Galileo up to 70 not out with a first Group 1 winner over six furlongs

A landmark 70th winner at the highest level for the mighty Galileo on Saturday broke new ground as his first at a distance under seven furlongs. He now stands just three short of the record set by his own sire Sadler's Wells.

It is a measure of the Coolmore champion that he could disclose a fresh dimension of his class in his 16th year at stud. Much of the speed shown by Clemmie, who matched her granddam Airwave by winning the Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket, must of course be credited to his fast dam Meow. With time, it has become ever more evident that the stamina imparted to Galileo by Sadler's Wells can be profitably balanced by partners with pace. The ultimate model was provided by Frankel, whose dam was a Listed winner over five and six furlongs.

Meow and Galileo, remarkably, have now shared three Group 1 wins over the Rowley Mile in 12 months – Clemmie's full brother Churchill having won the Dewhurst here last autumn, and the 2,000 Guineas in the spring.

A Listed winner at the minimum trip, over which she was also beaten only a neck in the Queen Mary, Meow is by that top-notch broodmare sire Storm Cat out of Airwave. In addition to her own Cheveley Park success, the latter was just foiled by Choisir in the Golden Jubilee Stakes. A 12,000gns yearling picked out by Henry Candy at Doncaster, she was eventually sold to Coolmore for 550,000gns.

Airwave's family is all speed. A half-sister to ill-fated Nunthorpe winner Jwala, her first three dams all won over five furlongs; the third, moreover, was a half-sister to the zippy Clantime. Remarkably, Airwave's granddam only gained admission to the General Stud Book in the 1980s, before which several members of the family were designated non-thoroughbred.

Galileo's 69th elite winner had emerged overnight in Australia, where his own brief shuttle career gave little indication of the achievements that awaited in the northern hemisphere.

Foundry, winner of the Metropolitan Stakes at Randwick, had started his career with his sire's trainer at Ballydoyle and finished fifth in the 2013 St Leger.

Gelded since his export to Australia, he will be unable to exploit his new status as a Group 1 winner at stud – a pity, in view of the fact that his dam, Dixieland Band's Las Virgenes Stakes winner Sharp Lisa, also won at that level; and is a half-sister to Donn Handicap winner Spring At Last. Their dam is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Bien Bien.

War Front's Middle Park 1-2

With so many sons and daughters of Galileo on their books, the Coolmore confederates have been trying to find potent outcross options. They have staked as much on War Front as any sire, and been rewarded with some outstanding juvenile performers in particular.

A Group 1 exacta in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes extended that profile, U S Navy Flag pulling clear with Fleet Review.

U S Navy Flag heads a Middle Park 1-2 for War FrontCredit: Mark Cranham

Just like Clemmie, U S Navy Flag was also matching a three-year-old sibling in contributing to their trainer's Group 1 haul in 2017. Roly Poly won the Falmouth Stakes and Prix Rothschild within a fortnight in July. She was only beaten in a photo for the Cheveley Park on this card last year.

Their dam is one of the many Galileo mares who needed a partner like War Front. Misty For Me was one of the top juvenile fillies of 2010, winning the Moyglare and the Marcel Boussac; and trained on well to win the Irish 1,000 Guineas and the Pretty Polly at the Curragh. She finished her career when beaten just three-quarters of length into third in the Filly & Mare Turf at the Breeders' Cup.

Misty For Me was bred on the same cross as Clemmie, by Galileo out of a Storm Cat mare. Her dam was an unraced half-sister to an outstanding juvenile in Fasliyev, out of a half-sister to two Grade 1 winners in Desert Wine and Menifee.

Since Misty For Me, she has produced another very smart operator via Galileo in Ballydoyle, runner-up to Minding in the 1,000 Guineas last year after matching her sister's Marcel Boussac success the previous autumn.

Kitten's Joy shines in European shop window

The other juvenile Group race on the card went to a colt from the El Prado line, which has done so much to extend the influence of Galileo's sire across the Atlantic.

As it happens, the owner of Kitten's Joy – sire of Roaring Lion, winner of the Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes – has been talking of exporting him to Europe, having been disgusted by the prices paid for his stock at Keeneland earlier this month.

It was at the same sale last year that Roaring Lion was picked out by David Redvers for $160,000. He is the first foal of the Street Sense mare Vionnet, who was third in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes.

Kitten's Joy, leading turf sire in the US for the past four years, completed a Group 2 double when Taareef won the Qatar Prix Daniel Wildenstein at Chantilly. He, too, is a Keeneland graduate – albeit he cost Shadwell rather more at the 2014 auction, at $675,000.