Group 1 hero and Melbourne Cup second Johannes Vermeer retires to Cornwall Park

Melbourne Cup runner-up Johannes Vermeer is to stand at Cornwall Park in Victoria for the upcoming breeding season.

Winner of the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud as a juvenile, Johannes Vermeer ran four times in Australia, which also included placings in the Caulfield Cup and Caulfield Stakes.

Johannes Vermeer was retired after finishing fourth in the 2019 Blamey Stakes and will stand for A$11,000 (£5,900/€6,800) in his opening season.

"We are excited to be standing a horse of the Group 1 calibre of Johannes Vermeer," said Cornwall Park's Peter Boyle. "He ticks all the boxes being an eyecatching, tough, high-class performer with an impeccable pedigree."

One of the late Galileo’s 92 individual elite-level winners, Johannes Vermeer is out of the lightly-raced Holy Roman Emperor mare Inca Princess, a winner from just three starts.

She has produced stakes performers from each of her five foals (all by Galileo), including Group 2 winner Elizabeth Browning, National Stakes and Dewhurst runner-up Wembley, and Listed winner Sapa Inca.

Bred by Desert Star Phoenix Jvc, Johannes Vermeer went through the ring as a yearling at Goffs Orby, being knocked down to BBA Ireland for €300,000 from The Premier Consignment.

He raced largely for Coolmore parties, including in a syndicate with Teo Ah Khing of the China Horse Club and performed for three seasons with Aidan O'Brien, missing the majority of his three-year-old campaign, before moving into the Lloyd and Nick Williams operation in Australia.

One full-sister, Petite Mustique, changed hands for €1,100,000 as a foal at Goffs.

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