ROCK SOLID
Coolmore’s Fastnet Rock breaks new ground with first champion broodmare sire title
Fastnet Rock (Danehill) has long been a force to be reckoned with.
This was true during a racing career that saw the sizeable son of Danehill (Danzig) land six Group races for his trainer Paul Perry. His most notable wins were the back-to-back top-flight brace he recorded in the Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) and Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m).
All six of those victories came at three, although anyone who saw Fastnet Rock’s hulking frame in the flesh will appreciate why he needed time to reach his peak.
That is not to say he wasn’t towards the top of his class at two, though, as he also ran fourth to Triple Crown champion Dance Hero (Danzero) in the 2004 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), and was third behind the same rival in the Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
The top-class sprinter was also sent to Britain to test his mettle on the global stage, but was forced to sit out his intended target at Royal Ascot after suffering a bout of travel sickness. When he failed to recover in time for a tilt at the July Cup (Gr 1, 6f), connections called time on his racing days.
However, while he failed to make an international impact as a racehorse, he more than made up for it at stud.
Fastnet Rock joined the Coolmore roster at Jerrys Plains in 2005, and by 2010 was on the move for the first of 11 shuttle seasons to the operation’s Irish base in Tipperary. The net result of the 30 dual hemisphere covering seasons that followed is a roll of honour headed by 43 individual Group 1 winners.
Those 43 elite-level scores were gained in eight different countries and include Australian celebrities such as Atlantic Jewel, Mosheen, Shoals and Sea Siren, prolific New Zealand Group 1 winner Avantage, Epsom Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) heroine Qualify, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (Gr 1, 1m) scorer Pizza Bianca, as well as Merchant Navy and Via Sistina, who have the rare distinction of winning top-flight races in both Australia and Europe.
Fastnet Rock has sired 346 black-type horses for an impressive stakes performers-to-runners ratio of 16 per cent. He was champion sire of Australia in 2011-12 and 2014-15, and his progeny have earned in excess of $263,844,000 (and counting). In short, his impact at stud has been little short of awesome.
And that influence is continuing to grow even after his retirement from the covering shed earlier this year, as the end of the latest racing season will see Fastnet Rock crowned champion broodmare sire of Australia for the first time. This means he joins the likes of Zabeel (Sir Tristram), Encosta De Lago (Fairy King), Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) and, of course, his own sire Danehill on the list of stallions who have been both champion sire and champion broodmare sire.
Reflecting on the accomplishment, Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier said: “Fastnet Rock has been a hugely influential stallion, not only in Australia but all around the world. As a broodmare sire he has produced 13 Group 1 winners in five different countries and his influence will continue to live on through his daughters for many years to come.
“He’s getting better and better as a broodmare sire, and this season alone has produced winners of the Golden Slipper, Magic Millions 2YO Classic, Thousand Guineas, George Ryder Stakes, Queen Of The Turf, Coolmore Classic and Robert Sangster Stakes.”
The 2023-24 season has seen Fastnet Rock’s daughters represented by 319 winners and 19 stakes scorers for earnings of $36,963,662, putting him over $5.4 million clear of runner-up, Encosta De Lago.
Fastnet Rock’s success represents something of a changing of the guard in the broodmare sire stakes, as he ends an eight-year run of victories split equally between Encosta De Lago and Redoute’s Choice.
One of the hallmarks of Fastnet Rock’s stallion career has been his versatility, with his record including Group 1-winning sprinters like Merchant Navy, Sea Siren and Shoals, Classic performers Atlantic Jewel and Qualify, elite level-winning juveniles Catchy, Pizza Bianca and Rivet, as well as top-class older middle-distance runners such as Fascinating Rock, Via Sistina and Zhukova. His 43 Group 1 winners are split evenly between the sexes, with 23 fillies and mares and 20 colts and geldings.
And that diversity of talent is also evident in his burgeoning career as a broodmare sire too. His 13 Group 1 successes in this department have been gained by eight fillies and five colts and geldings, and achieved across the age ranges and throughout the distance spectrum.
This versatility is encapsulated by this year’s championship-winning results. There are high-class two-year-olds, older horses who excelled at under a mile and a three-year-old whose best effort came over the 1600-metre trip. Looking further afield also brings Group 1 middle distance form into the mix.
The lion’s share of Fastnet Rock’s broodmare sire prize-money haul has been contributed by Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon), winner of the prestigious Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) in the colours of Go Bloodstock. The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained filly netted earnings of $3,546,500 during a highly productive campaign.
This year’s running of the world’s richest two-year-old contest neatly illustrated Fastnet Rock’s growing influence as a broodmare sire, as he was also represented by the third home, Storm Boy. The son of Justify (Scat Daddy) also contributed a seven-figure sum to Fastnet Rock’s broodmare sire total having won the Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and the valuable Magic Millions 2YO Classic (Listed, 1200m) earlier in the season.
