Bill Oppenheim: Ascot Summary

It doesn't happen every year, but in 2016 Coolmore's Galileo was the leading sire at Royal Ascot, with five winners–four of them in a row in the last two races on Friday and the first two races on Saturday, following Order Of St. George's impressive win in Thursday's G1 Ascot Gold Cup. He also had five seconds, one third, and the earners of £909,173, according to tables published in last Sunday's Racing Post. Four of the five, you won't be surprised to hear, were trained by Aidan O'Brien (Kinema, winner of Friday's 12f Duke of Edinburgh H., is trained by Ralph Beckett). Aidan trained a total of seven winners–four by Galileo, and one each by Scat Daddy, War Front, and Mastercraftsman. Four trainers had two winners each: Clive Cox (two Group 1 winners); Sir Michael Stoute; John Gosden; and Robert Cowell. Only two other sires had doubles, all 2-year-olds: Coolmore Ashford's deceased Scat Daddy (Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia, arguably the two most impressive 2-year-old winners of the week), who we discussed in last week's column; and Ireland's Tally-Ho Stud's Kodiac, sire of 39 2-year-old winners last year (from 108 2-year-old starters) and number two (to Galileo) on the 2015 European 2-Year-Old Sire List, and already the sire this year of 14 2-year-old winners from, would you believe, 47 2-year-old starters.

Not just Coolmore: other top operations Godolphin, from Dubai, and the new kids on the block, Al Shaqab Racing, from Qatar, had pretty good meets, too. Godolphin won four races, with five seconds, three thirds, and a total of 27 runners in the first six, which is pretty good when you consider there are only 180 first-six places available in 30 races. We think those are the figures; it all gets very confusing when there are different entities. In Godolphin's case, they own G1 Queen Anne S. second Belardo (Lope De Vega) in partnership with Prince A A Faisal, and G2 Duke of Cambridge S. winner Usherette (Shamardal) is owned by Godolphin Snc in France, so we have to find all those and add them together, which adds up to £683,222 for those three entities. Al Shaqab–a single entity–won the two Group 1 mile races for 3-year-olds: Galileo Gold (Paco Boy) won the G1 St. James's Palace S. for colts; and Qemah (Danehill Dancer) won the G1 Coronation S. for fillies. With seconds by Mehmas (Acclamation) and Al Johrah (freshman sire Bated Breath) in the two hottest 2-year-old races of the meet, Al Shaqab's earnings just from those two wins and two seconds came to £509,580, so they certainly had good reason to be satisfied with their week as well.

As for Coolmore, we count eight different configurations of partnerships which we think, among them, scored six wins, four seconds, five thirds, and a total of 21 placings in the first six, earning £1,058,343. Regardless of the statistics for single entities, then, our estimate is that Coolmore and Partners were the number one ownership group (£1,058,343); Godolphin and Partners were number two (£683,222); and Al Shaqab was number three (£509,580).

One of the 'trebles' we featured in last week's column were the victories of Tepin and the Scat Daddy 2-year-olds Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia last Tuesday and Wednesday. American-breds added two more group races with wins by Godolphin's Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy) in the G3 Tercentenary S. (3-year-olds, 10 furlongs) and Mrs. Evie Stockwell's Brave Anna (War Front), a full sister to last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hit It A Bomb, in the G3 Albany S. So it was five group-race wins for the USA suffix for the week–three of them in 2-year-old races. That should bring a few more discerning European buyers back to the American yearling sales.

Galileo's five-win Ascot is part of the reason why, on the TDN YTD 2016 General Sire List of European Sires by NA/EU earnings (click here), his 2016 earnings to date ($6,159,605 as of Tuesday) are more than double those of his closest pursuer, who is none other than his half-brother, Gilltown Stud's Sea The Stars ($2,683,325), himself narrowly ahead of Darley's top sire, Dubawi ($2,641,780), third in Europe. Because the European season essentially starts three months later than North America's, it is no surprise that 22 of the top 25 NA/EU sires at this stage of the year are North American. On the combined YTD General Sire List (click here), Galileo ranks #3, Sea The Stars is #24, and Dubawi is #25. But as usual Galileo dominates the black-type categories, in fact leads all NA/EU sires in all six categories we list, with 24 Black-Type Winners; 44 Black-Type Horses; 12 Group Winners; 29 Group Horses; four Group 1 winners; and 10 Group 1 horses. Dubawi ranks second in the last category, with six worldwide Group 1 horses from Northern Hemisphere-sired crops; Gainesway's Tapit is next, with five. Incidentally, after his monster Belmont weekend, Tapit has gone back past superstar second-cropsire Uncle Mo to reclaim top spot on the 2016 YTD TDN North American General Sire List (click here). After Creator and Lani ran one-three in the GI Belmont, and Frosted and Anchor Down were one-two in the GI Met Mile, as of Monday Tapit was back in front of Coolmore Ashford's Uncle Mo by over $1-million and again led all North American sires, or was tied for the lead, in all six Black-Type categories.

Our correspondent Kevin Blake wrote an interesting story two weeks ago about European third-crop sires (click here), and three of the top four by 2016 YTD progeny earnings (click here) had big results at Ascot. Ballylinch Stud's Lope De Vega had the 3-year-old Defrocked, who won the Britannia H., as well as Belardo, who ran a very good second to Tepin in the G1 Queen Anne S. Highclere's Paco Boy is the sire of Galileo Gold, who added the G1 St. James's Palace S. to his win in the G1 English 2000 Guineas and ranks second in this group by 2016 NA/EU earnings. Fourth is Whitsbury Manor's Showcasing, sire of G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Quiet Reflection; and Lord Shanakill, who stood at the Irish National Stud until his transfer to Pennsylvania this year, is the sire of G1 Prince of Wales's longshot winner My Dream Boat, and would rank fifth in this group by 2016 earnings but for his transfer.

No first-crop sires had winners at Royal Ascot, though Juddmonte's Bated Breath and Ireland's Ballyhane Stud's Elzaam had the two-three in the G2 Queen Mary S., Al Johrah and Clem Fandango, though at a respectable distance from runaway winner Lady Aurelia; and Juddmonte's superstar Frankel had two thirds from his first four winners, the filly Queen Kindly in the G3 Albany S., and the colt Cunco in the Chesham S.