Champion St Mark's Basilica to shuttle to Coolmore Australia

World champion three-year-old St Mark’s Basilica, a five-time Group 1 winner by Siyouni, will shuttle to Coolmore Australia in 2022, the latest top-flight stallion prospect to be brought down under by the global giant.

The Magnier family’s international operation, which is also set to retire the dual Group 1-winning Royal Ascot-bound sprinter Home Affairs to stud later this year, unveiled the high-profile St Mark’s Basilica as the first of its southern hemisphere newcomers for the 2022 breeding season.

Winner of the Dewhurst Stakes as a juvenile, the colt completed an unbeaten four-start season at three, adding the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club, the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown to round out his nine-start career with six wins and earnings of more than £2 million.

St Mark’s Basilica will stand for a southern hemisphere fee of A$44,000 (£25,000/€30,000) when he travels to the Hunter Valley in August.

Tom Magnier: 'We look forward to showing him to local breeders later in the year'Credit: Laura Green

Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier said: “We are delighted to offer a horse with such rare qualities as St Mark’s Basilica to Australasian breeders. As a sire prospect, he has everything you could ever hope for and in terms of quality he has attracted an unparalleled first book of mares in Europe.

“St Mark’s Basilica was simply brilliant on the track, who just like leading stallions Shamardal and Lope De Vega won the French 2,000 Guineas and Prix du Jockey Club double.”

The champion European two-year-old and world champion three-year-old, St Mark’s Basilica was a 1.3 million gns Tattersalls October Yearling Sale purchase by MV Magnier.

Out of the Group 3-winning juvenile Cabaret, herself by the peerless Galileo and owned by Australian breeder Bob Scarborough, the new-season shuttler is a half-brother to dual Group 1 winner and Ireland’s champion three-year-old miler of 2019 Magna Grecia, himself on the Coolmore roster and who has shuttled to Australia for the past two years.

His own twice champion French sire Siyouni - an elite stallion of 59 stakes winners, including Group 1 winner Sottsass who, like St Mark’s Basilica, is also out of a Galileo mare and is also on the roster at Coolmore Ireland - has had limited exposure in the southern hemisphere with just eight runners, but five of them are stakes performers.

Despite his small numbers, the Haras de Bonneval-based Siyouni, who stands for a record fee in France of €140,000 in 2022 after back-to-back champion stallion titles, has sired Todman Stakes winner Aylmerton and boom Perth juvenile Amelia’s Jewel, the unbeaten Simon Miller-trained filly who emphatically won the Gimcrack Stakes at Ascot last Saturday.

He is also the sire of the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained Listed-winning two-year-old See You In Spring and stakes-placed juveniles See You Soon and Direct.

“St Mark’s Basilica’s sire Siyouni is the most expensive stallion to ever stand in France and has been remarkably successful with limited opportunities in Australia,” said Magnier.

“He comes from an impeccable family, being out of a Group-winning two-year-old by Galileo and half-brother to a Classic winner.

“To top it all off, he’s an absolutely stunning individual, so we look forward to showing him to local breeders later in the year.”

St Mark’s Basilica stands for an introductory fee of €65,000 in Ireland and Coolmore, as the Magnier family and their partners have shown with the likes of shuttlers Justify and Wootton Bassett, have thrown their weight behind the son of Siyouni, sending him a plethora of high-class mares.

Among those already in foal to him are Australian Group winner Believe‘N’Succeed - the dam of Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck - and champion New Zealand sprinter Bounding.

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