Interestingly, three of Fastnet Rock’s five Australian Group 1 winners as broodmare sire in 2023-24 are by the same sire, namely Widden Stud’s Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
The Chris Waller-trained Zougotcha rounded out her four-year-old campaign by winning the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m), while another Waller-trained filly, Joliestar, annexed the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1,1600m). Climbing Star, trained by Philip Stokes, also landed top-level laurels in the Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Zoustar seems to have struck up a particularly fruitful relationship with Fastnet Rock mares as the nick has yielded 11 black-type performers, six of whom have struck in stakes company (11 per cent stakes winners-to-runners). As well as the Group 1-winning trio, the Zoustar-Fastnet Rock cross has also produced Mumbai Muse, winner of this year’s Red Roses Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), and Platinum Jubilee, who struck in the 2022 running of the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).
The other Australian Group 1 winner boasting Fastnet Rock as their broodmare sire in 2023-24 was Tony and Calvin McEvoy’s George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m) scorer Veight (Grunt).
And it is not only in the southern hemisphere that Fastnet Rock’s daughters have been in fine form in 2024.
Back in January the Coolmore homebred Warm Heart (Galileo) landed her third top-flight triumph with a gutsy win in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m). The Irish-bred filly, who is out of the aforementioned Group 1 winner Sea Siren, had earlier landed the Yorkshire Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) and Prix Vermeille (Gr 1, 2400m) in similarly game fashion.
Royal Ascot also saw another Coolmore-owned runner put Fastnet Rock’s prowess as damsire under the spotlight when Port Fairy (Australia) claimed the Ribblesdale Stakes (Gr 2 1m 4f), while this year’s Epsom Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) runner-up Ambiente Friendly (Gleneagles) is another to have boosted Fastnet Rock’s profile.
Those results continued what has been something of a running theme in the northern hemisphere, where Fastnet Rock’s daughters have proved a useful outcross avenue for Coolmore and the operation’s various Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) line stallions, most notably Galileo.
The Galileo-Fastnet Rock cross has provided two top-flight winners in Warm Heart and Russian Emperor, who claimed the Champions & Chater Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) at Sha Tin. This particular nick is responsible for nine Group winners and 16 stakes performers, each of whom were either bred (or co-bred) by Coolmore, or owned by the Irish outfit at some stage in their career. Those 16 black-type performers have come from just 33 starters bred on the Galileo-Fastnet Rock nick, resulting in a punchy stakes horses-to-runners ratio of 48 per cent.
Another Coolmore stallion with a flourishing record with Fastnet Rock mares is Justify, with five (nine per cent) of the sire’s 55 global stakes performers bred on this cross. These are headed by the Australian Group 2 scorers Storm Boy and Learning To Fly, who struck in the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
However, with the US Triple Crown winner not shuttling to the Hunter Valley in 2024, it remains to be seen whether that early momentum can be maintained. Justify will cover a select number of mares to southern hemisphere time though, and in announcing the news Magnier indicated that the operation would be sending “some of our best mares” from Coolmore Australia to Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
When speaking to ANZ Bloodstock News, Magnier highlighted another reverse shuttler the operation has identified as a suitable match for some of their blue-chip Fastnet Rock mares. He said: “At Coolmore we consider ourselves extremely lucky to have a number of Fastnet Rock mares which will continue to be bred to the best stallions. We have been particularly taken with the progeny of Wootton Bassett when paired with Fastnet Rock mares, highlighted by the $2,100,000 filly out of Avantage, which sold to David Ellis to top the Magic Millions Sale in January. This is a cross we are very excited about.”
There is limited racecourse evidence on which to judge the strengths of this nick, although what evidence there is does provide cause for optimism.
From four runners the Wootton Bassett -Fastnet Rock cross has produced three winners and one black-type performer in the Prix Penelope (Gr 3, 2100m) third Anne De Cleves, who was bred when the stallion stood in France at just €20,000. Wootton Bassett’s (Iffraaj) fee during the latest northern hemisphere breeding season was €200,000 (approx. AU$330,650). His fee for the upcoming southern hemisphere season has yet to be announced.
Detailed analysis of Wootton Bassett’s latest Australian book of mares reveals Coolmore and their clients are indeed putting their faith in the Wootton Bassett-Fastnet Rock cross, as 13 out of the 131 mares covered are by the newly minted champion. If this nick proves anywhere near as productive as the Galileo-Fastnet Rock cross has, we will be hearing plenty more about it.
In truth, given the strength and depth of Fastnet Rock’s results, the champion broodmare sire accolade had been on the cards for some time. He first figured in the top 50 Australian broodmare sires in 2016-17 when finishing 45th. By the 2018-19 season he had vaulted into the top ten, and has occupied a place between third and sixth each campaign since 2019-20.
He boasts a 63.8 per cent winners-to-runners strike–rate as a broodmare sire and a 10.7 per cent stakes horses-to-runners ratio. His record in this department is headlined by 121 black-type scorers, 77 of whom struck in Group/Graded company. And, moreover, there should be plenty more to come.
At differing points throughout his stallion career Fastnet Rock has been both the busiest and most expensive sire standing in Australia.
That means there is quality and quantity among his representatives in the Australian broodmare band, and with breeders increasingly understanding which sirelines best suit his daughters, there is every reason to believe he can maintain his upward trajectory.
Rock by name and rock solid by nature. Breeding his own runners may be behind him, but Fastnet Rock’s daughters will ensure his name is a positive feature in pedigrees for generations to come.