World’s Best Sire GALILEO Euthanised

12 Jul 21

GALILEO 1998 - 2021 (16.0½ hh by Sadler's Wells - Urban Sea)

Distance won over: 8f. to 12f. (1600m – 2400m)

Champion 3YO in Europe, winner of the Epsom Derby, Irish Derby & ‘King George’.

Galileo was Champion Sire twelve (12) times:

2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020.

GALILEO

At the time of his passing, he was the Sire of 338 Stakes Winners worldwide with 92 Gr.1 winners amongst these include World Champion Frankel.

Coolmore Stud Ireland issued the following press release:

Regretfully our world-renowned Champion Sire Galileo was put to sleep earlier today on humane grounds owing to a chronic, non-responsive, debilitating injury to the left fore foot.

“It is a very sad day,” said John Magnier, “but we all feel incredibly fortunate to have had Galileo here at Coolmore.

“I would like to thank the dedicated people who looked after him so well all along the way. He was always a very special horse to us, and he was the first Derby winner we had in Ballydoyle in the post M V O’Brien era.

“I would also like to thank Aidan O’Brien and his team for the brilliant job they did with him. The effect he is having on the breed through his sons and daughters will be a lasting legacy and his phenomenal success really is unprecedented.”

Following Galileo’s strikingly impressive Epsom Derby success during his racing career, the front-page headline in the Racing Post was the single word ‘PERFECTION.’

It could not have been more apt.

Bred in the purple by Sadler’s Wells out of ‘Arc’ heroine Urban Sea, he was unbeaten in his first six starts.

GALILEO in full stride

Galileo proved an immediate success at stud siring Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Nightime from his first crop.

Appropriately he became the most successful Group 1 sire of all time when his daughter Peaceful won the same race in June of last year.

His total of individual Group 1 winners continues to rise and now stands at 92, while 20 of his sons have sired Group 1 winners headed by heir apparent Frankel and Australia.

Galileo’s trainer Aidan O’Brien, who has trained more of his champion progeny than anyone, said “He was unique and we will never see the like of him again. The determination he put into his stock was something else – that’s what made him different.

O’Brien explained, "You would train a lot of horses, different types of horses who all have different traits, but very few of them, in fact none of them, put that mental trait into their horses the way Galileo did. What he put into their minds, that genuineness, was out of this world."

Starters       Winners   Wins   SW    Earnings
2306                  1587      4164   338       A$350 million
per starters   68.8%

In Australia:
469                      294          791       35    $48,376,782

GALILEO in his stable

The Team at Dynamic Syndications had the opportunity to visit GALILEO on trips to Coolmore Ireland and were able to get up close to the sire phenomenon for which we remain truly grateful to Coolmore.

Dean Watt with GALILEO

ADAM WATT visits GALILEO

Immortalised Statue of GALILEO at Coolmore Stud Ireland

Dynamic Syndications offer our sympathy to all at Coolmore Stud for the loss of the once in a lifetime horse.

With 92 Group 1 winners and genuine prospects of making that 100 in the coming years, Galileo didn’t just reach for the stars – he left a kaleidoscope of flickering lights whose brightness will burn for generations to come.

GALILEO 1998 - 2021

Worldwide Breed Shaper