Wooton Bassett, how important is he going to become?

[Insider]

Monday

It didn’t take a crystal ball or complicated algorithms to predict that Coolmore sire Wootton Bassett would be in the news with his two-year-olds this season. This was the crop bred immediately after the operation had paid a small fortune to prise him from the hands of the shareholders who stood him at Haras d’Etreham, where he had performed miracles with minuscule books of modest mares. The son of Iffraaj covered a Who’s Who of top-class racemares and producers in his first season at Coolmore’s headquarters in Fethard in 2021. Just as a taster, they included Group/Grade 1 winners Albigna, Alexandrova, Awesome Maria, Bracelet, Clemmie, Curvy, Deirdre, Fancy Blue, Found, Immortal Verse, Mabs Cross, Miss Yoda, Nickname, Peeping Fawn, Proviso, The Fugue and Was. That star-studded introductory book in Ireland also contained the dams of elite winners Audarya, Channel, Golden Horde, Harry Angel, Limato, Mukhadram, Line Of Duty, One Master, Sioux Nation, Snowfall, Technician, Tepin and Zoustar.  Wootton Bassett’s principal appeal to Coolmore was that he was not only a proven source of high-class stock, but also one who could act as an outcross to mares by Galileo. He duly covered 58 daughters of the multiple champion sire, who died after that year’s breeding season. It was always on the cards that Wootton Bassett (pictured below) would make hay with the 213 foals who resulted from those matings, then. But few could have guessed how phenomenal his achievements with those horses in their juvenile season alone would be. Camille Pissarro, the half-brother to Golden Horde, dropped a clue as to what was to come when bolting up at Navan on debut in April. He didn’t immediately live up to expectations for himself or his sire when beaten into second at long odds-on in the Marble Hill Stakes and finishing midfield as favourite in the Coventry Stakes, but he ran honestly all season and finally came good in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere this month.  The fact that the Aidan O’Brien-trained colt started once every month from April to October speaks to the toughness that the stallion often imparts. Henri Matisse was another artistically named Ballydoyle colt by Wootton Bassett who showed his hand early, winning a Curragh maiden in May and adding the Railway Stakes and Futurity Stakes to his tally by the end of the summer.  The colt out of Immortal Verse has blotted his copybook a little on his last two outings, wandering around before finishing second in the National Stakes and failing to land a blow in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in first-time blinkers, but it’s easy to see him redeeming himself in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Friday, with the tight turn at Del Mar helping to focus his mind. Wootton Bassett’s ability to throw an early season two-year-old is not exactly without precedent or ancient history, with River Tiber and Bucanero Fuerte, from his final French crop, finishing first and third in the Coventry Stakes only last year. Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse’s exploits were nonetheless a useful reminder of the trait, especially when the sire’s Coolmore-conceived crops have taken on a different complexion, generally being more classically-bred and therefore likelier to bloom later in the year than had previously been the case. Wootton Bassett’s two-year-old results have indeed warmed up as the season has progressed. Angeal, out of Ribblesdale and EP Taylor Stakes winner Curvy, won the Prix Six Perfections in July; Ides Of March, out of Frizette Stakes scorer Nickname, took the Round Tower Stakes in August; and Houquetot, out of Happen, a Group 3-winning daughter of War Front and Alexandrova, and Green Impact, out of a middle distance-placed daughter of Galileo, scored in the Prix La Rochette and KPMG Champion Juvenile Stakes respectively in September.

Things have reached boiling point this month. Maranoa Charlie, out of a winning Galileo half-sister to Tiggy Wiggy, landed the Prix Thomas Bryon to become Wootton Bassett’s record-equalling seventh Group winner at two from a single crop, and Whirl, out of a winning Galileo sister to Hermosa and Hydrangea, won the Staffordstown Stud Stakes last Tuesday to give her sire the record outright. Wootton Bassett ventured even further into uncharted territory yesterday when Tennessee Stud, out of a Sadler’s Wells half-sister to Rock Of Gibraltar, and Twain, out of Montjeu’s Rockfel Stakes-winning daughter Wading, made it a terrific ten Group-winning two-year-olds in one season.  For good measure, they did it at the highest level, in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud and Criterium International respectively, with Twain in particular marking himself down as a credible Classic contender for next year.  Wootton Bassett’s record-smashing haul of Group winners is actually only scratching the surface of his upgraded two-year-old crop. It contains another three Listed scorers, namely Apples And Bananas (third to Twain and one place ahead of Maranoa Charlie yesterday), Benevento and Chantez, and seven more stakes-placed horses, including Dewhurst runner-up Expanded and Middle Park third Dash Dizzy. There have also been several impressive new winners this month: Tangapour, who benefited from a lay-off to make all and score by four lengths at Killarney; Jettie’s Run, who won a shade cosily at Kempton; and Serious Contender, who battled to victory at Leopardstown. Wootton Bassett has always been known for his versatility as a sire ‒ his earlier Group 1 winners conceived in France ranged from a Prix de l’Abbaye winner in Wooded to middle-distance stars like Almanzor and King Of Steel ‒ and that is the hallmark of his first Coolmore two-year-olds: some were out early, some have appeared later, and they have excelled from six furlongs to ten furlongs, on all sorts of going, with many appearing to enjoy their racing as they are out often. In that respect, Wootton Bassett is truly a Danehill for our times. It would be no surprise to see him crowned champion sire in Britain and Ireland and forge an effective sire line like his predecessor at Coolmore before long too.  Crucially, when Wootton Bassett’s two-year-old generation is significantly larger than in previous years, his statistics hold up as well. His black-type winners to runners strike-rate is around 14 per cent, an excellent figure and the sort that Galileo was achieving with his juveniles in his pomp.  There really isn’t much not to like about Wootton Bassett. There will no doubt be some howls of protest that those exploits with his two-year-olds have been boosted by mare power; and of course there would be some truth in that, as those runners are clearly displaying some of the talent of their mothers and other distaff siblings and ancestors. But it would be churlish in the extreme to mark the sire down on that score, when he earned the right to cover such glittering books by delivering European champion Almanzor among a first crop of 13 foals conceived at a fee of €6,000, and top-notchers Audarya and Wooded from similarly inexpensive matings. That is all a dim and distant memory now, as the recently published Weatherbys Return of Mares shows that he received 223 mares at Coolmore this year with a high concentration of quality again. Among the highlights were top-level winners Alpha Centauri, Bateel, Coronet, Hermosa, Homeless Songs, Miss Yoda, Mutamakina, No Speak Alexander, Quadrilateral, Romantic Proposal, Savethelastdance, Siyarafina, Snow Lantern, Taghrooda, Tarnawa, The Fugue and Treve. The book also featured the dams of celebrities Al Husn, Anthony Van Dyck, Capri, Ezeliya, Palace Pier, Tribalist and Unquestionable, as well as two very special mares: Alpha Lupi, who has produced three individual Group 1 winners in Alpha Centauri, Alpine Star and Discoveries, and Frida La Blonde, who clicked with the sire to produce Bucanero Fuerte and Wooded. The crystal ball can remain in storage; no need to furrow the brow trying to work out intricate sums: it’s plain to see that Wootton Bassett is going to be a sire of enormous consequence for years to come.