By Jack McInerney –
On a cold and wintery day nearing the end of the Irish winter on 30th March 1998, a regally bred Colt was born, as they say he was “bred in the Purple” in every sense of the phrase, being by blue chip Stallion SADLER’S WELLS, out of 1993 Arc De Triomphe winning mare URBAN SEA.
Arguably the #1 breed shaper of our lifetime, GALILEO was bred by the owner of glamour mare URBAN SEA Mr David Tsui in partnership with an organisation listed as ‘Orpendale’, a name known to be used by Coolmore Stud, as an arm of their breeding operation. He only raced once as a 2 year old, winning by about 14 lengths on a Heavy track at Leopardstown. The writing was on the wall.
At his third start in a race he lined up in the Epson Derby Trial at odds on where he put his 4 opponents away with ease. He then, incredibly, headed to the Epsom Derby at just his 4th career start where he careered away late in the race to win by 3.5L beating an all star field including TOUBOUGG and GOLAN, who jumped as joint 11/4 ($2.75) Favourite.
At his next start, also known as the Irish Derby Demolition where he was sent out as short priced favourite at 4/11 ($1.36) was GALILEO cementing his place as not only a genuine, bona fide “freak”, as labelled by Irish Derby Runner Up MORSHDI’s jockey Phillip Robinson but also as one of the most exciting stallion prospects in European Horse Racing in a long time. His rider Mick Kinane claimed his first Irish Derby victory from 17 previous attempts. There seemed to be an aura of invincibility surrounding the horse which grew exponentially with each win, with Kinane being quoted as saying:
“There is no weakness to him, he is a dream to ride”
His next start where he lined up against the older horses in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes will go down in UK racing history as the day Galileo took the mantle as the #1 thoroughbred in both UK and European Racing. His stirring duel down the straight with the Lanfranco Dettori ridden FANTASTIC LIGHT was a sight to behold as they went stride for stride and FL even getting its nose in front for a moment with the 3 year old GALILEO knuckling down and getting the upper hand and streaking away to win, whipping the crowd into nothing short a rapture. He in turn became the 26th three year old winner to win the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
They faced off for round 2 a few months later in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown. Galileo went in to the race with an unbeaten record from 6 starts, including the Epsom Derby win and Irish Derby win. The only fly in the ointment for the great horse seemed to be that he was he was dropping back in distance to one and a quarter miles. This would prove to be crucial in the outcome of the race.
Coolmore had adopted the use of a Pacemaker for the race, ICE DANCER was sent to the lead at nothing short of a break neck speed, at one stage getting 10 lengths in the front of the field. The other jockeys paid no attention to the pacemaker though, letting him go and subsequently hit a brick wall in the straight.
Rider of FANTASTIC LIGHT, the indomitable Frankie Dettori made his move on the turn for home, Kinane, riding on instinct, idled up to his sworn rival and as a result the two favoured horses in the market paired off for the last quarter of a mile in a race for the ages with some labelling it the greatest 2 horse duel ever seen in the history of the sport with FANTASTIC LIGHT winning by a head on the line.
Facing defeat for the first time at his 7th start, albeit narrowly in the Irish Champion the rumours were that GALILEO would be sent to America to run in the Breeders Plate on Dirt. The rumours proved to be true with Coolmore releasing a statement declaring their intention for the horse to run in the infamous Breeders Cup Race held on dirt at Belmont Park in New York. He was prepared for the race by working extensively on the artificial surface at Southwell, essentially replicating as close as possible the track on which GALILEO would run what turned out to be his swan song. Also the race touted and marketed around being the 3rd time GALILEO & FANTASTIC LIGHT would face off but that took a left turn when FL was removed from the race in favour of running on the Turf.
After jumping well and finding a good position in running GALILEO failed to quicken whatsoever and just plodded away into 6th place and was as a result retired on the spot and was to be sent to stud at Coolmore Stud.
A sad end to the career of a truly prodigious talent who was bred to be a champion and became exactly that, this is where the magnitude and impact GALILEO will and has had in the past, present and future of the Thoroughbred Horse Racing industry really starts to become apparent.
He sired a total of 92 Group 1 winners including, but not limited to: FRANKEL , AUSTRALIA, NATHANIEL, RIP VAN WINKLE, RULER OF THE WORLD, GLENEAGLES, CHURCHILL, SERPENTINE, MINDING, CAPE BLANCO, GOLDEN LILAC, LOVE, Cox Plate winner ADELAIDE and the ill fated Classic winner ANTHONY VAN DYK. Also Another son of his HIGHLAND REEL ran third to Winx in her first Cox Plate win in 2015.
I think its safe to say that GALILEO is sire of the best horse we have ever layed eyes on a race track in FRANKEL, and that influence alone he could go down as easily one of the most influential sires of all time. And just to top it off his half brother SEA THE STARS, is whispered by some to have been an even better horse on the track but never reached the heights as a sire that his half brother did, and this just shows that no matter which way you approach it, GALILEO is easily one of, if not the most dominant sire of all time. He has taken the SADLER WELL’s bloodline and turned out into one of the most profitable ventures in history.
It is believed that even as a 23 year old, which was how old he was when he died that Coolmore were commanding anywhere from 250,000 Euro to 600,000 Euro to cover a single mare. This is believed to have raked Coolmore in at least Forty Million Euro a year, and remember he was sent to stud at the end of his 3yo year. So thats just shy of 20 years at stud, at minimum 40 Million Euro a year – you do the maths.
In the 2019 Epson Derby he was the Sire, Grandsire or Great-Grandsire of 12 of the 13 runners lining up in the field, a mind-blowing feat that showed on paper just how much GALILEO had a stranglehold on UK/European breeding and will a long long time into the future. When you consider a Breed Shaper of the past NORTHERN DANCER was retired to stud in 1965 and retired from stud duties in 1987 and still is one of the biggest influences in racing today just shows how long Stallions live on, long after they pass away physically. And GALILEO will be no exception.
He was named after famed Italian Astronomer, Engineer & Physicist Galileo Galilee. Lauded by many as “the father of Modern Science”, only fitting that the horse who took the great mans name would himself turn out to be a Father to many, many champions and in saying that, he fathered MANY that simply, for whatever reason had zero talent, costing their owners dearly.
In one way it would be easy to look at the future of horse racing with some sense of anxiety as in, no more GALILEO so who will step into the fray and become the next doyen of international breeding? Will it be a non group 1 winner? A trend which has proved very fruitful in Australia with leading sure I AM INVINCIBLE’s biggest scalp being the Group3 D C McKay Stakes in Morphettville. Admittedly he did run second at his next start in the Group1 Goodwood Handicap, but the point being, he never won a Group1 Race.
Will GALILEO be the last Blueblood to be a success at stud? Like I said earlier he was bred to be a champion and he became one, something that from my burgeoning knowledge of the sport seems to be a lightning strike moment, a true anomaly, never guaranteed to happen again ,thats for sure and certain.
Rest in Peace Galileo – A true once in a lifetime Horse.
I will finish with a Quote from Galileo Galilee which in it contains a reference to Horse Racing:
“The number of people who can reason well is much smaller than those that can reason badly. If reasoning were like hauling rocks, than several reasoners might be better than one. But reasoning isn’t like hauling rocks, its like, its like racing where a single galloping Barbary steed easily outruns 100 wagon-pulling horses “
Yeah The Punt 