It is remarkable to think that the sire of the highest-rated horse in the world had a crop of only 21 three-year-olds racing for him in 2025. The volatile nature of Gleneagles’ books in recent years is reflective of the bloodstock industry as a whole, where breeders jump on the young exciting new horse, pull back in years three and four before invariably running for the hills when said horse doesn’t live up to the hype on the track. It’s hard for those stallions to come back into favour – Ten Sovereigns, who has sprung into life in recent months as a Group 1 sire, being a case in point – but Gleneagles has bucked the trend, thanks in no part to the exploits of Calandagan.
The Aga Khan Studs admirable homebred has blossomed in the past year from a seemingly perennial bridesmaid into a multiple Group 1 winner, with a breakthrough win in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud followed by bloodless victories in the King George and Champion Stakes. Calandagan was already rated the best horse in the world prior to taking on Japan’s best in the Japan Cup last month and he vindicated that exalted position even further in victory, swooping down the outer under Mickael Barzalona to hold off the Tenno Sho winner Masquerade Ball and score by a head.
Calandagan’s season is a real credit to his connections, trainer Francis-Henri Graffard and the Aga Khan Studs, for whom it’s been a remarkable year on the track; the Japan Cup was its eighth Group 1 win of 2025, coming off the back of Daryz’s victory in the Arc, Zarigana’s promotion over Shes Perfect in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and the Group 1 wins of Sibayan and Candelari. The year of course started with a sadness in the death of the Aga Khan III and for the horses to have go on to do the operation so proud will have undoubtedly offered some solace.
The Aga Khan Studs has never been afraid to deviate away from fashion, instead preferring to focus on what could be best for its broodmare band. Its history is littered with good horses by lesser stallions, ranging from the 1981 Champion Stakes winner Vayrann, by Brigadier Gerard, to its champion miler Sendawar, by far the best sired by Priolo, and Irish Derby hero Alamshar, himself the best sired by Key Of Luck.
Calandagan doesn’t fall quite into that bracket, for all he is the best horse sired so far by Gleneagles. Coolmore’s son of Galileo is today well regarded as a solid option in the €20,000 range but when the Aga Khan Studs utilised him with Calandagan’s dam Calayana, he was a fifth-year stallion who was still relatively unproven.
Calandagan: star of Gleneagles’ stud career to date. Photo – Bill Selwyn
As the volatile nature of Gleneagles’ books suggest, matters have not been straightforward. He retired to stud as a Group 1-winning two-year-old who trained on to pull off the 2,000 and Irish 2,000 Guineas double at three. A champion at two and three, he is also exceptionally well-bred as a Galileo son of blue hen You’resothrilling, a Group 2-winning Storm Cat full-sister to champion Giant’s Causeway, himself a leading international sire. Thus Coolmore had a highly appealing package with which to go to war, and he was duly busy in his first season in 2016 at a fee of €60,000.
However, that in itself generates it share of hype, something that on occasion is almost impossible for a stallion to live up to. Gleneagles first crop wound up in the best hands available and indeed it was Ballydoyle that did most to drive his reputation when his first two-year-olds hit the track in 2019, with Aidan O’Brien saddling Royal Lytham to win the July Stakes, Southern Hills to win the Windsor Castle Stakes and Royal Dornoch to win the Royal Lodge Stakes.
That first crop came to contain ten stakes winners, among them Grade 1 winner Highland Chief, his very first winner (when successful at Newbury’s Greenham meeting) who won the Man O’War Stakes in the US. That was as a five-year-old in 2022, however, by which time Gleneagles had received plenty of opportunity to make his presence felt. There had been plenty of winners, some of them smart such as Loving Dream, winner of the 2021 Prix de Royallieu, and Group 2 winners Insinuendo and Baby Rider. But there was the sense that given the high-profile nature of his early crops (his fee didn’t drop below €40,000 until 2019), his profile was becoming acceptable rather than exciting.
That notion certainly played out in the ring where his yearling average fell from a first-year high of around 120,000gns to 37,000gns just two years later.
