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The Jockey Club, Epsom Downs Racecourse.
Please feel free to click on any horse's name that is in bold and colour throughout this article to watch their replay of their race, or to view their stallion profile. All photos, captions, and headings are also linked with it's source, where viewers are able to read into the sources further for their own leisure.
Frederico Tesio reminds us that “The Thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended, not on experts, technicians, or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby. If you base your criteria on anything else, you will get something else, not the Thoroughbred.”
Coolmore is the perfect example of a breeder that strives to implement Tesio's wise words. Together with its first conditioner, Dr. Vincent O’Brien, Coolmore designed and developed a training facility to prepare their crop of three-year-olds for the grueling Epsom track that we know today as Ballydoyle. From galloping surfaces that consist of undulating gradients along the rolling hills of Tipperary, to the left-hand and right-hand turns, to tracks that travel around wide bends, and even bends that mimick Tattenham Corner itself. As trainers and jockeys would well know, Tattenham Corner is the most critical part of the race for a horse to overcome if they are to win the Derby and therefore the more practice, the better.
Ballydoyle's replication of Tattenham Corner, which includes the steep camber downhill, before heading into the straight. This corner is to practice for the first Saturday in June of every year, and is even practiced when a two-year-old enters into full training at Ballydoyle. It is the only way for horses to get to and from their main gallops. Cantering to and from the gallops, the mymiced Tattenham Corner allows Aidan to observe each horse's ability going into their three-year-old career.
Below is a video Pat Healy tweeted of Ballydoyle's Tattenham Corner, showing it's undulation and character.
The At The Races guide of Epsom Downs racecourse showing it's undulating course profile, on which the Derby is run.
The reason Epsom Downs racecourse tests a three-year-old in every way is because the track has a constant rising and falling gradient throughout the 2400m (1m4f) distance. The course is designed in a “U” shape galloping anti-clockwise, meaning that each contender has to canter the whole distance clockwise to the start and then down the hill.
The course is designed in a “U” shape galloping anti-clockwise, meaning that each contender has to canter the whole distance clockwise to the start and then down the hill. While traveling to the start, horses have to mentally withstand the jam-packed audience of passionate racegoers on either side of the track, and the race time is usually midday on a summer afternoon creating warm conditions. This makes mental composure critical.
As soon as the gates open, horses have to face the steep incline they face for the first 800 meters of the course, which includes a right-hand turn followed by a left-hand turn joining the anti-clockwise bend before plateauing momentarily. The level stretch of course is short-lived before the horses begin to descend as the course bends sharply approaching Tattenham Corner. Tattenham Corner has an obvious sideways inclination inwards around the bend coming into the straight, and the straight finishes with an incline to the winning post. Because of this, a winning horse has to be balanced to recover from the track camber while travelling at the speed gained from galloping down the hill.
For a horse to win the Epsom Classic, it needs to quicken its speed to get into a good running position, must have the stamina to handle the distance of 2400m, and finally, a strong mind is vital to handle the conditions to and from the start. A sole sprinter, stayer, unbalanced, and flustered horse simply can’t cope with the above-mentioned factors, and some horses may never fully recover mentally.
This is ultimately why the Epsom Track will determine the best colt and filly of that generation, as every muscle is worked to get through a right-hand bend, left-hand bends, up the hills, down the hills, and while balancing through the camber of Tattenhan Corner, while remaining mentally composed. A few unfancied horses have outrun the favourites on few occasions. This is however less likely, since very few horses have all the necessary attributes to win this tough race.
Because of this belief, the master horse of Tattenham corner, Galileo (Pictured, navy silks) became the ultimate benchmark as a stallion for Coolmore and Ballydoyle for producing Derby contenders. Aidan praised Galileo as a beautiful mover, who was able to cruise and stay the Derby trip, and he was very
genuine. Galileo had great mechanics that gave him his natural action, made him a great walker, trotter, and galloper.
