An Epsom Derby winner out of an Australian mare? It may feel like the bloodstock world has shifted on its axis—but if you look closer, the centre of gravity remains exactly the same. And, with a second U.S. Triple Crown winner now being made available to Australian breeders, it’s called Coolmore.
Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) is the record-equalling fourth Derby winner by Galileo (Ire), who bestrides Coolmore’s foundation farm in Ireland; while his dam Believe’N’Succeed (Exceed And Excel) was exported to join his harem there after her acquisition by Tom Magnier, principal of Coolmore Australia, for $1.1 million at the Magic Millions Sale in 2014.
Believe’N’Succeed had, by that stage, already produced a Group 1 sprint winner in New Zealand in Bounding (Lonhro), and duly satisfied both formulae that have gained increasing trust during Galileo’s reign: firstly as a generic source of speed and, more specifically, as a Danehill-line cross.
Yet the reality is that this is just a fresh turn of the same wheel that has driven Coolmore from the outset, when Magnier’s father John and grandfather, the late Vincent O’Brien, radically invigorated the European gene pool in the 1970s and early 1980s by a transfusion of American blood—largely channelled through sons of 1964 Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer (Can).
American Influences
Galileo himself, of course, is by Northern Dancer’s most dominant son in Europe, Sadler’s Wells (USA). And Anthony Van Dyck’s damsire Exceed And Excel, though he raced in Australia and then went to stud for Coolmore’s great rival Sheikh Mohammed, represents a double conduit of the great patriarch: he is by Danehill, principal disseminator of the Northern Dancer revolution in Australia, out of a mare by Lomond.
In broader terms, however, it is arguably no less instructive that Anthony Van Dyck’s next three dams are all by resonant American influences: Gone West (USA), Storm Cat (USA) and Alydar (USA). This section of the family tree, then, has the densest of Bluegrass dirt foliage. Gone West and Storm Cat are both out of mares by Secretariat (USA); while Alydar is by Raise A Native (USA), who was also responsible for Gone West’s sire Mr Prospector (USA).
So it’s hardly just through the top-and-bottom presence of Northern Dancer that Anthony Van Dyck has again proved the transferability and transformative properties, in extremely diverse racing environments, of American dirt genes.
The dirt thoroughbred
With Justify (USA) (Scat Daddy {USA}) now joining American Pharoah (USA) (Pioneerof The Nile {USA}) on the shuttle run from Coolmore’s Kentucky branch at Ashford, Tom Magnier believes that Anthony Van Dyck captures a key moment in the evolution not just of his own operation but also of the global industry. Because he distils not only the improvement in the quality of Australian blood, during the shuttling era, but also the ongoing genetic benefits of intercontinental cross-pollination.
“It all started, for us, with U.S. dirt,” Magnier says. “My grandfather built Ballydoyle and Coolmore on those horses. From Northern Dancer he found Nijinsky (Can); and Sadler’s Wells, who gave us Galileo; and Danzig, who in this part of the world obviously means Danehill, and then onto Fastnet Rock.
“I think if you look at this country, things have now come full circle. The shuttle stallions have really put Australian breeding on the world stage. You look at everything from Choisir (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) to Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock): Australia has really come up there with the best marketplaces. But if you look back, the American dirt horses is where it all started. That’s why we hope that adding American Pharoah, and now Justify as well, to the gene pool down here will reap its rewards in years to come.”
"If you look back, the American dirt horses is where it all started. That’s why we hope that adding American Pharoah, and now Justify as well, to the gene pool down here will reap its rewards in years to come.” - Tom Magnier
A personal view is that the American dirt horse has renewed relevance in a global market when one-dimensional speed has, in many theatres, diluted Classic quality. In Australia, an emphasis on speed has left its most cherished race vulnerable to overseas horses bred for different strengths.
In Europe, meanwhile, commercial breeders have focused on precocity and dash at the expense of Classic quality. The American dirt horse, conversely, needs not just speed but speed he can carry two turns—because everyone, however commercial or otherwise their agenda, primarily covets those assets that sustain a horse on the first Saturday in May.
The right cross
A similar blend of speed and stamina has become integral to the Galileo phenomenon. Whether or not there is any more to the revered Galileo-Danehill cross than you could legitimately expect simply in pairing the progeny of two such successful stallions is another story, but the Frankel (GB) model was profitably emulated by Coolmore with a prototype for the kind of mating that produced Anthony Van Dyck: that between Galileo and Hveger (Danehill), producing seven-time Group 1 winner Highland Reel (Ire). (Galileo and Hveger’s latest 3-year-old, incidentally, finished fourth in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club the day after Anthony Van Dyck won at Epsom.)
