Highland Reel's brother Cape Of Good Hope scoops Group 1 prize

Cape Of Good Hope - a Galileo brother to globetrotting star Highland Reel and dual Group 2 winner Idaho - returned to his Australian roots by winning the Ladbrokes Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.

The winner is the 15th Group 1 winner to be bred on the Galileo-Danehill cross and his victory increases Galileo's record to 83 top-flight winners worldwide, one shy of the all-time record of 84 held by Danehill.

Cape Of Good Hope was making his first appearance in Australia for the Lindsay Park team of David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig since his transfer from Aidan O'Brien.

The three-year-old colt, who got up in the dying strides of the Caulfield feature under Mark Zahra, has displayed a strong level form this year by winning the Listed Blue Riband Trial at Epsom in April and finishing third to A Thread Of Blue in the Saratoga Derby on his previous start.

Cape Of Good Hope has also shown plenty of promise as a juvenile, having found only Quorto too good in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting and having completed a Ballydoyle 1-2-3 behind Mohawk and Sydney Opera House in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket.

He holds entries to both the Coongy Cup on Wednesday and the Cox Plate in two weeks' time.

Bred by the Hveger Syndicate out of the Australian-bred Danehill mare Hveger, Cape Of Good Hope is a sibling to three stakes performers led by Highland Reel, whose seven top-flight wins came in Britain, Hong Kong and the US.

Hveger has also produced the Hardwicke and Great Voltigeur Stakes scorer Idaho, who placed in both the Epsom and Irish Derby, while her Australian-bred Encosta De Lago daughter Valdemoro was second in both the VRC Crown Oaks and Vinery Stud Stakes at the highest level.

Both Highland Reel and Idaho have since taken up stud duties at Coolmore Stud and the Beeches Stud respectively.

Hveger, who took third in the Group 1 SAJC Australasian Oaks during her own racing career, hails from one of the strongest families in the Australian stud book, being a full-sister to the prolific Group 1 winner and sire Elvstroem.

She is also a half-sister to another multiple top-level winner in Haradasun, a son of Fusaichi Pegasus who etched his name on to the Queen Anne Stakes roll of honour at Royal Ascot. That trio in turn are out of the Australian Oaks heroine Circles Of Gold.

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