Cover image courtesy of Coolmore Stud
Windsor Park Stud has announced that six-time Group 1 winner Auguste Rodin (Ire) will shuttle to the Cambridge-based farm for the 2025 Southern Hemisphere breeding season later this year. After striking a deal with Coolmore, the son of influential sire Deep Impact (Jpn) will stand for an introductory fee of NZ$30,000 (plus GST) for his first season.
In a huge coup to the Southern Hemisphere, Auguste Rodin will be the best performed son of Deep Impact to stand in the Southern Hemisphere, joining Profondo, Satono Aladdin (Jpn), Staphanos (Jpn), and Fierce Impact (Jpn) as active sons based in or visiting Australasia.
Rodney Schick | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“We are privileged to welcome a racehorse of Auguste Rodin's calibre to our stallion roster,” Windsor Park principal Rodney Schick told Loveracing.NZ.
“His race performance has a remarkable similarity to that of High Chaparral, who we stood here at Windsor Park, and who enjoyed global success and international renown through his own success and that of his sons, grandsons and daughters at stud.
“His (Auguste Rodin's) race performance has a remarkable similarity to that of High Chaparral, who we stood here at Windsor Park.” - Rodney Schick
“We extend our thanks to Coolmore for their continued strong endorsement and support of both Windsor Park and the New Zealand breeding industry, just as they did last season shuttling Paddington here.”
An exceptional family
It is easy to argue that Auguste Rodin, bred and retained by Coolmore Stud, was born into greatness. It all starts with being sired by a super sire in Deep Impact; a 12-time winner on the track and 11-time Champion Sire in Japan, Deep Impact has produced 204 stakes winners, at a phenomenal strike rate of 11.9 per cent stakes winners to runners, and a further 137 stakes performers. A member of his sire’s final crop, Auguste Rodin is one of 59 Group 1 winners amongst that number.
Greatness also comes from his dam’s side; Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was Ireland’s Champion 2YO Filly in 2016, and followed that up Champion Older Female Miler titles in Ireland, Great Britain, and Europe as a 4-year-old two years later. She won or placed in Group 1 events across four countries, including victory in the G1 Newmarket Fillies’ Mile and second in the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf - and looking at her own family, it is little surprise that she would perform so well.
The late Deep Impact (Jpn)
Auguste Rodin’s second dam Halfway To Heaven (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) was a winner of three Group 1s herself, and has produced an astonishing three stakes winners at stud from five to race.
Besides Rhododendron, is her full sister Magical (Ire), whose 12 wins include seven Group 1 victories at Ascot, the Curragh, and Leopardstown, before turning to stud herself. Her first foal is Ballet Slippers (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), a juvenile winner who was third in the Newmarket Fillies’ Mile.
August Rodin is also his dam’s first foal - and sets a high bar for those who will follow him.
Top flight performance
Auguste Rodin’s Champion titles were bestowed upon him as a 3-year-old, but three of his eight wins came as a juvenile. His performance does echo that of High Chaparral (Ire), who has left an indelible mark on New Zealand breeding through his sire sons and broodmare daughters; they were both winners of the G1 Futurity Trophy as 2-year-olds, as well as training on to be successful in derbies on both sides of the Irish Sea, victory in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf and at Royal Ascot.
“Like High Chaparral, Auguste Rodin has loads of quality and we are so excited to be able to offer him to breeders,” Schick said.
Second on debut in the June of his juvenile season, Auguste Rodin quickly got off the mark, stringing three victories together that culminated in his Futurity Trophy win that October. He would be well beaten by fellow future shuttler Chaldean (GB) in the G1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket the following May, but that would just prove to be a warm up for back-to-back victories in the G1 Epsom Derby and the G1 Irish Derby.
Auguste Rodin (Ire) winning the G1 Irish Derby | Image courtesy of Coolmore Stud
His first tilt at Royal Ascot would be fruitless, but Auguste Rodin would secure his Champion 3YO titles with a scintillating performance in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes, and then, two months later, he would take on the Northern Hemisphere’s finest in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Emerging victorious, the firm track would see him shave nine seconds off of his previous best time over a mile and a half (2200 metres).
Returning as a 4-year-old, Auguste Rodin would find Meydan unsuitable, but would still clinch placings in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup and Irish Champion Stakes either side of victory at Royal Ascot in the G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. He bowed out at the G1 Japan Cup in Tokyo, running a gallant eighth in front of thousands of fans of his late father.
Aidan O’Brien | Image courtesy of Allstar Picture Library
“He was always very highly rated from the time he was a foal at Coolmore,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said. “And when Ryan (Moore) first rode him as an early 2-year-old, he said then he was a very special horse. He connects two of the most powerful breeding lines in the world and was a pleasure to train.
“When Ryan (Moore) first rode him (Auguste Rodin) as an early 2-year-old, he said then he was a very special horse.” - Aidan O'Brien
“Physically, he fills the eye so well as he has that extra quality and movement. He’s very well balanced and very well proportioned and blessed with a big stride which is usually the sign of a very good horse.”
Unmissable opportunity for breeders
At the end of a glittering career with eight victories - six at the highest level - three countries, Auguste Rodin retires with earnings in excess of £4.95 million ($10.3 million). He defeated 21 individual Group 1 winners, who have amassed a total of 45 top flight victories between them, and offers breeders access to the lucrative Deep Impact/Galileo (Ire) cross, which performs at a strike rate of 17 per cent Group winners to runners.
Apart from a page almost entirely printed in black-type, he boasts the elite sires Galileo, Pivotal (GB), and Indian Ridge (Ire) along his damline, tying together hugely influential lines of Northern Dancer (Can) and Halo (USA). Sons of Deep Impact have produced 92 stakes winners to date worldwide; the most prolific, Kizuna (Jpn), is also out of a Northern Dancer line mare, and is responsible for 41 of that number.
Auguste Rodin (Ire) | Standing at Coolmore Stud
“Auguste Rodin is an exceptional racehorse and stallion prospect with the blend of class, speed and pedigree that only the very best possess,” said Coolmore’s MV Magnier.
“He is a very special horse for us at Coolmore, and I truly believe he ranks up there with the best racehorses and sires that we have stood here before him.
"He (Auguste Rodin) is a very special horse for us at Coolmore, and I truly believe he ranks up there with the best racehorses and sires that we have stood here before him." - MV Magnier
“We’re delighted he is going to shuttle to Windsor Park Stud to enhance his future legacy in the Southern Hemisphere.”
Standing for an introductory fee in 2025 of NZ$30,000 (plus GST), Auguste Rodin joins Shamexpress (NZ), Paddington (GB), and Circus Maximus (GB) on Windsor Park Stud's roster.
