sire in the Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown in July. Now unbeaten in four starts following her success in the Debutante Stakes over fellow Frankel filly Exactly, it must be short odds that she will be another Group 1 winner for her sire and dam come the end of the year.
