Another Giant Weekend For Galileo

The unstoppable Galileo bandwagon has continued with a huge weekend of European black type results for the champion sire featuring his Guineas double at Newmarket.

The giant Galileo weekend included:-

- First in the G1 2000 Guines (Churchill)

- First and second in the G1 1000 Guineas (Winter/Rhododendron)

- First, second and third in the G3 Leopardstown Derby Trial (Douglas Macarthur/Yucatan/Capri).

- First G2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket (Seventh Heaven)

• CHURCHILL: A champion at two, Churchill (Galileo x Meow by Storm Cat) became a classic winner on his first start at three with a brilliant G1 victory in in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday.

A dual G1 winner last season, Churchill finished a length clear of the Excelebration colt Barney Roy, giving trainer Aidan O’Brien his eighth win in the colts classic.

O’Brien is now faced with the immediate dilemma of starting Churchill in the Epsom Derby or focusing on the big mile and 10 furlong races such as the G1 Queen Anne Stakes and G1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot., the Ballydoyle trainer stated that no decision had been taken on future plans.

“We could go a lot of roads with him. He has speed but horses by Galileo very rarely lack stamina,” O’Brien said. “I think he’d get 10 furlongs well but you wouldn’t know about a mile and a half.”

Churchill is the third winner of the 2000 Guineas by Galileo in the last seven runnings, joining the incomparable Frankel and Gleneagles.

Galileo also appears in the pedigrees of the last five winners of the 2000 Guineas as sire of the winners Gleneagles (2015) and Churchill (2017); paternal grandsire of 2013 winner Dawn Approach (New Approach); and as maternal grandsire of Night Of Thunder (2014) and Galileo Gold (2016).

Galileo is also the dam sire of this year’s runner-up Barney Roy..

Churchill was bred by Liberty Bloodstock from the Storm Cat mare Meow, winner of the Listed Grangecon Stud Stakes and second in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes, both five furlong races.

Meow is out of sprinter Airwave, winner of the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes as a 2YO and G2 Temple Stakes at three before she was beaten by Choisir in the G1 Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Airwave was also placed in the G1 July Cup, G1 Haydock Sprint Cup and G2 Diadem Stakes.

Airwave is a half-sister to the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes winner Jwala and her dam, granddam and great-granddam were all five furlong winners.

Airwave has also produced Galileo’s G3 winner Aloof and Listed winner Orator.

Meow has a two-year-old filly and a yearling colt both by Galileo and returned to the Coolmore champion last year.

• WINTER: This daughter of Galileo lit up the G1 1000 Guineas to complete the classic double for the champion sire.

The lightly-raced Winter (Galileo x Laddies Poker Two, by Choisir) is also trained by Aidan O’Brien and came home ahead of stablemate Rhododendron (Galileo x Stairway To Heaven, by Pivotal).

Winter was trained by David Wachman last season before joining the Ballydoyle stable. It was the third time O’Brien had completed the Guineas double.

Winter provided Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) with his 64th G1 winner and 237th stakes winner.

She is the second foal bred by Coolmore out of the Choisir mare Laddies Poker Two, winner of the Wokingham Handicap at Royal Ascot in 2010.

However Laddies Poker Two does not have black type and neither do any of her siblings or her dam.

She is a sister to Chooseday out of the unraced Favorite Trick mare Break Of Day, a half-sister to Gimcrack Stakes second Ma Yoram.

Ancient Regime, the third dam of Laddies Poker Two, won the G1 Prix Morny and was a sister to high-class sprinter Cricket Ball out of the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes winner Caterina.

Laddies Poker Two has a two-year-old filly by Galileot, a yearling filly by Galileo and returned to the sire last year.

• DOUGLAS MACARTHUR (Galileo x Alluring Park, by Green Desert) prevailed in a three-way photo over his stablemates Yucatan (Galileo x Six Perfections, by Celtic Swing) and Capri (Galileo x Dialafara, by Anabaa) in the Derby Trial at Leopardstown.

Douglas Macarthur is a brother to the 2012 Epsom Oaks winner Was and the 5 million gns purchase Al Naamah.

His dam is a half sister to the champion New Approach, winner of the Epsom Derby and the G3 winner Dazzling Park who was second in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes and third in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas.

Dazzling Park is the second dam of the G1 Phoenix Stakes-winning sire Alfred Nobel, another high-profile descendant of the legendary dual champion Park Express.

Alluring Park has a 2YO full-sister to Douglas Macarthur.

• SEVENTH HEAVEN. Last year’s Irish Oaks winner is another example of Galileo’s affinity with fast mares.

Seventh Heaven is out of La Traviata, a G3 winner over six furlongs in the US and also the dam of the G1 Middle Park Stakes winner Crusade.

• ALSO AT NEWMARKET Fastnet Rock’s impressive daughter Somehow recorded a big win in the G2 Dahlia Stakes on Sunday for Aidan O’Brien.

A G3 winner of the Cheshire Oaks and fourth in the Epsom Oaks as a three-year-old, Somehow was a Listed winner at Gowran Park in Ireland the previous week and stretched clear on Sunday to beat Elbereth by three and a half lengths

She is from the English, irish and Yorkshire Oaks winner Alexandrova, also the dam of the G2 Prix Kergorlay and G3 Prix de Barbeville winner Alex My Boy.

Her full-brother Masterofthehorse was third in the G1 Epsom Derby and her half-sister Magical Romance (Barathea) captured the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes.