The rise and rise of Wootton Bassett

Cover image courtesy of Coolmore

Australian breeders know that only too well, as three such upgraders – Written Tycoon, Not A Single Doubt and I Am Invincible – have been fighting for supremacy at the head of the General Sires’ list this season.

Recent examples in Europe, meanwhile, include Kodiac (GB), Showcasing (GB), Siyouni (Fr) and now Wootton Bassett (GB).

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That is not to say that Coolmore’s recent big-money purchase from Haras d’Etreham, who shuttles to the operation’s Jerrys Plains facility for the first time in 2021, is from the wrong side of the tracks. Far from it, in fact.

Wootton Bassett was bred by Colin and Melba Bryce (parents of British racing broadcaster Gina) by sending their Listed-placed Primo Dominie (GB) mare Balladonia (GB) to Iffraaj (GB). The mating represented a union of two horses imbued with pace, precocity and plentiful class.

Iffraaj, a multiple Group 2-winning sprinter by Zafonic (USA) and closely related to the great sire Cape Cross (Ire), is responsible for 10 Group/Grade 1 winners worldwide including Gingernuts (NZ), Jon Snow (NZ), Turn Me Loose (NZ) and Wyndspelle (NZ) from his 12 Southern-Hemisphere seasons at Haunui Farm in New Zealand.

For her part, Balladonia finished second in hot maidens on both her starts at two and improved to finish second and third in two renewals of the Listed Hoppings S. over 2000 metres at three and 5-years-old. She produced nine other winners besides Wootton Bassett, including Listed-placed juvenile Mister Hardy (GB), as well as Bratislava (GB), the dam of smart sprinters Katla (Ire) and Rapid Reaction (Ire).

The Bryces offered Wootton Bassett for sale at Doncaster, the spiritual home of sharper yearlings, and he was bought by noted judge Bobby O’Ryan for £46,000 (AU$81,960) on behalf of trainer Richard Fahey and owner Frank Brady.

The colt won all his five starts at two, including valuable sales races at Doncaster and York, and culminating with an impressive 2.5l victory in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc Day at Longchamp. The contest’s roll of honour boasts household names such as Sir Ivor (USA), Blushing Groom (Fr), Arazi (USA) and Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire), and more recently the aforementioned boom sire Siyouni.

A training setback ruled Wootton Bassett out of a planned assault on the 2000 Guineas at three – a race that was dominated by an imperious Frankel (GB) as it turned out anyway – and he ran a fair fifth in the French equivalent on his seasonal debut instead. But he failed to fire in three more starts and was retired at the end of the year.

He covered only 47 mares at a negligible fee of €6000 (AU$9300) in his first season at Haras d’Etreham, his price and popularity held back by that lack of 3-year-old form and the fact that Iffraaj was then unproven as a sire of sires, perhaps.

The pathfinder

Those figures resulted in a debut crop of 23 foals, the sort of figure that would torpedo most stallion careers, but one of the few pathfinders for Wootton Bassett turned out to be Almanzor (Fr) – winner of the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, G1 Irish Champion S. and G1 Champion S. to be crowned Europe’s Champion 3-year-old.

Almanzor now stands at Haras d’Etreham and shuttles to Cambridge Stud, and put a first 2-year-old winner on the board when son Faro De San Juan (Ire) scored convincingly at Chantilly on Monday.

Remarkably, he was not the only stakes winner among those 23 first-crop Wootton Bassett foals; there was also Do Re Mi Fa Sol (Fr), a wide-margin Listed scorer in the French provinces who went on to second in Group 3 company at York.

The sire maintained momentum with his second crop, which numbered 18 and contained Almanzor’s Listed-placed full sister Troarn (Fr), and his third crop of 45, which yielded G3 Prix de Fontainebleau winner and G1 St James’s Palace S. third Wootton (Fr), G1 Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Patascoy (Fr) and Group-placed fillies Beagling (Fr) and Mamba Noire (Fr).

Wootton Bassett’s fourth crop of 47 foals includes G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Audarya (Fr), black-type winners Amilcar (Ire) and The Black Album (Fr), and the Group 3-placed pair Beat Le Bon (Fr) and Dave (Fr).

Next came a fifth generation of 92 foals, bred in the wake of Almanzor showing significant promise at two, and that larger cohort has produced no fewer than 14 stakes horses led by G1 Prix de l’Abbaye victor Wooded (Ire), dual Classic runner-up The Summit (Fr), G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches runner-up and third Speak Of The Devil (Fr) and Mageva (GB), and US Graded winners Guildsman (Fr) and Tamahere (Fr).

That all adds up to a mightily impressive start to a stud career, especially when you bear in mind the above mentioned runners, aged between four and eight, were bred off fees ranging from €4000 to €6000 (AU$6237 to AU$9356).

Wootton Bassett’s current 3-year-olds, conceived in the afterglow of Almanzor’s championship season at an increased price of €20,000 (AU$32,179), give a clue as to what he can achieve when granted better chances in the breeding shed. They include Chindit (Ire), a leading fancy for the G1 2000 Guineas after winning the G3 Greenham S. this month, and stakes-placed Incarville (Fr), Legion Of Honour (GB) and Nimbostratus (Fr).

Another in that age group, Rapid Achiever (Fr), has found her way to Australia after being purchased as a yearling by John Foote for €130,000 (AU$201,500) in October 2019. She has spelled and is currently at Ciaron Maher and David Eustace’s pre-training facility in Pakenham, but will be coming back into the stable in a few weeks.

"She’s going nicely, and we think she could be metro grade over ground,” says Eustace. “She's a big imposing, scopey filly. I quite like her.”

Wootton Bassett has 84 2-year-olds bred off a fee of €20,000 (AU$32,179) to go to war with this year. They sold as yearlings for an average of £108,220 (AU$192,950), with a high of £630,000 (AU$1,123,270) given by Charlie Gordon-Watson for a half-sister to Listed winner Lady Galore (Ire).

Fit for a king

Wootton Bassett is commanding a fee of €100,000 (AU$155,000) at Coolmore this Northern-Hemisphere season and the operation’s Director of Sales David O’Loughlin reports that the stallion has been welcomed to Ireland with a book fit for a king.

“Outside mares covered by him this year include the dams of Golden Horde, Harry Angel and One Master, the mothers of Audarya and Chindit again, Frankel’s half-sister Joyeuse and Group 1 winners Albigna and Mabs Cross,” he says.

“All the top breeders are supporting him – Juddmonte, Godolphin, the Niarchos family, Qatar Bloodstock, the Wertheimer brothers, China Horse Club, Ecurie des Monceaux, Peter Brant, Moyglare Stud, Ballylinch Stud, Newsells Park, Al Shaqab and so on.”

He adds: “Coolmore have really got behind him and our own top mares already in foal to him include Alexandrova, Bracelet, Clemmie, Coolmore, Fancy Blue, Found, Immortal Verse, Moonstone, Wading, Was and You’ll Be Mine. There’s also Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien’s good mare Palace, the dam of the Derby favourite High Definition.

“Awesome Maria, a Grade 1 winner purchased at Keeneland for US$4 million (AU$5,166,592), is an interesting mating for Wootton Bassett as she’s by Maria’s Mon, the damsire of Almanzor. There are a lot more besides.”

Not a one-line sire

Coolmore will be banking on Wootton Bassett providing the perfect foil for its many high-class and/or well-related mares by Galileo (Ire) and other Sadler’s Wells (USA)-line sires, but O’Loughlin points out that the sire’s profile and potential is much more multifaceted than that.

“He’s not a sire who needs any one line in particular, and in fact his first 17 stakes winners are out of mares by 17 different sires, which is quite unusual,” he says. “He’s done notably well with the Danzig-line, though, and his pedigree is a total outcross for Australian mares.”

Expanding on Wootton Bassett’s other selling points, O’Loughlin adds: “He looks tailor-made for Australia as it’s speed that breeders down there want, and he’s all about speed. He was a Champion 2-year-old who won five races that season between six and seven furlongs, and he has that fast pedigree, with both his sire and broodmare sire being very good sprinters.

“At stud he has got 2-year-olds, top sprinters, milers, lots of French Classic horses and middle-distance horses of the calibre of Almanzor.

“He’s a good-sized horse, pushing 16.1 hands, and is all quality: a lovely dark bay, strong and with a very good walk. He would have been a very mature horse as a yearling, I think. To be honest, I’d be amazed if no one had ever tried to secure him to shuttle to Australia before.”

One final extraordinary fact about Wootton Bassett is that his introductory fee at Coolmore Australia this year is $71,500 (inc GST) – less than half his current asking price in Ireland. No wonder the stud has reportedly been knocked over by breeders wanting to book nominations.