Churchill embarks on the ‘spring that never was’ for Galileo
Chris Waller-trained Conqueror can prove a pivotal winner for Coolmore stallion in tomorrow’s Up And Coming Stakes
On tomorrow’s card at Rosehill, Coolmore shuttler Churchill (Galileo) faces a moment of reckoning as he bids to achieve what his revered sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) failed from his first crop of southern hemisphere-bred progeny – land a spring three-year-old Group winner.
It is a harsh reality of the imperativeness for sires to realise their commercial place in the cut-throat stallion market at the earliest opportunity.
While the colonial-bred stallions are judged on the litmus test of their first crops of two-year-olds, for European shuttle stallions the metric is slightly shifted, but nevertheless crucial, and their window of opportunity smaller.
There is not the expectation that European shuttle stallions produce the same precocious, fast Group-winning juveniles of their Australian counterparts. But what is at stake is their produce’s performances at three – and spring three-year-olds at that.
The Chris Waller-trained Conqueror stands as the $3.80 favourite for owners Star Thoroughbreds in tomorrow’s Up And Coming Stakes (Gr 3, 1300m), a race won in the past over 1200 metres by Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and Coolmore’s Fastnet Rock (Danehill). Victory would be the perfect start to what is a defining spring for Churchill.
A principal reason for its importance is the timing of the southern hemisphere breeding season, which runs from September 1 through to December.
In the absence of high–quality juveniles, it leaves stallions whose progeny are bred to peak as three-year-olds a period of just a couple of months, from August to the Melbourne Cup carnival in November, to present their case to breeders in time for a well-supported fifth book of mares, without which their fate may be sealed as one not to return for a sixth covering season.
“A horse like Churchill is probably not expected to shoot the lights out over 1000 and 1200 metres. But he is expected by the breeders to produce good performers this season,” Coolmore’s Colm Santry told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“They have a lot of faith in him as he’s popular this year and that tells me that there are a lot of nice horses out there in training that are expected to do very well.
“If he gets winners in the early spring, over the next month or so, it’s going to seriously reflect on the stallion’s book. For breeders at the moment, he’s a ‘watch, wait and see [type]’.
“They know this horse could really work in Australia and at $20,000 he represents fantastic value, but to give the breeders that confidence this spring would be huge for him.”
The late Galileo, Europe’s greatest-ever stallion, was by no means a failure in Australia. From five southern hemisphere-bred crops he sired five Group/Grade 1 winners (three in South Africa) and boasted an impressive stakes-winners-to-runners ratio of 6.2 per cent.
Yet he did not return for shuttle duties in 2007, having drawn a black type blank with his first spring three-year-olds, despite a sizable number of fifth-season coverings off the back of his significant early northern hemisphere achievements.
By the culmination of the 2006 spring racing carnival at the end of November, Galileo had sired three southern hemisphere-bred stakes winners, all at Listed level, and all coming in the season prior, as two-year-olds.
Churchill is Galileo’s most precocious son at stud. The English 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) hero was a dual Group 1 winner at two and also won at Royal Ascot in the June of his juvenile year, in the Chesham Stakes (Listed, 7f).
His first crop of Australian two-year-olds yielded a more-than-useful five winners from 16 runners, with Conqueror a leading light.
A $180,000 Inglis Classic yearling, the Chris Waller-trained colt counted for one of Churchill’s winning juveniles with victory on the Kensington track at Randwick in February, before returning with a runner-up effort behind Arnaqueur (Astern) earlier this month.
“We’re really looking forward to the horse in the Up And Coming on Saturday,” Santry said. “Hopefully he can put on a good show and a good performance.
“Waller has three in his stable, they’ve all raced and two have won in Sydney, and we’re looking forward to those stepping out as well.
“Galileo did a very good job here. A lot of people have missed this. The stallion had an amazing stakes-winners-to-runners ratio and has left a lasting legacy here.”
Coolmore can look to history as to the importance of spring for first-crop three-year-olds.
One of their most successful European shuttle stallions was Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill) who, although benefitting from significant first-crop two-year-old form with five Australian stakes winners and a Grade 1–winner in South Africa, sired four Australian spring three-year-old Stakes winners, including Sliding Cube (dam of Rubick), Gamble Me and Pillar Of Hercules.
Rock Of Gibraltar would go on to serve 193 mares that spring, his fifth season, for what was his highest Australian book, and shuttle Down Under for eight successful seasons in total.
Churchill covered a career-high book of 160 mares last year and the signs of success are positive for the stallion, who has sired two winners in as many days, including the Tony Gollan-trained Madame Odette at Ipswich on Wednesday.
Four of his progeny hold nominations for the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) on October 8, while two fillies are entered four days later in the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) during Melbourne’s spring carnival.
While there may be more to come from Conqueror in the shape of Group 1 assignments later this spring and in the autumn, it’s tomorrow’s Group 3 that could prove the up and coming for the future success of his shuttling sire.