A champion in waiting? Mighty mare Annie Power delivers her second foal

Annie Power - winner of five Grade 1s, including the 2016 Champion Hurdle - has delivered her second foal, with the colt by the 11-time champion Flat sire Galileo having arrived at Coolmore on February 11.

The new arrival is Annie Power's second Galileo colt, having produced her first foal in February last year.

That youngster is registered as having been bred by the Annie Power Partnership, with Coolmore having purchased the daughter of Shirocco shortly after she began her time as a broodmare.

The mighty mare won 15 of her 17 starts, most notably the Champion Hurdle and the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle, in which she beat My Tent Or Yours by an astonishing 18 lengths. She earned a career-best Racing Post Rating of 170 for the latter success.

Annie Power out in splendid isolation in the Aintree HurdleCredit: Edward Whitaker

Owner Rich Ricci originally sent Annie Power to Camelot – sire of the ill-fated Grade 1 winner Sir Erec – but she lost the foal and was subsequently sold to Coolmore, although Ricci will reportedly keep a share in the foal as part of the deal.

Galileo is, of course, an outstanding Flat stallion, having sired 84 top-flight winners, including the likes of Frankel, Highland Reel, Australia and Waldgeist. But a number of his Flat-bred offspring have tasted Grade 1 success over jumps, notably Cheltenham Festival heroes Celestial Halo, Supasundae and Windsor Park.

The son of Sadler's Wells also covers a chosen few National Hunt mares owned by Coolmore associates each year, just as his own sire did during his stud career.

The decision to allow Sadler's Wells to cover jumps mares led to JP McManus and his wife, Noreen, breeding homebred Gold Cup hero Synchronised.

The Galileo foals out of Annie Power are inbred 2x4 to Sadler's Wells, as she counts the late, great jumps sire Old Vic, a son of Sadler's Wells, as her maternal grandsire.

Galileo: champion Flat sire is also the source of Grade 1-winning jumpers Supasundae and Celestial HaloCredit: Patrick McCann

It is far from out of the question that Annie Power's Galileo foals could one day race on the Flat, not only owing to their sire's immense talents, but because their dam also boasts a pedigree brimming with successful turf runners.

Annie Power is out of Anno Luce, a Group 3 winner over 1m4f in Germany, which means that 1,000 Guineas heroine Billesdon Brook and her half-sister Billesdon Bess - as well as their dam, the 2,100,000gns Tattersalls December Sale top lot Coplow - appear in the second generation of her pedigree

That generation also features Jean-Luc Lagardere scorer and Irish National Stud sire National Defense, as well as Australian Group 1 scorers and sires Helmet - source of Thunder Snow - and Epaulette.

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