Overshadowed by his remarkable paternal half-brother Galileo as a sire, there can no denying the fact that deceased Arc winner Montjeu was a truly exceptional stallion in his own right
Capri’s win in Saturday’s Gr1 William Hill St Leger at Doncaster completed a clean-sweep of the 2017 English and Irish classics for male line descendants of Sadler’s Wells
He will need to forge a significant career both on the track and at stud to repay his €2.85m price tag as a yearling but he could not have made a more polished start
It is time to look at the leading sires and promising, up and coming sires whose progeny should be worth watching in 2014.
Following the running of Britain’s oldest classic, the Ladbrokes St Leger, focus fell firmly on the late, great stallion Montjeu. His son won the Leger, and gave his sire in the process his third winner of the race.
SARAH WHITELAW: Montjeu described as an “eccentric genius” died at 16 years at Coolmore
Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith paid 900,000gns for the sale-topper 13 year old Ventura by Spectrum
SARAH WHITELAW: Good runs from River Jetez, Mahbooba, Musir; G1 double for Spectrum daughters; Jet Master improving
SARAH WHITELAW: Coolmore stand the two most successful classic sires in the world today, in the form of Montjeu and Galileo. But which is the better stallion?
Montjeu and his fellow star at Coolmore, Galileo, are firmly entrenched as the two best classic stallions in Europe. This year, the first two home in the English Derby were Pour Moi and Treasure Beach (by Galileo).
Ironically, it was a colt which provided Alan with a first Gr1 success, this being Alec and Gillian Foster’s homebred Cereus, who landed the 2001 Gold Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville, his victory completing a momentous double on the day, with the Gr2 Golden Slipper having gone the way of juvenile filly Tatler, a great-great-great grandaughter of Sun Lass!
JP van der Merwe is not the only guilty party in the matter. In simple terms, he is the only rider to have exercised the NHA’s offer of an Acknowledgement Of Guilt and moved on with his life
Andrew Fortune made it three winners on the Family Day public holiday as Tenango breezed home to win the Gr3 feature
The son of Master Of My Fate will likely side-step stablemate Eight On Eighteen in the Daily News and go via the Greyville 1900 and Cup Trial into the big one on 5 July
