Fastnet Rock
Of all the myriad statistics that can be accumulated by a stallion of his standing – both as in ‘status’ and actual years of standing at stud – there is one that puts a halo on Fastnet Rock’s (Danehill) CV as globally elite.
It’s not his two Australian champion sires titles from 2012 and 2015. Others have won more, including Snitzel’s (Redoute’s Choice) four in the years since.
And it’s not so much his 193 stakes-winners, fairly phenomenal though that is.
As the 22-year-old colossus heads into the well-earned retirement announced by his forever home Coolmore Stud this week, he does so with 43 Group/Grade 1 winners to his name.
That’s a lot in and of itself. It ranks him 13th worldwide, and number one for Australian-bred sires. But where it shines most brightly is as a portion of his stakes-winners: 22.27 per cent.
The figure puts him in the upper echelons of the finest stallions the world has seen.
His own sire Danehill (Danzig) ran at 24.20 per cent, with 84 Group 1 winners from his 347 stakes-winners. Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) – who broke Danehill’s Group 1 winners record in reaching 92, sits at 24.66 per cent (from 373 stakes-winners).
Galileo’s sire Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) tops them both on percentages, with 73 Group 1 winners from 294 stakes-winners at 24.82 per cent. And Galileo’s most famous son, the rampant young-ish sire Frankel, closely mirrors his dad on 24.64 per cent – with 34 from 138.
In Australia, Fastnet Rock’s 22.27 per cent eclipses that of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill)(39 from 182 at 21.42 per cent), and is well ahead of that sire’s four-time champion son Snitzel (19 from 142 at 13.38 per cent).
To compare with a couple of other modern sensations, I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) is currently tracking at 14.02 per cent, with 15 Group 1 winners from his 107 black-type victors. And Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) is running at 25 per cent, though from fertility-challenge sample sizes, with three Group 1 victors amongst his 12 stakes-winners.
There’s another comparison which is perhaps slightly more relevant, and more striking. It’s with that other just-retired, highly successful son of Danehill, Exceed And Excel – one year Fastnet Rock’s senior, and who shuttled to Ireland for 17 seasons, while Fastnet Rock went there for 12.
Darley’s Exceed And Excel has 216 stakes-winners from 2585 runners, at 8.35 per cent. That’s a higher number than Fastnet Rock’s 193, but ratio-wise slightly behind his 8.88 per cent (2173 runners).
But Exceed And Excel’s rate of stakes winners succeeding at the top level is far behind Fastnet Rock’s 22.27 per cent, with the Darley sire having 19 from 216 at 8.79 per cent.
As many a breeder who’s patronised Fastnet Rock will attest, it’s not a bad spot to retire on: Just behind Danehill, Galileo, Sadler’s Wells and Frankel; just ahead of Redoute’s Choice; significantly higher than Snitzel and I Am Invincible, and more than two-and-a-half times a higher percentage than his great rival and fellow successful shuttler, Exceed And Excel.
“Exceed And Excel and Fastnet Rock are the two most influential sons of Danehill worldwide,” says Coolmore’s nominations and sales manager Colm Santry. “But when you see that stat, one is elite over the other. It’s on that stat where Fastnet Rock really comes to the fore.”
Those are some numbers that illustrate Fastnet Rock’s rise to become one of the top few most successful stallions in this country’s long evolution of thoroughbred breeding. But there’s also a human story, involving people whose lives were changed fundamentally by this historically momentous, dual-hemisphere stallion.
Early this century, Duncan Grimley was co-general manager of Coolmore Stud in the Hunter Valley, having been entrusted with starting the breeding giant’s Australian operations in 1996. He recalled this week how he and his fellow co-breeders of Fastnet Rock tried, almost desperately, to sell him as a yearling.
He’d come along as the third foal of a daughter of Coolmore stallion Royal Academy (Nijinsky) in Piccadilly Circus, who Grimley and Coolmore associates had bought as a yearling, and raced with Lee Freedman.
From the dual-Listed winning, and VRC Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) second-placed Gatana (Marauding), Piccadilly Circus was blessed with abundant pace. She used it on debut to carry the Coolmore navy blue to a 2.5 length victory in Caulfield’s Debutante Stakes (Listed, 900m), of 1997. Next preparation, she was prominent in the Blue Diamond series, running second in the Preview (Gr 3, 1000m), winning the Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m), and running third in the main event when leading from the turn to the 150m.
“She ran the fastest 400 metres ever recorded to that point in a Blue Diamond Stakes,” Grimley tells It’s In The Blood. “Unfortunately, it was between the 600 and the 200.”
Piccadilly Circus was retired that spring, with Grimley and co-owners sending her straight to Coolmore’s titan Danehill. The resultant filly, passed in at Easter 2001, raced as Cirque Du Soleil, won one of 11, and was twice Listed placed. Full-brother, Theatre Of Dreams, fetched $850,000 at the subsequent Easter, but after winning his first two, at Kyneton and Cranbourne, a knee injury ended his career.
Then along came the third of these four full siblings, a somewhat boof-headed yearling who went to Easter 2003. Grimley had actually left Coolmore in February 2003, but retained his interest in a few horses. By good fortune or wisdom, this colt was one of them.
Grimley and co set a reserve of $300,000 – which was roughly what was meant by Danehill’s “fee on arrangement” sign of the time.
“The bidding only got to about $250,000, and we didn’t want to sell for that,” Grimley says. “Then on the Wednesday night, we had an offer for him that we were going to accept. That offer disintegrated by Thursday morning, and that was the end of it. That’s how we ended up being stuck with him.
“We sold nearly every other yearling we took to sale that year from Coolmore. I suppose it was meant to be. I couldn’t really put a finger on it exactly, but he was a bit immature. You wouldn’t say he was a gorgeous yearling. He was big, and he had – let’s call it a masculine head on him, with big apple-like joints.”
