Coolmore have announced sad news overnight with the passing of their legendary sire Galileo at age 23.
Regretfully our world-renowned Champion Sire Galileo was put to sleep earlier today on humane grounds owing to a chronic, non-responsive, debilitating injury to the left fore foot.
“It is a very sad day but we all feel incredibly fortunate to have had Galileo here at Coolmore,” said John Magnier.
“I would like to thank the dedicated people who looked after him so well all along the way. He was always a very special horse to us and he was the first Derby winner we had in Ballydoyle in the post M V O’Brien era.
“I would also like to thank Aidan and his team for the brilliant job they did with him. The effect he is having on the breed through his sons and daughters will be a lasting legacy and his phenomenal success really is unprecedented.”
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It could not have been more apt.
Bred in the purple by Sadler’s Wells out of ‘Arc’ heroine Urban Sea and unbeaten in his first six starts, Galileo proved an immediate success at stud siring Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Nightime from his first crop.
Appropriately he became the most successful Group 1 sire of all time when his daughter Peaceful won the same race in June of last year.
His total of individual Group I winners now stands at 91 while no less than 20 of his sons have sired Group I winners on the flat, headed by Frankel and Australia with his champion younger son Churchill headed to Coolmore Australia this spring.
His broodmare daughters have produced 206 stakes-winners worldwide highlighted by 34 Group I winners including this year’s star European 3YO’s St Mark’s Basilica and Snowfall.
