Royal Ascot: Galileo and Zoffany

There are no prizes for guessing that the stallion table at the five-day Royal Ascot meeting was headed by Galileo. With victories from Gleneagles, Curvy and Aloft, the ultra-prolific Coolmore stallion added more than £600,000 to his 2015 bankroll. In doing so, he succeeded in overhauling Golden Horn’s sire Cape Cross to take his habitual place at the head of the Anglo-Irish sires’ list. 

In one respect, though, Galileo was outshone by Oasis Dream, who became the only stallion to sire more than one Group 1 winner at the meeting, thanks to his fast sons Goldream and Muhaarar (whose pedigree I reviewed on Apr. 21). This double took the stallion’s total of Group 1 winners to 14 from his first eight crops aged three or over. 

Oasis Dream, in turn, had to share the limelight with a couple of his companions at Banstead Manor Stud. It was Champs Elysees, a three-time Grade I winner in North America, who was responsible for G1 Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris. This gelding belongs to a first crop which also features those very useful fillies Xcellence. Eastern Belle, Lustrous, Avenue Gabriel and Regardez. Champs Elysees also has the tough group-winning filly Jack Naylor among his second-crop 3-year-olds. 

Champs Elysees, of course, is a brother to Dansili, a stallion who made arguably the biggest overall impact on the Royal meeting. Although directly responsible for just one winner, that winner was the unbeaten Mahsoob, who wasn’t hard pressed to land the Wolferton H. over a mile and a quarter. 

Although Mahsoob is still rated no higher than 114 by the Racing Post, and has gained his four wins by margins of a length or under, he is being talked of as a contender for no less a race than the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. Indeed the bookmakers generally have him on offer at only 7-1 or 8-1 for the Ascot Group 1, not far behind the Derby winner Golden Horn and the Royal Ascot group winners Snow Sky and Free Eagle. 

As Dansili is now 19 years old, he is old enough to be making an impact via his stallion sons and broodmare daughters. It was his daughters which provided Juddmonte with its pair of impressive Royal Ascot group winners. Firstly the Group 1 winner Passage of Time was represented by the exciting Time Test, winner of the G3 Tercentenary S., while the listed-placed Winter Silence was responsible for Snow Sky, who upset the mile-and-a-half status quo in considerable style in the G2 Hardwicke S. 

But even these fine efforts by Dansili’s broodmare daughters were arguably outshone by the remarkable first-crop treble achieved by Dansili’s fast son Zoffany. 

It is only three years since New Approach earned considerable plaudits at the Royal meeting by landing the G2 Coventry S., the G3 Albany S. and the Listed Chesham S. with members of his first crop. Now we have seen Zoffany achieve a very similar treble, thanks to Waterloo Bridge in the G2 Norfolk S., Illuminate in the G3 Albany S. and Washington DC in the Listed Windsor Castle S. 

The similarities between New Approach and Zoffany extend to the fact that they were both precocious. After making his debut on July 15, New Approach was unbeaten in five juvenile starts. For his part, Zoffany made a winning debut on Apr. 18 and proceeded to win five of his first six starts, including the G1 Phoenix S. Paradoxically, his first defeat came at Royal Ascot, when he could finish only sixth in the Coventry S. 

One sizeable difference between the two, though, is that New Approach started his stallion career at a fee of £30,000, having progressed to win the Derby, whereas Zoffany was available for only €7,500 after a winless second season (he did, though, manage to finish less than a length behind the great Frankel when he returned to Royal Ascot for the G1 St James’s Palace S.) 

Despite the cheapness of Zoffany’s fee, it very quickly became apparent that he was siring eye-catching progeny. His first weanlings sold for as much as 130,000gns, but it was at the 2014 yearling sales that a real buzz developed about the young son of Dansili. A colt out of Mount Crystal made 475,000gns and there was also plenty of competition for Waterloo Bridge (350,000gns) and Washington DC (€340,000). Although Illuminate made “only” £95,000, this was still an excellent return on a €7,500 nomination. 