He was named Fastnet Rock and sent to trainer Paul Perry, who in those months showed what he could do with a sprinter by landing Royal Ascot’s King’s Stand-Golden Jubilee double with Choisir (Danehill Dancer).
Fastnet Rock ended his two-year-old season as a maiden from seven starts, but they included seconds in the Group 3 Skyline Stakes and Group 2 Pago Pago Stakes, both 1200m, before a fourth in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) behind a rich trifecta of Triple Crown winner Dance Hero (Danzero), future Group 1-winner Charge Forward (Red Ransom) and ultimate four-time top-tier victor Alinghi (Encosta De Lago).
Clearly talented, Fastnet Rock was an eight-race maiden after his first-up second to Charge Forward – with Dance Hero third – in the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m), but then the fireworks began.
Fastnet Rock won Warwick Farm’s Up And Coming Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and Roman Consul Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), before rising to 1400m for two near misses – a second in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude (Gr 3, 1400m) and third in a Flemington Listed. A fading eighth in the longest race of his career – the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) – decided his future.
“Paul then wanted to freshen him up and run him in a sprint on Derby Day, and then we’d find out if he was a sprinter,” Grimley says. “Probably only Paul could come up with that.”
Loaded into the gate for the day’s second race, the L’Oreal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) as $5 co-favourite despite his 59kg topweight, Fastnet Rock broke out during the loading process and dislodged Glen Boss. Thankfully, he only trotted a furlong or so before being caught, was reloaded, and duly won the race by 0.5 lengths.
He then backed up over the same course on Oaks day to win his first attempt at weight-for-age in the Group 2 Linlithgow Stakes (1200m).
Those runs started a four-win sequence capped by his two Group 1s – Flemington’s Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m), beating Alinghi into second, and Caulfield’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m), where he humped 57kg as a three-year-old to win by nearly 0.5 length. Alinghi hit back to relegate him to second in the VRC Newmarket (Gr 1, 1200m), before Fastnet Rock ran another top-tier second in Randwick’s TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
That was the last of his 19 starts. Fastnet Rock was flown to England for Royal Ascot. Alas, travel sickness prevented him running, but it did open the door for a phenomenal stud career, again with Grimley retaining his stake.
And, starting at Coolmore for $55,000, he wasn’t one of those sires who hung around.
“He was well supported, he ended up having nice foals, they sold in the ring very well and went to some good trainers,” Grimley said. “All of a sudden he was off and running. Before long he was the next big thing.”
Fastnet Rock finished second among first season sires in 2009 to old rival Charge Forward (while Exceed And Excel won the second season title).
And while he didn’t strike a two-year-old Group 1-winner, that first crop would yield two of them in the following season when Irish Lights won Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Rock Classic the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
In 2012, the year he sealed his first champion sire title, Fastnet Rock stood for a nation-topping $220,000. The following year he hit $275,000 – a full $100,000 ahead of number two Redoute’s Choice.
Who has been the best of his progeny? On rankings it’s the mare whose finest hour in Australia was a Randwick Group 3 win, although Avantage showed her best by taking nine Group 1s in New Zealand.
Atlantic Jewel won four top-level events amid 10 wins and a nose second from 11 (injury-restricted) starts, while Mosheen also won four. Shoals and Sea Siren won three each, as did One Master, in France.
To continue flying his flag Australia also have his Irish-bred daughter Via Sistina, like son Merchant Navy now a dual hemisphere Group 1-winner.
Fastnet Rock has had nine top-level winners in the northern hemisphere, including two in the US and one in Italy. They also include, notably, the Australian stallion’s Epsom Oaks (Gr 1, 1m4f) hero Qualify.
His 43 top level victors are split almost evenly – 23 females and 20 males (53.5 per cent/46.5 per cent). That compares to Exceed And Excel’s 19 being won by seven females and 12 males (36.8 per cent/63.2 per cent).
And Fastnet Rock’s 193 stakes-winners have won black-type races from 1000m to 3000m. Of Exceed And Excel’s 216, none have won at longer than his three in the 2001-2200m band. While both are sons of Danehill, Santry believes it’s the Royal Academy factor that’s given Fastnet Rock’s more stamina.
Furthermore, Fastnet Rock’s legacy appears set to live on. He’s had eight sire sons who have left Group 1 winners – a decent number, though they haven’t quite set worlds on fire – but his presence will be felt for years to come as a broodmare sire.
He’s a runaway leader on that table in Australia at present, poised to smash the eight-year dominance of Redoute’s Choice and Encosta De Lago (Fairy King), with his daughters having thrown such performers as Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon), dual autumn Group 1-winner Zougotcha (Zoustar), and last Saturday’s SAJC Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) victor Climbing Star (Zoustar).
Worldwide, Fastnet Rock has 114 stakes-winners to his name as a broodmare sire, with only 71 in Australia. He has seven each in the US and Britain, and four each in Ireland and Japan.
“For a stallion to still be alive and have 114 stakes-winners as a broodmare sire is just phenomenal,” Santry says.
All of which has left the 66-year-old Grimley – now enjoying semi-retirement while dabbling in bloodstock from Byron Bay – extremely grateful.
“There’s only one champion stallion every year, and he’s been that twice,” Grimley says. “Now it looks like he’ll be champion broodmare sire for a considerable length of time.
“The best thing about him, I think, is that he gets good colts and fillies in equal numbers. People are confident that if you breed to a horse like that, it doesn’t matter if you get a colt or a filly; they’re just as good as each other.
“And when nearly one-in-four of your stakes-winners is a Group 1-winner. It’s unbelievable.
“He’s certainly been a life-changer for me. He’s been a life-changer for everyone involved with him.”