Patience is a virtue, however, and Gleneagles has done plenty to assuage his reputation since then thanks to a slew of talented representatives.
Loving Dream, a homebred for Lordship Stud, was the highlight of seven stakes winners out of his second crop of around 110 foals. A smaller third crop of 86 produced eight stakes winners led by the Group 2 scorers Melo Melo, Velocidad and Jack Darcy. Several of his higher-rated progeny up to that point had stayed well but Gleneagles was a top miler after all and two of his high-flyers from his fourth crop offered a different dimension to his stud record; Mill Stream captured the July Cup while Royal Scotsman was quick enough to break the 6f track record at Goodwood in the Richmond Stakes prior to running third in the 2,000 Guineas at three.
Yet it is Gleneagles’ fifth crop, produced in 2021, that has done most to underline his reputation as a consistent source of talent. From a group of 133 foals, nine are stakes winners and not only include Calandagan but also the 2024 Deutsches Derby winner Palladium and Arrow Eagle, a half-brother to Ace Impact who signed off last season with a win in the Prix Royal-Oak.
One of the strong aspects to Gleneagles’ stud record is his versatility. As Calandagan and Arrow Eagle continue to illustrate, his progeny can progress with time. Yet he’s capable of throwing classy, fast two-year-olds, which was obviously on show straight away through those first-crop colts Royal Lytham, Royal Dornoch and Southern Hills.
Understandably, that 2022 crop of 21 foals has done him few favours, yielding just a single stakes winner in German Group 3 scorer Lifetimes, while his 2023 crop – bred when his fee hit a low of €15,000 – has yet to produce a stakes horse. But he has no shortage of representatives in the pipeline, having covered three-figure books in each of the past three seasons; he was one of the busiest horses on the Coolmore roster in 2025 with a book of 188 mares. Given the dearth of proven and commercially sound stallions today available in Europe in the €15,000 to €25,000 bracket, he is surely likely be similarly attractive to breeders again in 2026.
Much of the strength behind the Aga Khan Studs rests in the operation’s ability to blend its families, many of them originally cultivated by leading breeders of their time. The 2025 season was again truly reflective of that fact. For instance, Zarigana is representative of 11 generations of Aga Khan breeding as a direct descendant of the ‘flying grey’ Mumtaz Mahal, part of the first group of mares bought by George Lambton in the early 1920s, via Aly Khan’s champion Petite Etoile. Meanwhile, Daryz and Preis von Europa winner Sibayan both belong to former Boussac families.
The Aga Khan’s final ‘lock, stock and barrel’ purchase was the stock belonging to Jean-Luc Lagardere in 2005. The acquisition provided the operation not only with ample access to Linamix, the 1990 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner who was developed by Lagardere into a leading stallion of his time, but also a diverse base of families, some of whom had been sourced out of the US with an eye on supporting Linamix. Candelari, winner of last year’s Prix Vicomtesse Vigier for the Aga Khan Studs, is one such horse.
Calandagan is another advertisement for the capabilities of the Lagardere stock as a direct descendant of his homebred Prix de l’Opera winner Clodora. By Linamix and out of the 1990 Princess Margaret Stakes winner Cloche d’Or, Clodora foaled Clodovil, who carried the Lagardere grey and pink to victory in the 2003 Poule d’Essai des Poulains prior to becoming an useful stallion at Rathasker Stud.
Among Clodora’s daughters, the Rock Of Gibraltar filly Clodovina was Listed-placed and it is through her branch that Calandagan descends as a son of her Group 3-placed daughter Calayana. Now a 12-year-old, the Sinndar mare is also dam of the Listed-placed Calamandra as well as the winning Caliyza, who topped the first session of last month’s Tattersalls December Sale on a 850,000gns bid from Ace Stud. Unsurprisingly, she was in foal to Gleneagles.
Calandagan hails from the same family as French 2,000 Guineas winner Clodovil – Photo: Caroline Norris
