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Weekend classic results have underlined the influence champion sire Galileo casts over the elite levels of world racing.
The Coolmore champion sired another Epsom Derby winner and figured as the dam sire of two Oaks winners in the UK and Australia. He remarkably appeared in the pedigrees of all 13 colts to go to post
The son of Sadler’s Wells was provided with an incredible 77th G1 winner when Anthony Van Dyck’s (Galileo x Believe'n'succeed by Exceed and Excel) won the Derby at Epsom.
It was a record-equalling fourth success in the classic for Galileo with Anthony Van Dyck the seventh Derby winner trained by Aiden O’Brien.
Ridden by Seamie Heffernan he beat Madhmoon (Dawn Approach) by half a length, with that rival getting the better of Japan – another son Galileo - by a nose. O’Brien trained four of the first five over the line.
Anthony Van Dyck is out of the Australian mare Believe'N'Succeed (Exceed And Excel), making him a half-brother to G1-winning sprinter Bounding (Lonhro).
Anthony Van Dyck became the first winner of the Listed Lingfield Derby Trial to go on to glory in the Epsom Derby since High-Rise 21 years ago.
The Galileo sire line was responsible for the first four home and the mighty stallion’s significance was not lost on the winning rider.
“He was hard-pushed the whole way down the straight, but he’s a Galileo and I knew he’d be with me when I needed him,” Heffernan said.
Anthony Van Dyck won his second start at Killarney as a 2YO when he crossed the line eight lengths clear and a week later backed up to win the Tyros Stakes by 4 3/4 lengths.
He then went to The Curragh to secure the G2 Futurity Stakes before running second in the G1 National Stakes and third in the G1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October.
\He ended his testing 2YO season with a ninth when favourite for the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Churchill Downs before reappearing at Lingfield last month.
The 46-year-old Heffernan was having his 12th ride in the Derby after runner-up finishes in 2009 and in 2010.
“I’ve ridden plenty of Derby horses and ridden in plenty of Derbys, so I’m always confident riding for Aidan. He trains them for the big day,” Heffernan said.
This Derby has put Aidan O’Brien on a par with the training legends Robert Robson, John Porter and Fred Darling, while the result underlines the far-reaching influence of Sadler’s Wells and his best sire son Galileo.
“I am privileged to be part of the team with everybody,” O’Brien said. “There are so many people from the ground right up to the riders, the people in the office, the farriers, the vets, the people that do the stables day in and day out, that do the farms.
“It is incredible to be in the position to be a record holder, we never thought we’d be in this position. We have to pinch ourselves everyday.”
“Anthony Van Dyck is a very solid horse who danced every dance last year and did everything we asked of him.
“We always felt that a step up to middle-distances was going to see the best of him and he’s out of a good fast Australian mare so he’s a horse to look forward to.”
“Over the last twenty years Galileo’s influence has been incredible in the fillies as well as the colts.
“They never wilt or disappear and just stand up and say give me more. It’s ingrained into them and all the mares put it into their foals whichever stallion they go to.”
Anthony Van Dyck may be the fourth Epsom Derby winner by Galileo but his victory will also be seen as a triumph for Australian breeding.
His dam Believe’N’Succeed, by Danehill’s Australian-bred sprint star Exceed and Excel, won the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude at Caulfield and at stud has also produced the G1 Railway Handicap winner Bounding (Lonhro).
Bounding was sold as a breeding prospect for $1.9 million to John Moynihan on behalf of US breeder Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Farm at the 2016 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She is now in Kentucky.
Believe’N’Succeed is from the Gone West mare Arctic Drift, also the dam of the Australian G2 winner and successful sire Kuroshio, also a son of Exceed And Excel who is standing at Clongiffen Stud in Ireland.
Arctic Drift is a daughter of the Strom Cat mareNovember Snow, a dual G1 winner in the US and a sister to Scatmandu, dam of the US G1 winner Morning Line (Tiznow).
South Australian breeder Michael Birchall offered Believe’N’Succeed at the 2014 Patinack Farm Complete Dispersal Sale at the Gold Coast where she was purchased by Coolmore's Tom Magnier for $1.1 million in foal to Street Cry.
She was slated for sale through the Attunga Stud draft a few months earlier at the National Broodmare Sale but was a late withdrawal through illness.
She then was offered when Patinack Farm was dispersed later in the year and Attunga presented her there to prospective buyers
Bred by Darley, Believe'n'succeed was originally purchased by trainer Mark Kavanagh for $300,000 at the 2007 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Anthony Van Dyck, now the winner of five of his nine starts and £1,177,829 in prize-money, is her first northern hemisphere-born foal and she is again in foal to Galileo.
+ Coolmore's success of buying from the Gold Coast for international success continued when Pacific Ocean cruised to victory over a mile at Navan in Ireland.
Another son of Galileo, Pacific Ocean is the first foal of the former champion Australian filly Atlantic Jewel, who like Believe'n'succeed was trained by Mark Kavanagh.
A $320,000 purchase for Demi O'Byrne at the 2010 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Atlantic Jewel raced with incredible success - beaten only once in an 11 start career that netted four G1 victories.
