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Once Upon A River becomes the tenth winner for his dam Cassandra Go who died last week

Once Upon A River (2 c ex Cassandra Go by Indian Ridge) provided her Coolmore Australia shuttler sire Churchill (Galileo) with his fifth winner, in his first European-bred crop, on Tuesday, while the colt also became the tenth winner for champion European broodmare Cassandra Go (Indian Ridge), who died last week at the age of 25. 

Trained by Ger Lyons, Once Upon A River finished third on debut earlier this month and put up an impressive performance at Rosscommon on Tuesday to pull clear and post a four length victory over seven and a half furlongs. 

“Upon a River has been very well at home and this opportunity presented itself. We won't be in any rush with him now, he is a horse for next year,” said Shane Lyons, assistant trainer.

Retained to race by his breeder Trevor Stewart, Once Upon A River is a half-brother to triple Group One winner Halfway To Heaven (Pivotal), the dam of two champion mares, both by Churchill’s sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), in Magical and Rhododendron.

The final foal from Cassandra Go is a yearling colt by Saxon Warrior.

Churchill will stand for a fee of $22,000 (inc GST) this season. He is currently in sixth place in the leading first season sires table in Europe by winners with that table headed by Ardad (Kodica) who has produced 13 first crop winners to date.