What next for Coolmore after Galileo? Ruby Walsh & Matt Chapman have their say

Galileo goes down as one of the greatest sires in the history of the sport.

By / Horse Racing News / 3 years ago

The world of horse racing was rocked when Coolmore announced the sad passing of Galileo at the age of 23. The 2001 Epsom Derby winner’s impact on the sport cannot be underestimated having been responsible for more than 90 Group 1 winners, while 20 of his sons have sired winners at the top level including Frankel.

Coolmore face major decisions about how to move their operation forward without the champion sire, while questions are being asked about which of their stallions can take over the reins at stud.

What are Coolmore going to do next? Paddy Power experts Ruby Walsh and Matt Chapman were asked that very question on the latest episode of our From The Horse’s Mouth podcast.

Here’s what they had to say…

Ruby Walsh

A lot of the good fillies that Coolmore have are all by Galileo. For some time they’ve been looking out for an outcross and they haven’t quite found one yet. The best bloodlines they have involve Galileo so they need something else to mix in with it.

It’ll be a shift in power. It’s cyclical but it takes a considerable length of time for the wheel to turn when you’re talking about a stallion like Galileo. It’s already shifting towards Frankel – he could be the next big thing – but with that becomes the availability of Frankel to other establishments. It won’t just solely be Coolmore with Galileo, it’ll now be everybody with Frankel or whatever the next big horse will be. The dominance won’t be there.

It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

Matt Chapman

The two stallions that really stand out are the recently purchased Wootton Bassett and No Nay Never. I suspect Churchill, who was talented and a magnificent looking beast, will step up to the plate. They’re not lacking in stallions that could turn out to be really good.

We’re saying that this is a poor bunch (of two and three year olds) but Galileo was around for this bunch so maybe there was a small sign that he was just beginning to ebb away a little bit. The two year olds don’t seem that great apart from Point Lonsdale and the three year olds – they’re lucky with St Mark’s Basilica – Wembley and Battleground have been a shambles all season and they were thought to be the big two at the start of the year.

It’s not been a great year for Aidan O’Brien but it’s a bit like back in the day if Martin Pipe didn’t have a great year or Paul Nicholls doesn’t have a great year, they still had big winners so it’s not a disaster for them because the numbers mean they continue to ply their trade at the top table.

Another they’ve got is Calyx, who looked like he was going to be an absolute monster when he was a juvenile and then he got injured so we never saw the best of him.

There are horses in there that can come up to the plate. I don’t think there’s any crisis and maybe in years to come we’ll say it’s been good for Coolmore to branch out and not rely on one source. That one source has served them very well but maybe we’ll get different types so the Derby won’t become everything and that’ll give others a chance.

It’s swings and roundabouts all the way. Things change, and often for the better as it alters the competition, so I don’t think anyone should worry.

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