He proved this by winning in 2001, and what legacy he has left thus far, the proof is certainly in the pudding.
The legacy Galileo has left at Epsom Downs Racecourse was not only left as a racehorse, but also as a sire, a sire of sires (grandsire), and as a broodmare sire. He was a son of Saddler’s Wells (Northern Dancer), out of the Miswaki mare Urban Sea, trained by none other than Aidan O’Brien, and owned by Coolmore.
Galileo finished up his racing career at the end of his three-year-old career in 2001, after a below-average run when tested over the dirt surface for the first time in the 2001 renewal of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Grade 1). The idea was to determine if he had the ability to be a dual-purpose stallion for producing turf and dirt runners. Galileo ran eight times for six wins and a second, including a treble of Grade 1 victory’s achieving the English Derby (Grade 1) and Irish Derby (Grade 1) double, followed by a victory over the same distance at Royal Ascot in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (Grade 1).
This race record earned him the golden keys to the Coolmore Stud paddocks in County Tipperary, Ireland to begin his second career as a stallion.
As A Sire
His Epsom Derby legacy as a sire began in 2008 when his son New Approach took the honors of the 2008 renewal of the race.
Galileo had to wait a further four renewals of the race before his second son Ruler Of The World won in 2013 and was able to produce back-to-back winners the following year with Australia winning in 2014. Australia was by the 2001 Derby Winner, out of an 2004 oaks winner Ouija Board (Cape Cross).
In 2019 and 2020, Galileo managed to also produce back-to-back winners of the race again with two complete outsiders who were ridden tactically and differently to win their respective renewals in Anthony Van Dyck and Serpentine.
As a sire of sires (grandsire)
As a sire of sires, Galileo's grandson Masar won the derby in 2018, and in the process provided his sire New Approach with a first Derby winner.
Although Galileo’s multiple Grade 1 winning sons Frankel and Nathaniel didn’t compete in the Epsom Derby during their three-year-old campaign, skipping their sire's tradition of his progeny winning the race, both Frankel and Nathaniel are multiple Grade 1 winning producers themselves. Frankel and Nathaniel have each sired an Epsom Derby winner, with Frankel siring the 2021 winner Adayar (pictured), and Nathaniel siring the 2022 champion Desert Crown.
Galileo has begun blazing a trail as a broodmare sire in the race.
The 2023 running of the Epsom Derby was won by one of the most, if not the most important colt bred by Coolmore, and trained at Ballydoyle, in Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact). Auguste Rodin (pictured) was produced as a result of bringing two continents together in Japan and Europe, by breeding Japan’s best sire Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) with the best bred daughter of Europe’s leading sire, sire of sires, and broodmare sire, Galileo called Rhodedendron. Rhodedendron was the runner up to Enable in the 2017 Epsom Oaks and to be bred to Deep Impact, a Japanese Derby winner himself, Auguste Rodin's victory was proof that Coolmore mastered a further Derby recipe. The product of Auguste Rodin has opened an avenue for Galileo to further become a successful broodmare sire of the race, through his daughter’s currently at stud, and bred for the same ultimate goal to produce future derby winners.
Thus far, Galileo has produced five sons who have won the Derby, two grandsons who have won, and as of last year, became as of last year became the broodmare sire of last year's winner.
It is safe to say that Galileo was bred to win the derby, and to produce derby winners, as well as his family were. What makes Galileo impeccably bred for the derby is that his sire Saddler’s Wells did not only produce 2001 winner Galileo, the son of Northern Dancer also produced 2002 winner High Chaparral and Montjeu who didn’t win the race himself, but sired four winners of the race in 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2012 siring winners Motivator, Authorized, Pour Moi, and Camelot (pictured) respectively.
Montjeu also managed to become a sire of sires of the race in 2017, when his grandson Wings Of Eagles (Pour Moi) gave his sire Poui Moi a first achievement of siring the derby winner of 2017.
