A look at the pedigree of Buckaroo and the record of Fastnet Rock’s progeny over 2400m.
When it comes to Australia's best sires of the 21st century, Fastnet Rock sits comfortably in the top echelon.
The son of Danehill counts the likes of Atlantic Jewel, Avantage, Merchant Navy and Mosheen among his 44 Group 1 winners and sits alongside his sire, Redoute's Choice, Encosta De Lago, Snitzel and I Am Invincible as those to win the Australian Champion Sire award more than once since 2000.
But, he is yet to produce a winner of any of the three spring majors – the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate or Caulfield Cup.
The next two weekends present his best chance yet to rectify that with Buckaroo favourite for this Saturday's Caulfield Cup and Via Sistina a leading contender for the Cox Plate.
Remarkably, Fastnet Rock has had just two runners in each of those events.
His Caulfield Cup runners have been Brimham Rocks and Magicool, who ran 14th and 17th in their respective editions, while Super Cool and Awesome Rock both ran fifth in the Cox Plate.
Super Cool, at $17, was the shortest-priced of that quartet with Brimham Rocks ($31) the only other at sub-$101.
Buckaroo is $4.20 favourite for the Caulfield Cup despite many having a doubt on the Chris Waller-trained galloper at 2400 metres.
Fastnet Rock might not have had an open-age Group 1 winner beyond 2000m in Australia, but the record of his progeny at the Caulfield Cup trip might surprise.
As with all stallions, Fastnet Rock's progeny results are available via Racing And Sports and it will shock no one that the 1200-1299m distance range provides his best winners-to-runners figure at 37%, while he is at 33.6% at 1400-1499m and 33% at 1600-1699m.
At 2400-2499m, Fastnet Rock has had 357 individual runners for 86 winners at a strike-rate of 24.1%.
By way of comparison, champion Japanese stallion Deep Impact, who was considered one of the world's great stallions over all distances, bats at 24.9% at that distance range.
The majority of Fastnet Rock's staying results have been achieved overseas, given he stood in the Northern Hemisphere for many years and that is where Buckaroo was bred.
He is out of Roheryn, a daughter of Galileo, a sire who boasts a 31.5% winners-to-runners record at 2400-2499m.
The year after she produced Buckaroo, Roheryn had Middle Earth, a son of Roaring Lion who has won four of nine starts and was placed in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes (2414m) at Royal Ascot earlier this year.
She is also the dam of Kihavah, an eight-time winner who was runner-up to Magical Zoe in this year's Ebor Handicap (2816m) at York.
Buckaroo's only start at 2400m came in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes earlier this year, prior to the gelding operation that has rejuvenated his career, when he finished fifth in the race won by Caulfield Cup rival Kalapour.
