That Guy, Galileo

Paco Boy (Desert Style) was a £30,000 Doncaster (now Goffs UK) 2-year-old, bought by Peter and Ross Doyle for the Hannon training academy. He ran 24 times over four seasons, winning 11 times. His nine Black-Type wins included three Group 1 races and four Group 2 wins. His three Group 1 wins were: the 7-furlong Prix de la Foret as a 3-year-old, defeating Natagora; the Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot as a 4-year-old; and the Lockinge S. as a 5-year-old, the latter two races at one mile. He also won the G2 Lennox S. and Hungerford S. at seven furlongs as a 3-year-old; and the G2 Sandown Mile twice, at four and five. He was also Group 1-placed on four occasions, and ran RPR's between 121-127 12 times while earning over £1-million as a racehorse. So that was a good buy.

Retired to Highclere Stud for the 2011 breeding season, Paco Boy's first foals arrived in 2012, and are 4-year-olds this year, so G1 English 2000 Guineas winner Galileo Gold is from his second crop of 3-year-olds. He had done okay by the end of 2015, when his first 3-year-olds had finished racing, with an A Runner Index of 1.22 (four A Runners, including a Group 2-winning 2-year-old from each of his first two crops), and an ABC Runner Index of 1.30.

Galileo Gold had won the G2 Vintage S. at Goodwood and run third in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere as a 2-year-old, but no doubt about it, Galileo Gold's win Saturday was the sort of breakthrough moment every sire needs. Paco Boy now moves up to third on the 2016 year-to-date TDN Third-Crop Sire List (click here), behind Ballylinch's Lope De Vega and Whitsbury Manor's Showcasing in 2016 worldwide earnings, and ranks seventh among European third-crop sires by cumulative worldwide earnings; he is now one of six European third-crop sires to have sired a Group 1 winner. Crucially, it means Paco Boy now gets on lists.

Two years ago Night of Thunder achieved that rare blend of Dubawi and Galileo when Kieran Fallon surprised Kingman and everyone else with the 40-1 winner of the 2014 G1 English 2000 Guineas. He was out of a Galileo mare. Gleneagles, who is by Galileo, won it last year, and this year again, as you can figure from the winner's name, Galileo Gold is out of a Galileo mare. So it's not like he wasn't around the place anyway when he had the 1-2-3 in the G1 English 1000 Guineas Sunday. They had already finished 1-2-3 in the G1 Moyglare last year as 2-year-olds, so they didn't add to Galileo's total of 50 Group 1 winners and 91 Group 1 horses from 11 crops of 3-year-olds and up of 2016. These numbers we can see by going to a very interesting list, which is the TDN Cumulative General Sire List, EU sires only (click here). Note how comparable Galileo's numbers now are with Danehill's: from 14 Northern Hemisphere crops, Danehill had 1,439 foals, of which 187 were Black-Type Winners; 309 were Black-Type Horses; 106 GSW and 184 Group/Graded Stakes Horses; 42 Group 1 winners, and 77 Group 1 horses. Galileo, from 12 crops of racing age (including this year's 2-year-olds), has 1,679 foals–so 140 per crop, compared to 103 for Danehill–which include 184 Black-Type Winners and 311 Black-Type Horses; 117 GSW and 218 Group/Graded SH; and 50 Group 1 winners and 91 Group 1 Horses. They're pretty comparable. Galileo now leads European sires by 2016 NA/EU earnings (click here), and his 11 Black-Type Winners already this year (including Found on Monday) actually tops Tapit and Uncle Mo (nine each) on the TDN YTD General Sire List (click here). Tapit has 25 Black-Type Horses this year, one more than Galileo–but Tapit did have about a three-month head start.

Galileo, Tapit, Uncle Mo: they are very big news this year, then we can add in Dubawi as the leading NA/EU sire by worldwide earnings (click here), after his $5.75-million Dubai World Cup night. Tapit and Uncle Mo go into the GI Kentucky Derby with, it looks like, three starters each. The headline sires are right where they're supposed to be right now–in the headlines.

FIRST FLASH: Four European freshman sires have bounced out with three or more winners each: 2-year-old Group 2 winners Dragon Pulse (Kyllachy), from the Irish National Stud, and Sir Prancealot (Tamayuz), from Tally-Ho, have three winners each, Dragon Pulse from eight starters, while Sir Prancealot has already had 14. Ballyhane's Elzaam (Redoute's Choice), a Group-2 placed 2-year-old and listed winner for Sheikh Hamdan, joined that group Tuesday with his third winner in the space of two days. Darley Dalham Hall's Helmet, a three-time Group 1 winner in Australia by Exceed And Excel, already has four winners, from six starters. Coolmore's Power (Oasis Dream), winner of the G2 Coventry, G1 National S., and G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, has two. Royal Ascot is still six weeks away, but you can already imagine a few of these having runners there.

THE (KENTUCKY) DERBY TRAIL: With the final field and the draw due later today, it would be even chancier than usual to be making any predictions; plus, I hate to jinx Paul Reddam, who I like a lot. I'll just say this, Paul: Seattle Slew 1977, Affirmed 1978. No pressure.