Kentucky sire power gives O'Brien another Group 1 clean sweep

Aidan O'Brien's domination of the Group 1 action in Britain and Ireland this season reached a new peak on Saturday as his quartet of runners in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket filled the first four places.

The Ballydoyle maestro has now trained the winners of 24 top-level races this year and is within one of drawing level with the late Bobby Frankel's record.

O'Brien's most recent achievement did not come with the direct assistance of his regular stallion sidekick, Galileo, though. While nine of the 14 horses who together have amassed those 24 Group 1 laurels were by the Coolmore phenomenon, O'Brien's four Dewhurst runners were all by Kentucky sires.

First home was US Navy Flag, who ensured the Middle Park Stakes and Dewhurst double was completed for the first time since Diesis managed the feat in 1982. He is by Claiborne Farm's flagship sire War Front, also responsible for Dewhurst fourth Threeandfourpence.

The runner-up and third in the race that so often confers champion two-year-old honours, Mendelssohn and Seahenge, are by the late Ashford Stud superstar Scat Daddy.

War Front has supplied only two of those 14 Group 1 winners for O'Brien this year but, to his credit, that pair – US Navy Flag and his sister Roly Poly – have accounted for five of the trainer's record-threatening haul of top-level wins.

Scat Daddy, meanwhile, has sired two of O'Brien's Group 1 winners of 2017 – Caravaggio and Sioux Nation. A reliable source of precocity and speed, and a precious outcross from Sadler's Wells and Danehill to boot, it is no wonder that Coolmore have played hardball to secure the best offerings from the final crops of the son of Johannesburg.

Mendelssohn, a half-brother to the great racemare Beholder and top-notch sire Into Mischief, was the most expensive yearling sold at auction in 2016 when bought by MV Magnier at Keeneland for $3 million, while Seahenge, a colt out of the stakes-winning Not For Love mare Fools In Love, was also bought by Magnier at Keeneland, for a snip less at $750,000.

The pair's fine performances in the Dewhurst – Seahenge perhaps deserving a little extra credit for suffering a troubled passage and having to make his run wide – provide both proof and justification of Coolmore's preoccupation with Scat Daddy progeny.

As for US Navy Flag, the big question is now what he can achieve next season, with the thorny subject of War Front's record with three-year-olds in Europe hard to ignore. He is the sire's third winner of the Dewhurst after War Command and Air Force Blue, neither of whom managed to win another race after scoring at Newmarket.

Nor has Lancaster Bomber, another by War Front, managed to grace a winner's enclosure this year after finishing second in the Dewhurst of 2016, although in mitigation he did finish a very creditable second to Barney Roy in the St James's Palace Stakes.

There have also been the likes of Brave Anna, Faydhan, Hit It A Bomb, Intelligence Cross and War Decree, all of whom showed significant promise at two but failed to deliver on it in the key races at three.

So it has been critical for War Front's reputation that Roly Poly not only demonstrated with her two Group wins and short-head second in the Cheveley Park Stakes at two what we all knew about the sire – that he is an excellent wellspring of juvenile talent – but also that she has improved throughout her Classic season to finish second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas and reel off Group 1 victories in the Falmouth Stakes, Prix Rothschild and Sun Chariot Stakes.

Roly Poly was the first progeny of War Front to score a top-level success in Europe beyond the age of two since Declaration Of War landed the Juddmonte International aged four in 2013.

We might, though, attribute a fair portion of US Navy Flag and Roly Poly's success to Galileo. The engine that has propelled O'Brien to his pre-eminence in recent seasons might not have featured as the sire of any of the trainer's Dewhurst 1-2-3-4 but he is damsire of the siblings.

The homebred pair are out of Misty For Me, an important mare in the recent history of Coolmore as when she won the Moyglare Stud Stakes and Prix Marcel Boussac at two and the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Pretty Polly Stakes at three – setting an example of excellence in both seasons that Roly Poly has cleaved to – she became the first Group 1 winner by Galileo owned by the operation themselves.

Misty For Me was also the first piece in a puzzle that will likely vex Coolmore more and more in the seasons ahead: which sires do they pick to cover all their outstanding mares by Galileo, when that sire, his own sons, plus other sons or grandsons of Sadler's Wells, govern the stallion roster at home?

Many of the best Galileo mares have been sent to War Front, and although that sire has endured knocks in Europe after the flops of Air Force Blue and co, Roly Poly has this season gone some way to vindicating those mating plans.

Were US Navy Flag – now at the head of ante-post betting lists for the 2,000 Guineas – to perform similar heroics at three, or should other talented two-year-olds by War Front perform with credit in Europe next season, it would surely put to bed any remaining doubts breeders this side of the Atlantic might have about the sire, who has also been in red-hot form in America of late, with his older daughters Avenge and War Flag notching Grade 1 wins.

He could also encourage the further development of War Front as an invigorating outcross influence for mares by Galileo, Sadler's Wells and their ilk.

AIDAN O'BRIEN'S GROUP 1 WINNERS OF 2017 AND HOW THEY WERE BRED

Winter (x4)
3yo gr f Galileo-Laddies Poker Two (Choisir)
1,000 Guineas, Irish 1,000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes, Nassau Stakes

Roly Poly (x3)
3yo b f War Front-Misty For Me (Galileo)
Falmouth Stakes, Prix Rothschild, Sun Chariot Stakes

Capri (x2)
3yo gr c Galileo-Dialafara (Anabaa)
Irish Derby, St Leger

Churchill (x2)
3yo b c Galileo-Meow (Storm Cat)
2,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas

Happily (x2)
2yo b f Galileo-You'resothrilling (Storm Cat)
Moyglare Stud Stakes, Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere

Highland Reel (x2)
5yo b h Galileo-Hveger (Danehill)
Coronation Cup, Prince of Wales's Stakes

US Navy Flag (x2)
2yo b c War Front-Misty For Me (Galileo)
Middle Park Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes

Caravaggio
2yo gr c Scat Daddy-Mekko Hokte (Holy Bull)
Commonwealth Cup

Clemmie
2yo b f Galileo-Meow (Storm Cat)
Cheveley Park Stakes

Hydrangea
3yo b f Galileo-Beauty Is Truth (Pivotal)
Matron Stakes

Order Of St George
5yo b h Galileo-Another Storm (Gone West)
Irish St Leger

Rhododendron
3yo b f Galileo-Halfway To Heaven (Pivotal)
Prix de l'Opera

Sioux Nation
2yo b c Scat Daddy-Dream The Blues (Oasis Dream)
Phoenix Stakes

Wings Of Eagles
3yo b c Pour Moi-Ysoldina (Kendor)
Derby

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