First Classic crop point to a solid gold future for Coolmore's Australia

There are few certainties in this business but the idea that we wouldn’t see the best of Australia’s progeny until their three-year-old season was undoubtedly one of them.

Australia was a fine two-year-old, classy enough to inflict a six-length beating on Free Eagle in the Golden Fleece Stakes at Leopardstown on his final juvenile start.

But that campaign evolved with his three-year-old career in mind, as would be expected for the product of two Epsom Classic winners, and he duly came into his own the following year for Aidan O’Brien, when victories in the Derby, Irish Derby and Juddmonte International crowned a championship season.