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Coolmore’s Galileo the brilliant winner of the Derby, Irish Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and revolutionary 12-time British and Irish champion sire, was euthanized at the age of 23 after battling a chronic, non-responsive, debilitating injury to the left forefoot.
Galileo is the sire of 92 worldwide Group One winners, and he has arguably had a greater influence on the breed than any sire since his own grandsire Northern Dancer. Galileo has sired 338 stakes winners and 228 group winners, for earnings of over US$285-million and counting.
Galileo's flagbearers have included Frankel, whom many consider the greatest racehorse of all time; the US$10-million globetrotter Highland Reel seven-time Gr.1 winning-fillies Magical and Minding and a record five Derby winners, including the successful sire New Approach.
Galileo's legacy is equally strong in Australia through his sire sons, including Coolmore Australia owned 2014 Cox Plate winner, Adelaide, who has already proven a Group One producer from his base, through his Gr.1 Flight Stakes-winning daughter Funstar who was sold at the Inglis Digital Auction of A$2.7 million breaking a world record.
Galileo shuttled to Australia for five seasons from 2002 until 2006 and had many of his globe-trotting progeny travel to this part of the world to compete in our best races, ensuring he made a significant mark.
He has sired nine individual Group 1 winners in Australia, and 35 stakes winners, including horses bred both here and overseas. Two of those Group 1 winners were Australian-bred in Linton and Niwot, while another, Sousa (NZ), was New Zealand-bred from the sire's time at Coolmore Australia. He also produced two Australian-bred Group One winners in South Africa in Igugu and Mahbooba.
Galileo’s Australian progeny resulted in 27 individual stakes winners and 289 winners from those five Australian crops. He added another stakes-winner to his Australian-bred list much later when a mare that foaled down in Australia on a Northern Hemisphere covering.
Coolmore Australia Principal, Tom Magnier, currently overseas, paid a simple tribute to Galileo's extraordinary legacy on Twitter.
"The end of an era… Galileo 1998-2021. Thank you to all our team at Coolmore and Ballydoyle for this incredible journey. The horse of a lifetime said Magnier through a Twitter post.
The influence of the stallion was unprecedented.
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ames Bester, who currently works as a consultant for Coolmore Australia and has been part of the Coolmore team through most of the Galileo era, described the influence of the stallion as unprecedented.
He told TDNAus "There were three things that stood out about him: quality, balance and action. He wasn't an overly big horse, but he was the most perfectly balanced horse to look at. He had extreme quality, a beautiful head and had overall elegance and class.”
"In action, he was pure poetry in motion. To see him coming up the hill winning his Epsom Derby, as dominant as he was that year, his action and his extension upfront and the way he floated over the ground, remains in my memory. I haven't seen one come home in a Derby like that.
"Even at a walk, he was just so fluid, and absolutely floated over the ground. That was a real feature of him,” said Bester.
Table: Galileo's sire record in New Zealand
Galileo’s sons carry the torch onward
A global star on the racetrack, Highland Reel has produced two strong crops to date from Swettenham Stud, while Galileo's four-time Group 1-winning son Churchill returns for his fourth season at Coolmore Australia in 2021, with high expectations of his first crop hitting Australian racetracks in the new racing season.
One of his most successful sons, Teofilo, shuttled to Darley Australia in six separate seasons and had great success, producing five Group 1 winners in Kermadec, Palentino, Sonntag, Happy Clapper and Humidor, with the first two now embarking on stallion careers of their own.
Interestingly, Teofilo has also sired two Gr.1 Melbourne Cup winners in Cross Counter and Twilight Payment.
Another son of Galileo making his considerable mark in Australia from the other side of the world is Frankel (GB), his unbeaten star on the track who is enhancing the sireline's dynasty from his base at Juddmonte. Frankel now has three individual Australian Group 1 winners in Australian Oaks and Vinery Stud Stakes-winner Hungry Heart and G1 JJ Atkins S. winner Converge, who are both Australian-bred, as well as Gr.1 Metropolitan H. winner Mirage Dancer.
"It’s surely Frankel that carries his torch as a sire son, all around the world. Frankel is successful in every country in the world," Bester said.
Windsor Park previously stood the late Rip Van Winkle. Galileo's most influential son to stand in New Zealand, from where he produced 17 stakes winners, highlighted by Group 1-winning pair Te Akau Shark and Jennifer Eccles.
Galileo also continues to have an extraordinary impact as a broodmare sire in Australia, where his daughters have produced nine Group 1 winners and 35 stakes winners, as well as in New Zealand, where they have had five stakes-winners, including Group 1-winning pair Hall Of Fame and Age Of Fire.
The most notable of his Australian Group One winner as a damsire is the now Arrowfield Stud stallion The Autumn Sun, with the son of a Redoute's Choice a five-time winner at the elite level and another pin-up horse for the crossing of the blood of the Galileo-Danehill (USA) lines.
"If you look at his daughters and what they have done at stud, producing the likes of The Autumn Sun, Tofane, Unforgotten, Victoria Derby winner Warning and VRC Oaks winner Personal, these are Group-One winners at the very highest level that his daughters have left in Australia," Bester said.
With seven Australian stakes winners as a broodmare sire this year, including dual Group One winners Tofane and Ocean Park, Galileo sits 11th in the Australian broodmare sire rankings.
One of the secrets to that amazing legacy is the way Galileo's bloodlines have mixed so well with the premier bloodlines elsewhere in the world.
In terms of his own progeny, there have been 57 individual stakes winners globally out of mares by Danehill, 24 out of mares by Danehill Dancer (Ire), 22 by Darshaan (GB) and 15 by Storm Cat (USA).
As a broodmare sire, his daughters have nicked particularly well with Fastnet Rock, with 21 stakes winners, while there are a further 11 stakes winners for him as a damsire by War Front (USA).
Galileo's influence stretched into the auction ring too, with yearlings routinely fetching seven figures when offered for sale.
They were topped by Al Naamah, who was bought as a yearling for 5,000,000gns (£5.25m/US$7.17m) by Sheikh Joaan Al Thani's Al Shaqab Racing in 2013, while Marsha was snapped up by the Coolmore partners for 6,000,000gns (£6.3m/US$8.6) in 2017 to be covered by the sire after he was shown to suit sprinting mares.
O’Brien spoke of his pride at having trained Galileo, and then so many of his progeny.
He said: “He was an unbelievable horse for everybody involved with him. What he did was exceptional.”
Looking back on his racing career, O’Brien said: “It was unreal – he won his maiden, the two trials and then the Derby, Irish Derby and King George.”
“He looked different as well going through his races – he didn’t look like any other thoroughbred. He had loads of genuine power.”
“His stock had that as well and the determination to put their heads out the same way he galloped”, said O’Brien, “He’ll be sorely missed by us all.”
International jockey, Frankie Dettori said: "He was an amazing horse. He became a revelation as a stallion - the sire of sires.”
"It's very sad for the Coolmore team. He's done so much for racing for the past 20 years.”
"We must celebrate him now."
Mick Kinane, who rode Galileo to Derby victory, said: "His legacy will last a lifetime - as will the great memories he gave me."