'He is a magnificent horse' - Wootton Bassett to shuttle to Coolmore Australia

Wootton Bassett, who defied his minnow start at stud in France to become one of Europe’s most sought after proven stallions, will shuttle to Australia later this year, less than 12 months after coming under the ownership of the powerful Coolmore empire.

After running a teaser campaign at the weekend, Coolmore principal Tom Magnier confirmed Wootton Bassett would join the stud’s Australian roster at Jerrys Plains later this year, standing alongside the likes of fellow shuttlers Justify and American Pharoah.

“We are very excited by this opportunity to offer Australasian mare owners a proven sire of Wootton Bassett’s calibre,” said Magnier.

“He is a magnificent dark brown horse with a fabulous head and eye – a deep-girthed individual with a very good hindquarter and hip and a really good, purposeful action.

“Wootton Bassett is by a sire well known to Australasians, Iffraaj, sire already of ten Group 1 winners, five in each hemisphere, including Australian and New Zealand Group 1 winners like Jungle Cat, Jon Snow, Turn Me Loose, Gingernuts and Wyndspelle.

“We can’t wait to show Wootton Bassett off and are confident that Australasian mare owners will see him for the great opportunity and great value he represents.”

Coolmore has already announced the retirement of dual Group 1-winning two-year-old King’s Legacy to add to its southern hemisphere offering, which also features champion sire Fastnet Rock, Pierro and So You Think, who covered the highest number of mares of any stallion in Australia in 2020, with 261.

Compared by some observers to sires I Am Invincible, Encosta De Lago and Danehill Dancer for his rise from obscurity, Coolmore orchestrated the purchase of Wootton Bassett from France’s Haras d’Etreham last August.

Emerging from that first crop of just 23 foals at a fee of €6,000 was 2016 European champion three-year-old Almanzor, the Cambridge Stud shuttler whose first southern hemisphere-bred yearlings have taken all before them at the 2021 Australasian yearling sales, selling for up to $800,000 and at an average of $200,777 from 56 lots sold.

Wootton Bassett: responsible for 17 individual stakes winnersCredit: Coolmore

Wootton Bassett is also the sire of Prix Jean Romanet and 2020 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Audarya, conceived off a €4,000 fee, and Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wooded, among 17 individual stakes winners.

He is also the sire of current three-year-olds Chindit, a winner of the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster at two, and the talented Hiroo Shimizu-trained Midlife Crisis, a winner of two of his three starts in France as a juvenile.

After the deeds of his first crop on the racetrack, Wootton Bassett’s fee was increased to €20,000 for the 2017 season. In 2020, he stood for €40,000, and that was more than doubled to €100,000 this year, his first at Coolmore in Ireland.

Wootton Bassett’s sire Iffraaj shuttled to New Zealand’s Haunui Farm for 12 years, a stint which produced 27 stakes winners and came to an end in 2019 only due to Darley’s wish to protect its ageing stallion, who turned 20 at the turn of this year.

Unbeaten in five starts as a juvenile for trainer Richard Fahey, Wootton Bassett, now 13, won two valuable sales events before landing the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, a performance which saw him rated champion two-year-old colt. He is out of the European stakes-placed mare Balladonia.

At the time of Coolmore’s private acquisition of Wootton Bassett, Haras d’Etreham’s Nicolas de Chambure said: “It has been an amazing journey, a real pleasure and a great pride for everybody at Etreham to be involved in Wootton Bassett’s stud career as he established himself as the most exciting up-and-coming sire in Europe.

“With his best-bred crops yet to run, I have no doubt that he has a brilliant future ahead of him, and the quality of the broodmare band at Coolmore will give him a wonderful opportunity to continue his upward trajectory."

A fee for Wootton Bassett will be released at a later date.

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