Mt Brilliant seeking a Famous Irish Derby victory with transatlantic broodmare

Although Saturday's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby has a parochial appearance with a full home-trained field of eight, its result will be awaited keenly right across the Atlantic.

One starter is a result of Mt Brilliant Farm's enthusiasm for European racing, with Greg Goodman's lavish Kentucky operation responsible for the breeding of a member of Aidan O’Brien's quintet in Il Paradiso.

The Galileo colt, who showed up well behind St James's Palace-winning stablemate Circus Maximus on his juvenile debut, struck his own first victory at Leopardstown last month and, in a Classic not immune to throwing up surprises, ought not to be completely discarded even if he was a late confirmation.

"Coolmore has really helped us a bunch over the years, they've sold us some nice mares and they bought some nice horses off us," says Goodman's son Hutton, who is closely involved in Mt Brilliant’s management.

"I think that the guys think he could be more of a St Leger horse, he could need a bit more distance, but it sure would be exciting to have a Derby winner. You're always in with a chance.

"They bought another Galileo off us a few years ago called Amedeo Modigliani, we sold him at Tattersalls through Watership Down Stud, it seemed like he was going to really take off."

Il Paradiso winning his maiden at Leopardstown last month from Harpo MarxCredit: Caroline Norris

Goodman's sentence tails off because Amedeo Modigliani had looked a gilt-edged prospect at Galway as a juvenile but missed his entire Classic season and has not quite got back in the swing of things twice this year.

Il Paradiso is out of the Danehill Dancer mare Famous, who put in a sequence of fine efforts in decent company, with Il Paradiso, the best of her progeny so far, bought by MV Magnier for $300,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

"We bought the mare from Coolmore and we bred her to Galileo four or five times, but we always bought her with the expectation of bringing her back to the United States," explains Hutton Goodman.

"Il Paradiso was the last time we bred to Galileo over there, we brought the mare back to foal here, and that’s why he's actually American-bred.

"He wasn't the most expensive Galileo, he was beautiful though. He was a giant horse, a very, very big yearling and with a big horse like that you can sometimes kind of worry, but he was so light on his feet that we really didn’t need to. The Coolmore boys obviously didn’t either."

There is a sense of what might have been about Famous herself, who ended her career with just a maiden victory, but it is her pedigree which interested Mt Brilliant.

"It's just an unbelievable, beautiful family," says Goodman. "The mare herself was Group 1-placed as a two-year-old [Moyglare Stud Stakes], and in that race she was second and the third was [dual Group 1 winner and broodmare] Lillie Langtry. She was no slouch, and she was also a full-sister to Mastercraftsman.

"We sold a pretty nice two-year-old by Bernardini, and then the yearling is Lemon Drop Kid and she looks a lot like the mare.

"If you go way, way back in that family, it’s the same family as [champion juvenile and smart stallion] Capote, we were trying a way to inject a little bit of slew into her, without going too much dirt over the turf. Lemon Drop is a Kingmambo out of a Seattle Slew mare and Bernardini is a son of AP Indy, but he’s got quite a bit of turf in his pedigree."

Given that they have access to Galileo, it is self-explanatory that Mt Brilliant is no small fry in the breeding game. Not only do its 1,200 acres include polo fields and an award-winning garden, it is home to the Russell Cave, a spring where in 1843 it is said that Cassius Clay, the slavery abolitionist, was involved in a duel with Samuel Brown and was saved only by a bullet bouncing off the sheath of his knife.

Its link with the thoroughbred is underlined by the fact Mt Brilliant now encompasses some of the old Faraway Farm, where the legendary Man o'War lived as a stallion.

It operates as a commercial venture with interests worldwide.

"We breed to sell, especially with the colts," Goodman says. "We breed to race in that we keep one to two nice fillies but any colt we have, no matter how nice, is for sale.

"We kept a couple of mares at Coolmore but we just moved the last one we have there right now to Australia. But we'll be back again, we're constantly moving mares around. We've kept mares at Highclere if they're in England and if they're in Ireland they’re at Coolmore.

"We might just have one nice Dark Angel filly to sell at Goffs this year, but we’ll be there for Tattersalls December shopping."

A couple of years ago Greg Goodman refreshed his broodmare band with the 1,050,000gns purchase of Abingdon, one of the final treasures of the Ballymacoll dispersal, at the Tattersalls Mares Sale.

"She’s doing great," reports Goodman jnr. "We bred her to Speightstown and we have a filly from him that is spectacular. The way Abingdon moves…she’s really let down into a beautiful broodmare."

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