Galileo cleans up at the Cartiers without winning a single award

The Dorchester in Mayfair played host to the 27th Cartier Awards on Tuesday evening, a lavish ceremony that aims to reward examples of excellence from the European racing scene over the previous 12 months.

The event has been dubbed by the organisers as ‘European racing’s equivalent of the Oscars’, yet a horse who played a leading role in the 2017 Flat season did not win a single award.

Enable took centre stage on the night and deservedly claimed two prizes, but it seems an oversight that Galileo’s considerable impact on proceedings – not to mention the 2017 season as a whole – was not honoured.

Of the seven horses who accounted for the eight awards, he featured in the first two generations of no fewer than six of the winners.

First and foremost Galileo figured as the sire of three winners, namely Coral-Eclipse and Juddmonte International hero Ulysses (Older Horse), Moyglare Stud Stakes and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere heroine Happily (Two-Year-Old Filly) and Irish St Leger victor Order Of St George, who landed the Stayers’ prize for a second consecutive year.

That trio were joined by Enable (Horse of the Year, Three-Year-Old Filly) and Cracksman (Three-Year-Old Colt), who are from the first crop of Nathaniel and Frankel respectively, both of whom are sons of Galileo. Also Middle Park and Dewhurst Stakes winner US Navy Flag, who scooped the Two-Year-Old Colt prize, is out Galileo’s four-time Group 1-winning daughter Misty For Me.

The only winner on the evening whose pedigree is Galileo-free was Harry Angel, the Godolphin-owned son of Dark Angel who was given the gong for leading sprinter.

These results serve as a near-perfect microcosm for the upper echelons of the racing world, with the progeny of Galileo dominating, his sire sons right at the forefront of the next generation of super stallions and his daughters proving their worth all over again as exceptional producers.

After all the consternation over the vanquished Arrogate topping the Longines-sponsored World’s Best Racehorse chart, the Cartier awards threw up a set of results it seems we can all agree on.

It does seem rather odd, though, that this highly prestigious event could not find a share of the spotlight for the one horse responsible for both the protagonists and a more than able supporting cast.

2017 CARTIER RACING AWARDS

Cartier Horse of the Year Enable owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah
Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt US Navy Flag
Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly Happily
Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt Cracksman
Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly Enable
Cartier Sprinter Harry Angel
Cartier Stayer Order Of St George
Cartier Older Horse Ulysses
Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit Sir Michael Stoute

If you enjoyed this you may also like...

Breeders' Cup Sprint hero gives Gittins mare a significant update

How Trump's publicity shy friend Brant has spent big but said little

Big talent from small money paves the way for Clive Cox's success