Galileo’s grandsire Northern Dancer is also the grandsire of Danehill, who produced the 2004 winner Northern Light (Danehill).
Urban Sea (Miswaki) did not only produce 2001 winner Galileo, but she also produced the 2009 Derby winner Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) in picture. Cape Cross is a great-grandson of Northern Dancer, who did not only sire Sea The Stars, but also the 2015 Derby winner Golden Horn. Sea The Stars waited until 2016 to sire his first son past the Epsom post in Harzand in 2016 in the colours of the Aga Khan stud, giving Cape Cross a first grand sire title in the race.
Since 2000, there have been twenty-four renewals of the Epsom Derby.
Out of those, twenty-one winners have descended from Northern Dancer (88%), and sixteen of those descend from Saddler’s Wells (76%). Urban Sea’s legacy as a producer continues through eleven winners through her son’s Galileo and Sea The Stars (46%), making that nine winners descended from Galileo in the last sixteen renewals of the race (56%). Montjeu left a winning influence of five winners through his four sons above, and his grandson Wings Of Eagles (31%).
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If we reflect on the three-year-old filly equivalent of the Derby, the Epsom Oaks, run since 2000 over the same distance, the bloodlines above in the last twenty four renewals are very similar.
Seventeen of the twenty four descended from Northern Dancer (71%), and of those twelve past winners descend from Saddler's Wells (71%). Urban Sea’s legacy as a producer continues through eleven winners through her son’s Galileo and Sea The Stars (46%), making that ten winners descended from Galileo in the last sixteen runnings of the Epsom Oaks (63%).
As a sire, Galileo sired five Oaks winners in 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022, siring Was, Minding (pictured), Forever Together, Love, and Tuesday respectively.
As a sire of sires, Galileo's granddaughter Talent won the oaks in 2023, and in the process provided her sire New Approach with a first oaks winner as well.
Frankel and Nathaniel have also sired Epsom Oaks winners on top of their Derby winners, with Frankel siring the 2019 and 2023 winners Anapurna and Soul Sister respectively, and Nathaniel siring the 2017 heroine Enable.
Thus far, Galileo has produced five daughters who have won the Oaks, four granddaughters who have won, and was the the broodmare sire of the ill-fated 2021 oaks winner Snowfall (Deep Impact), who was regally bred on the same cross at the 2023 Derby hero Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact) mentioned above.
Galileo’s grandsire Northern Dancer is also the grandsire of Danehill, whom his son's Danehill Dancer and the Coolmore owned and raced Fastnet Rock (Danehill) produced the 2011 winner Dancing Rain (Danehill Dancer), and 2015 winner Qualify (Fastnet Rock) respectively.
Sea The Stars waited until 2014 to sire his first daughter to get past the Epsom winning post in Taghrooda, also giving Cape Cross a first grand sire title of the race.
The above mentioned, and pictured Frankel sired a Derby winner, two Oaks winners, and is one of the best bred colts in the stud book today, being by Galileo, out of a Danehill mare Kind, which is a highly successful nick today. Because of this, it is difficult to not imagine Frankel running in the 2011 renewal of the Epsom Derby, where he would have finished, and how far he would have won by had he run. The impact his sire Galileo, his damsire Danehill, and what his progeny have had on the Derby and Oaks thus far, the pondering thoughts remain valid. Hopefully Frankel can continue leaving a legacy at Epsom, and may one day overtake his sire Galileo's Epsom hoofprint if he continues at the rate he is currently going as a sire.
Reading above, it pays to follow offspring descended from Camelot, Frankel, Galileo, Golden Horn, Nathaniel, and Sea The Stars in this year’s renewal of the race come the 31st of May and 1st of June in the Epsom Oaks and Derby respectively.
In the next post, I will be some of the likely runners for this year’s Derby and Oaks, who are descendants of the above mentioned, and are currently trending in the Ante-Post betting. They will be attempting to increase their descendants’ legacy further come race day.
Stay Tuned.
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