What Might Have Been

Royal Ascot is done and dusted for another year with the finest race meeting in the world producing another chapter of history and for Australian breeders there was one aspect of it that has left us with a vague feeling of what might have been.

One of the real talking points at Royal Ascot this year was the success of Coolmore's ill-fated super sire Scat Daddy, who sired not one but two brilliant juvenile Group winners.

His unbeaten colt Caravaggio made it three wins in as many starts when scoring a dominant two and a half length win in the Group II Coventry Stakes (6f) for the Aidan O'Brien stable.

Winning rider Ryan Moore could not have been more impressed.

"He was very impressive. I was a bit worried about the ground, but he´s won in spite of it. When he gets on better ground, he will be a better horse. At this stage he´d be the best (2yo) I´ve sat on," said Moore.

As good as Caravaggio was, his performance paled in comparison to that of Scat Daddy filly Lady Aurelia, who was in a class of her own when winning the Group II Queen Mary Stakes (5f) by seven lengths.

A homebred for Stonestreet Stables prepared in the US by Wesley Ward, Lady Aurelia had won her only previous start at Keeneland over four and a half furlongs in track record time and has speed to burn.

"It was breathtaking. To win a sprint at Royal Ascot by seven lengths - I have never seen anything like it, especially from a two-year-old," said her rider Frankie Dettori.

It was the second year in a row the Queen Mary Stakes has been won by a daughter of Scat Daddy with Wesley Ward winning the race last year with Acapulco, who was subsequently second in the Group I Nunthorpe Stakes at York.

Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia are among over 70 stakes winners sired by Scat Daddy, who was just 11 years old when he died at the end of last year in the US.

A dual Group I winner in North America, Scat Daddy was the best son of Champion 2YO Johannesburg, who made history in 2001 when winning the elite juvenile Group I events in Europe before travelling to the US where he won the Breeders Cup Juvenile on dirt at Belmont.

Johannesburg ended his two year-old season unbeaten with seven wins from seven starts in four different countries proving himself the best and toughest juvenile to have ever looked through a bridle in the Northern Hemisphere.

Johannesburg shuttled to Coolmore Australia for five seasons from 2003 – 2007 and sired Group I winners Turffontein and Once Were Wild, but his success was patchy and when Australian breeders were canvassed in 2008 as to their opinion of Scat Daddy the response was luke warm at best.

As a result, Coolmore elected to shuttle Scat Daddy to South America and the rest as they say is history.

Success was immediate for Scat Daddy, who has outperformed both his sire Johannesburg and grand-sire Hennessy.

He was Champion North American First Crop Sire in 2011, while his South American born progeny resulting from four seasons of shuttling to Chile have dominated in a way rarely seen.

His list of stakes-winners includes 17 Group I winners and at the time of his death, Scat Daddy had been advertised at a fee of $US100,000.

With 12.3 % stakes-winners to runners, Scat Daddy is clearly a sire of the highest quality and what he may have achieved here in Australia is something we shall never know.

For those breeders harbouring the thought of what might have been, Coolmore have given us a second chance with the addition of Scat Daddy's brilliant son No Nay Never (USA) to the Australian roster for 2016.