Stallion making waves as top-class broodmare sire in Australia.
Tofane's (Ocean Park) win in the All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick on Saturday was just another example of Coolmore's super star sire Galileo's (Sadler's Wells) growing influence on the breed, with the mare handing the perennial sire his eighth Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire in Australia and 31st overall.
Galileo over the years has conquered just about every corner of the bloodstock industry and Tofane's victory was just another feather in his cap. Interestingly of the eight Group 1 winners produced by daughters of Galileo in Australia, Tofane becomes the only one not bred on the Danzig (Northern Dancer) sireline.
The list of Group 1 winners in Australia out of Galileo mares is Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock), The Autumn Sun (Redoute's Choice), Magicool (Fastnet Rock), Warning (Declaration Of War), Winning Ways (Declaration Of War), Leicester (Wanted) and Invincibella (I Am Invincible) all descendants of Danzig.
However the mare is not devoid of Danehill on her damside as her second dam Starspangled being a daughter of the great breed-shaping stallion.
Bred by Gordon Cunningham, Tofane descends from a very active European family, who have proved to excel in Australia. The Mike Moroney-trained four-year-old is the second foal out of Baggy Green (Galileo) - who was bred by Linley Investments. Bought by Dermot Farrington for $130,000 at the 2010 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, she was trained by Todd Rawiller and won once over 1600 metres in 11 starts. Cunningham purchased Baggy Green for $23,000 at the 2013 Inglis Weanling and Broodmare Sale.
The mare was covered again by Tofane's Ocean Park (Thorn Park) last year having missed to So You Think (High Chaparral) the previous season. Her Reliable Man (Dalakhani) colt was bought for NZ$280,000 by John O'Shea Racing and Laurel Oak Bloodstock at this year's Karaka 2020 Book 1. Her two-year-old, Bradman (Pins), has raced once and so has his three-year-old brother No Compromise.
Baggy Green herself is a half-sister to Group 1 scorers Youngstar (High Chaparral) and Funstar (Adelaide) and a further three winners, all being out of the aforementioned Danehill mare Starspangled - who won one race in Ireland for the now retired trainer David Wachman and owners Coolmore.
In 2014 Coolmore sold Starspangled to Bowness Stud for $30,000 at the Inglis Australian Broodmare and Weanling Sale - with Youngstar in utero. Starspangled's colt by Newgate Farm's Dissident (Sebring) was passed in at the 2019 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale after he failed to make his $100,000 reserve. The mare has a weanling colt by Coolmore Stud-based Pierro (Lonhro) and she is currently carrying a sibling to Funstar.
Starspangled herself is a daughter of Bill Gredley's brilliant racemare User Friendly (Slip Anchor), who was bred by Gredley's Stetchworth Park Stud and is herself out of four time-winning mare Rostova (Blakeney). Rostova was purchased by Gredley for 2,000gns as yearling and she is the granddam Grade 3 winner Gender Agenda (Holy Roman Emperor) and the dam of Gredley's other Group 1-winning filly Pretty Pollyanna (Oasis Dream).
After failing to sell her as a yearling, Gredley retained User Friendly to race and she would subsequently go on to win five Group 1s including the 1992 Oaks (Gr 1, 1m4f) and St Leger Stakes (Gr 1, 1m6.5f) which saw her crowned European champion three-year-old filly and European horse of the year.
The last start of her career was in a Listed race at Del Mar in 1994 and she was then offered at the 1995 Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale in foal to Mr Prospector (Raise A Native). The mare was knocked down to Japan's Kazuo Nakamura for US$2.5 million.
The mare was kept in Kentucky where she produced three more foals before being sold again at Keeneland's November 1999 Breeding Stock Sale for US$1.7 million to David Nagel who brought her for his Barronstown Stud in Ireland.
User Friendly's progeny failed to hit the same dizzy heights as her, with eight of her ten foals to race being winners, headed by Wachman-trained / Coolmore-owned Downton (Danehill) who landed the Give Thanks Stakes (Gr 3, 1m4f) in 2007 and died as a four-year-old.
Buyers will be given the chance to buy into this family when Youngstar is offered on the online virtual Chairman's Sale auction on May 8. The mare will be offered by Middlebrook Valley Lodge as Lot 78.
Meanwhile, buyers will also be handed the opportunity to get their hands on two mares out of Galileo mares, including the aforementioned Group 1 winner Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) (Lot 20), while the other is Cheering (War Front) out of Listed-winning Galileo mare Kissed. She will be offered in foal to Frankel (Galileo) by Coolmore Stud and is catalogued as Lot 34.
Tofane's victory also provided Waikato Stud-based sire Ocean Park's with his second elite level winner, with his first coming when Kolding landed the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) in October. The pair are one of eight stakes winners produced by the son of Thorn Park (Spinning World) who has also produced Group 2 winner Oceanex and Group 3 winning pair Star Of The Seas and Out Of The Park. He had seven lots sell at Book 1 this year at an average of NZ$136,500 and a top price of NZ$450,000.
