Op/Ed: No Shame In Being A Sire For All Seasons

[Wandering Eyes]

There are those well-rounded fellows who appreciate both the pure adrenaline surge that comes with watching high-class Flat horses as well as the grit and courage displayed by the jumpers. For some, however, even the mere mention of National Hunt racing brings a wince and a sneer.

As one who was introduced to racing through the jumping side, I’ll never be prised from my devotion to the winter game, but I’ve developed an equal love of Flat racing. In fact, a good many of the colts I’ve admired most on the Flat end up either standing as National Hunt stallions or providing high-class winners under both codes. That of course is because my blood isn’t really up until horses run 10 furlongs or farther, and there is no day I look forward to with greater anticipation than Derby day.

As regards his potential impact on the breed, which is already significant but far from complete, we must view Galileo (Ire) as the greatest Derby winner of the modern era. The multiple champion stallion passed his own sire’s tally of Group 1 winners when Magical became his 74th to salute at the highest level back in October, and it should come as no surprise that he also supplies some decent jumpers, including dual Grade 1 winner Supasundae (Ire).

Just as it has been on the Flat, the influence of Sadler’s Wells is widespread when it comes to National Hunt breeding. Galileo currently sits at number 21 in the jump sires’ table and ahead of him are no fewer than 10 sons or grandsons of Sadler’s Wells. Indeed, the two leading active stallions on the list, in Ireland and Britain respectively, are the St Leger winner Milan (GB) and dual Ascot Gold Cup winner Kayf Tara (GB), both bred in Britain by those high-class purveyors of Flat horses, Fittocks Stud and Meon Valley Stud.

A direct contemporary of Galileo, Milan is the eldest of three St Leger winners on the 17-strong Coolmore National Hunt roster, which also includes the St Leger runner-up Mahler (Ire), as well as the dual Irish St Leger winner Order Of St George (Ire), who is a new recruit for 2019. These two are both sons of Galileo, as are another three of their roster companions–Soldier Of Fortune (Ire), Sans Frontieres (Ire) and Imperial Monarch (Ire)–while Montjeu (Ire) is represented by Walk In The Park (Ire), Leading Light (Ire) and Pour Moi (Ire).

Last year, in the breeding season just before his son Wings Of Eagles (Fr) won the Derby, Pour Moi was switched from Coolmore Stud to stand under the National Hunt wing at Grange Stud. Such a move makes him no less capable of siring some more decent Flat horses, though the opportunity to do so will surely dwindle. In a twist, perhaps precipitated by the untimely demise of Champs Elysees (GB), Pour Moi has been joined on the National Hunt roster by Wings Of Eagles, who stood just one season in France at the stud of his birth, Haras de Montaigu, where he covered around 70 mares.

This certainly should not be viewed as an insignificant tally, but at the top of the National Hunt game, the numbers covered by fashionable stallions can be eye-watering. Walk In The Park and Soldier Of Fortune were both moved to Ireland after eye-catching starts with their relatively small, early French crops, and they respectively covered 183 and 281 mares in 2018. The good-looking Wings Of Eagles surely won’t be overlooked.

Champs Elysees was himself enjoying something of a renaissance following his move to Ireland from Juddmonte in 2017. In those two seasons at Castlehyde Stud he covered just over 400 mares, his support in Newmarket having dwindled to 54 in 2016. In 2018, of course, he sired the QIPCO 1000 Guineas winner Billesdon Brook (GB)–a timely reminder that being ‘demoted’ to the jump stallion ranks is nothing more than a label, though following the announcement of his death last week that is now a moot point in the case of Champs Elysees.

With a thriving National Hunt industry in this part of the world, particularly in Ireland, there is at least an outlet for the stallions who will be declared uncommercial in a ruthlessly fickle Flat market, despite the fact that many of them are among the best-bred horses on the planet.

Galileo is now the oldest active Derby winner and we are fortunate to have 13 of the more recent winners at stud in Europe. His successor at Epsom, High Chaparral (Ire), is sadly no longer with us but he is the sire of the top-rated jumper of the season, the breathtaking two-mile chaser Altior (Ire), while Authorized (Ire) provided the Grand National winner Tiger Roll (Ire)–one of the most admirable horses in training having won at three Cheltenham Festival, over hurdles, fences and cross-country, in a five-year period. Then of course there’s Presenting Percy (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), currently favourite to add the Cheltenham Gold Cup to his victory in last season’s G1 RSA Novices’ Chase.

Does the success of these geldings make their Derby-winning sires jumps stallions? The answer of course is that, as their own race records suggest, sent the right mare they are capable of producing high-calibre horses under both codes. As well as winning the Derby, the traits that link them are talent, soundness, and versatility. And these are surely three attributes high on the list of anyone who sets out to breed a racehorse, right?

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