The Weekly Wrap

In all forms of advertising, the better the product, the easier the job for the copywriters. Alongside the conformation photograph of Galileo (Ire) on the Coolmore website, it says simply, 'The best sire in the world.' Job done.

There's clearly no need to advertise a stallion whose offspring do it for you at pretty much every major race meeting. Two Guineas winners, the first three home in a key Derby trial, and a Group 2 winner to boot–it's all in a weekend's work for Galileo. The same of course can be said for Aidan O'Brien to the extent that it's hard to know where Galileo's success begins and O'Brien's ends. In addition to the deeds of the stallion's offspring, the trainer regularly provides all the best marketing lines for the horse he campaigned to become Sadler's Wells's first Derby winner.

“He was a big mature horse last year and he's still improving, with an unbelievable mind,” O'Brien said of G1 2000 Guineas winner Churchill (Ire) on Saturday. “When I was saddling him up his demeanour was very good. He doesn't get anxious about anything.”

It's a theme O'Brien returns to regularly, and as the trainer of exactly half of Galileo's 64 individual Group 1 winners, he's surely better placed than anyone to attest to the mental capabilities of his offspring. In a racehorse, a sound mind is every bit as important as sound limbs, and the super sire's ability to impart an equable temperament must be a significant key to his success.

Everything to Play For…
The determined victory of the Andrew Balding-trained Horseplay (GB) in the Listed Tweenhills Pretty Polly S. at Newmarket on Sunday was satisfying for a number of reasons. For this devoted fan of her sire Cape Cross (Ire), it was a chance to dream that his impressive record at Epsom could be further embellished, albeit posthumously, in a few weeks' time. More importantly, 30 years after Reference Point (GB) carried the late Louis Freedman's colours to victory in the Derby, it would be pleasing to think that his son Philip, who has continued the family's breeding operation under the name Cliveden Stud even though the stud itself was sold in 2006, could be represented in a home Classic.

The demise of the British owner-breeder has been long lamented and, since Reference Point's triumph, Anthony Oppenheimer is the only British breeder to have raced a homebred Derby winner. Indeed, Oppenheimer was among the first to congratulate Freedman in the winner's enclosure after Horseplay's win.

Many owner-breeders are more inclined to keep fillies and sell colts, and therefore the home team's recent Oaks record is better, with Bill Gredley (User Friendly {GB}), Lordship Stud (Love Divine {GB}), Lord Derby (Ouija Board {GB}), Julian Richmond-Watson (Look Here {GB}), Lady Bamford (Sariska {GB}) and James Rowsell and Mark Dixon (Talent {GB}) all having raced a homebred winner of the fillies' Classic in the last three decades. Both Ouija Board, Cape Cross's most famous daughter, and Talent won the Pretty Polly en route to victory at Epsom, as did Sheikh Hamdan's Taghrooda (GB), by Cape Cross's son Sea The Stars (Ire).

Louis and Philip Freedman, as former ROA President and TBA Chairman respectively, have been industrious servants of the racing and breeding industry, and Philip remains in a key position at the head of the Horsemen's Group. In turn, Horseplay's family has served the Freedmans well.

Her great grandam Francfurter (GB) (Legend Of France) was inherited by Philip when his father handed over his bloodstock operation, and her daughter Fraulein (GB) (Acatenango {Ger}) won the GI EP Taylor S. of 2002. Fraulein remained in North America for her first few years at stud, producing the dual winner Sister Maria (Kingmambo) as her first foal and Mischief Making (Lemon Drop Kid), winner of the Listed River Eden Fillies' S. and runner-up in the G3 Sagaro S., as her second. Horseplay is the fourth foal of Mischief Making, who was sold later in the year her daughter was born, for 100,000gns to Highclere Stud, when carrying a colt foal by Intello (Ger). In addition to Horseplay, Freedman, who boards his mares at Watership Down Stud and Lofts Hall Stud, has retained her half-sister Social Media (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), and the two-mile winner has been scanned in foal to Shalaa (Ire).

Fraulein, who also produced the dual listed victrix That Is The Spirit (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), had passed through the Tattersalls December Sale in foal to Sepoy (Aus) a year before her daughter, in 2013. The resultant offspring, bred by Damien Burns' Diomed Bloodstock, is Khukri (Ire), the recent winner of the Listed Coolmore Stud Power S. and G1 Commonwealth Cup entrant for Jessica Harrington. It could be a big summer for the family.

Caesar The Teaser Strikes Again…
We first brought you the story of Tiberius Caesar (Fr) (Zieten) two years ago, when his first foal Tiberian (Fr), the sole member of his 2012 crop, won two races and finished runner-up to Vazirabad (Fr) in the G2 Prix Chaudenay.

Tiberian has continued to be a model of consistency for trainer Alain Couetil and his owner-breeders Julian Ince, Heiko Volz and Stefan Falk, while the profile of his sire, whose day job is as the teaser at Ince's Haras du Logis in Normandy, quietly rises.

The 5-year-old is now unbeaten in two starts this season following Monday's triumph in the G3 Prix d'Hedouville at Saint-Cloud and could have the G1 Melbourne Cup on his agenda following the news that Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock has purchased a share in the stayer.

“ATB and Darren Dance had terrible news this week with the death of [Melbourne Cup runner-up] Heartbreak City (Fr), so we hope this result will cheer them all up a bit,” said Julian Ince from the races on Monday.

Tiberius Caesar, now 17, was also bred by Ince in partnership with Volz, the former owner of Danedream (Ger), as was Tiberian's dam Toamasina (Fr) (Marju {Ire}). He has never officially been a member of the Logis stallion roster and any breeder who wished to send him a mare paid Ince in cases of wine.

“He's covered about 20 mares this year and my cellar is getting bigger,” Ince added. “Though after this I may have to put his price up from wine to Champagne.”

A Group 3 winner over a mile in Germany, Tiberius Caesar was initially only allowed to cover one mare per year. Magnentius (Fr), his second foal, is now the winner of two of his six starts, and he has two 3-year-olds in training, with a 2-year-old to come. The stallion had no foals in 2016, but his books have become significantly bigger, with 15 mares covered last year.

All You Need Is Love…
At Windsor on Monday, Declarationoflove (Ire) not only became the first winner for his freshman sire Declaration Of War, but also for his first-season trainer Tom Clover. The former assistant to David Simcock set up in Newmarket towards the end of last year and is ably assisted in his new business by Jackie Jarvis, daughter of the late Michael Jarvis who is much missed in the training ranks.

Declarationoflove, from the family of Classic heroine Attraction (GB), is a well-named representative for Clover and Jarvis as they have recently become engaged and will marry next May.