One aspect of Zoffany’s pedigree which I find especially interesting is that he is out of a daughter of Machiavellian. In case you need reminding, Machiavellian was the highest-ranked European 2-year-old of 1989, thanks to an unbeaten campaign which featured Group 1 victories in the Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre. Although less successful at three, Machiavellian possessed considerable potential as a stallion. In addition to being a son of Mr. Prospector, he was out of a smart granddaughter of Natalma and his dam also possessed 3×3 inbreeding to Almahmoud. I never tire of pointing out that Almahmoud had only three daughters, but each of them produced a champion sire (Northern Dancer, Halo and Arctic Tern). 

Machiavellian didn’t let the side down, establishing himself among the top flight by siring nearly 6% group/graded winners. Those group/graded winners featured the likes of Street Cry, Medicean, Almutawakel and Storming Home, plus winners of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, des Pouliches and Prix de Diane. 

Several of Machiavellian’s sons have sired Group 1 winners, with Street Cry leading the way ahead of Medicean (whose son Dutch Art has sired group winners at each of the last two Royal meetings). 

However, it is possibly going to be stallions out of Machiavellian’s daughters that are destined to make the biggest impact. The first to make his mark was the dual Classic winner Shamardal, whose son Balios won last week’s G2 King Edward VII S. in the style of a future Group 1 winner. Shamardal finished third on Britain and Ireland’s leading sires’ list last year, with an impressive number of group winners worldwide, and his son Lope de Vega took the title of leading first-crop sire with a crop which has now produced five group winners, plus the colt who kept Gleneagles’s winning margin in the Irish 2,000 Guineas to less than a length. Lope de Vega, significantly, is inbred 3×3 to Machiavellian. 

Another stallion with a dam by Machiavellian is Dark Angel, who made such an impressive start that his fee rose from €7,000 in 2011 to €27,500 in 2014. Although Dark Angel failed to sire a winner at Royal Ascot, he could be considered a bit unlucky not to do so, as three of his juveniles ran well. The previously unbeaten Easton Angel would have been an impressive winner of the G2 Queen Mary S., but for the presence of the monster American filly Acapulco. Log Out Island made a bold attempt to lead throughout in the G2 Norfolk S., only to be cut down in the final stages by Zoffany’s son Waterloo Bridge. And Steady Pace was beaten only a length when third of 27 in the Windsor Castle S. 

Machiavellian’s broodmare daughters have produced Group 1 winners to Green Desert’s sons Oasis Dream (2) and Invincible Spirit, so it perhaps isn’t surprising that Zoffany’s bright start owes quite a debt to Green Desert. Illuminate, his winner of the G3 Albany S., is out of Queen of Stars, an unraced daughter of Green Desert and the Machiavellian mare Queen Catherine. Illuminate is therefore inbred 3×3 to Machiavellian, as well as 4×3 to Danzig, and she has numerous lines to Almahmoud. Washington DC is out of How’s She Cuttin’, a granddaughter of Green Desert, so he is inbred 4×4 to Danzig. The odd man out is the G2 Norfolk S. winner Waterloo Bridge, whose only duplications are 5×4 to Northern Dancer and 4×5 to Mr. Prospector. 

Zoffany has strong claims to being one of Dansili’s fastest sons, so it is going to be interesting when two Group 2-winning sprinters by Dansili have their first runners next year. The Flying Childers S. winner Requinto, another member of the Coolmore squad, raced only at two, when he showed much of the speed that had brought his dam Damson victories in the G2 Queen Mary S. and G1 Phoenix S. He hasn’t been as strongly supported as the Temple S. winner Bated Breath, who retired with the unenviable record of having finished a close second in no fewer than four Group 1 events. Bated Breath has more than 100 yearlings in his first crop, his best price at the weanling sales being the 130,000gns paid by Shadwell for a colt.