3 minute read
Love at first sight? Not quite, but owner Ottavio Galletta knew he had to buy outstanding colt Castelvecchio when he first saw him as a yearling in a paddock at Arrowfield Stud.
“I looked at a lot of horses last year but I knew as soon as I saw this one, I had to have him,’’ Galletta said in the wake of the colt’s first Group One win in the $1 million Champagne Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
As much as he wanted the yearling colt then and there, Galletta had to wait for the youngster to be offered at the 2018 Classic Sale in Sydney where he had young Warwick Farm trainer Richard Litt make the successful bid of $150,000 on his behalf.Castelvecchio has since become the horse of a lifetime for Galletta and his wife Wendy, earning more than $1.6 million prizemoney from three wins in his first five starts – including the inaugural $2 million Inglis Millenium - thanks to Litt’s brilliant handling of the colt.
“He’s our champion. He’ll go for a break now as there’s so many races we can look forward to in the spring with him,”Galletta said after the Champagne Stakes."It's a great thrill. Castelvecchio is really taking it all in front of him and so is his sire.
“Dundeel has done enough now to satisfy us that he’s going to be a leading force in this country for the next decade or so.”
Dundeel’s seven individual stakes winners include New Zealand’s top 2YO Yourdeel, a dual G1 winner this year of the Sistema Stakes and the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes, and Atyaab, winner of the G1 Cape Derby at Kenilworth in South Africa.
Castelvecchio is a half-brother to four winners including the G1 Spring Champion Stakes winner Maid Of Heaven (Smart Missile) from the Listed winner St Therese, a Dehere half-sister to the five-time G1 winner Planet Ruler (Kaoru Star) from the Aloe mare Moon Scent.St Therese has a yearling colt by Panzer Division and is in foal to the same sire.