Seven-time Group 1 winner Highland Reel (Ire)
To Tom Magnier, the key is that those who do prize Classic quality are no longer confined to their local gene pools. That pure class transcends the simplistic, prescriptive labelling of particular bloodlines as “dirt” or “turf”.
As such, there is no mistaking his sense that the arrival of Justify, by an established crossover sire in Scat Daddy, has the potential to take Australian breeding to another level again. Certainly the rookie stallion could not, by the sound of it, ask for a better platform than he is getting for his debut in the Hunter Valley.
“The book of mares Justify is going to cover here, I’d say we’ll never have seen the likes of it,” Magnier enthuses. “Pharoah got great foals, obviously. We’ve really gone through the catalogue at the Magic Millions Sale, and also at the Inglis sale in Sydney, to find the best possible mares to suit these two horses. But many of our clients here are sending their best mares to Justify. And I think both of them will, again, just bring Australia further through the ranks.
“And remember that while American Pharoah and Justify were champions on the dirt, Bob Baffert always said they’d both have gone just as well on the grass.” - Tom Magnier
“And remember that while American Pharoah and Justify were champions on the dirt, Bob Baffert always said they’d both have gone just as well on the grass. I think you have to look at that pretty closely.”
The example of Anthony Van Dyck shows how the arrival of new American blood in Australia’s turf environment has the potential to spread ripples right across the world—not least at a time when so many breeders in Europe, in Magnier’s words, “are into cheap speed at the moment.”
Tapping into the international pool
The Autumn Sun is another good example of Australia tapping into the best of the international pool, being by Danehill’s son Redoute’s Choice out of a Galileo mare bred in Europe by the Aga Khan. But if he showed that Galileo blood works every bit as well here, it remains an abiding mystery why a breed-shaping sire in Europe should have gained relatively little traction during his own sojourns early in his career.
Tom Magnier actually believes Galileo did better here than is generally allowed, but acknowledges the possibility that his profile at the time may not have been congenial to a hard-and-fast culture of early 2-year-olds.
Tom, MV and JP Magnier
Be that as it may, he is adamant that the flourishing racing scene in Australia represents an optimal stage for its ever more cosmopolitan bloodlines. He sees a virtuous circle between the breadth of public engagement with the sport, and the ongoing upgrades being achieved by the specialist industry supporting it. With the Turf now such a global village, indeed, perhaps Australia can offer reciprocal lessons and benefits to those older racing cultures that have been sending all these stallions to energise the local equine population.
"Even the top people here, the big farms, will get together so there are four or five of them in a horse. That’s a big positive. People really enjoy racing these horses together." - Tom Magnier
“I think the prizemoney here—and they made another announcement last week, that it’s going up again—makes it so easy to get someone on the phone and ask if they want a share of a racehorse,” Magnier reasons.
“Because they can see how they can get their money back, and enjoy the journey along the way. Racing here is exceptionally healthy. You get great crowds, and very young crowds. And very few horses here are owned by individuals, they tend to be owned by groups or syndicates. Even the top people here, the big farms, will get together so there are four or five of them in a horse. That’s a big positive. People really enjoy racing these horses together.
Tom Magnier is pleased with the health of racing in Australia
“When I first came here, you went to the sales and didn’t see anyone from overseas. Whereas now you go to Magic Millions or Inglis, and it’s like a meeting of the United Nations. And when we try to find mares in the Northern Hemisphere, to bring down here, people here are keen to get involved. But the point is that when you look at all the good horses of the moment, every single one is influenced by the shuttle stallions. The whole thing has gone full circle.”
"When you look at all the good horses of the moment, every single one is influenced by the shuttle stallions. The whole thing has gone full circle.” - Tom Magnier
Magnier notes that the great Winx, raised on the Coolmore farm, was herself by a dirt runner in Street Cry (Ire). And it’s worth adding that her second dam was by a son of Northern Dancer.
Street Cry had plenty of turf performers in his background, though the fact that he was by Machiavellian (USA) reminds us that Northern Dancer’s dam, Natalma (USA), multiplies her influence even beyond that of her son: Machiavellian (USA) was out of her grand-daughter Coup De Folie (USA). And Danehill founded his whole Australian in Natalma’s 3 x 3 duplication as mother of both grandsire and grand-dam.
That’s how genetic family silver will recur, in the elite racehorse, whatever fads might intervene in the marketplace. By recognising that, with the shuttling of sires and the traffic of top-class mares between hemispheres, Coolmore has been able to dovetail its commercial purposes with the prosperity of the whole breed.
“The sport has become so global now,” Magnier concludes. “And I’d say we’re only seeing the start of it.”
