Fastnet To The Fore With Big Weekend

The first time that Fastnet Rock (Aus) (Danehill) came to the British Isles was a damp squib. He arrived in Abington Place Stables in Newmarket's Bury Road in May 2005 with a big reputation, a champion Australian sprinter seemingly set to dominate Royal Ascot just as his compatriot and erstwhile stablemate Choisir (Aus) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) had done two years previously. Disappointingly, an illness picked up in transit scuppered European racing plans for the magnificent bay colt, and he returned home, the trip wasted.

For a while it seemed as if his subsequent European forays might also be in vain. He first ventured north to Coolmore Stud in Ireland in 2010, but the early results in 2013 and 2014 of his Irish-conceived offspring were not particularly impressive. However, we now know that those early clues were misleading. He now ranks as one of the most successful stallions in Europe. Big-race results from last weekend's feast of high-class racing in the British Isles have provided the latest reminder of this fact.

Operating in conjunction with Arrowfield, Coolmore turned Australian breeding on its head by shuttling Danehill (Danzig) to New South Wales from the spring of 1990 onwards. The bright bay stallion was an instant success and has gone on to show that he was as notable a sire of sires as he was of racehorses. It soon became clear that Danehill would be starting his own branch of the Northern Dancer (Nearctic) sireline, and both Coolmore and Arrowfield wisely made sure that they were in the vanguard of its promotion. Danehill Dancer (Ire) was one of Danehill's first stars, and he proved a great success in both hemispheres for Coolmore, who bought into his imposing chestnut son Choisir (Aus) once his merit was becoming clear. By scoring twice at Royal Ascot in 2003, Choisir–already the winner of the G1 Lightning S. at Flemington–became an international star, qualified to stand for Coolmore in both hemispheres and to lead the charge of the reverse shuttlers. Understandably, Choisir's success prompted Coolmore to patronise Paul Perry's stable further. Happily, the team struck gold again, courtesy of the mighty Fastnet Rock.

Fastnet Rock basically raced only in sprints, his only start beyond 1400 metres coming in the G1 Caulfield Guineas, in which he finished midfield. Over shorter distances he was superb. In the 2003/2004 season he was one of the stars of a very strong crop of juveniles, a generation headed by the terrific gelding Dance Hero (Aus) (Danzero {Aus}). Although failing to win in his first season, Fastnet Rock did well enough to earn a start in the G1 Golden Slipper S., in which he finished fourth, beaten only a length behind Dance Hero (whom he had already chased home in the G3 Skyline S.), Charge Forward (Aus) (Red Ransom) and Alinghi (Aus) (Encosta De Lago {Aus}). Seven days later he was again placed behind Dance Hero, this time in the G1 AJC Sires' Produce S.

It was always on the cards that, as such a big horse, Fastnet Rock would improve from two to three, assuming that he stayed sound. There turned out to be no worries on that score. Fastnet Rock was kept even busier as a 3-year-old, running 12 times. Through the 2004/2005 season he proved himself to be everything that a top-class sprinter should be: very fast, very sound, very tough, very genuine. His duels with the brilliant filly Alinghi were a feature of the season. She chased him home in his first top-level victory when they filled the quinella in the G1 Lightning S. at weight-for-age over the straight 1000 metres at Flemington. Their positions were reversed when they next met, the kilo which the handicapper had allowed her proving decisive when she had his measure in the G1 Newmarket H. up the 'straight six.' In between these races, Fastnet Rock had been given the rare honour for a 3-year-old of carrying top weight in the G1 Oakleigh Plate over 1100 metres at Caulfield, a task to which he rose magnificently by registering a brave and brilliant victory.

Although Fastnet Rock only raced for those two seasons, he fully proved his class, soundness and honesty in these busy campaigns, finishing in the first three in 15 of his 19 starts and registering all of his six wins in group races. As strong and handsome as he was well-performed, he was clearly a mouth-watering stud prospect, and duly took up duties at Coolmore's Jerrys Plain property in New South Wales in September 2005 after returning from his abortive mission to the UK.

Fastnet Rock did well from the outset in Australia. His eldest offspring were still aged only five when he became Champion Sire of the 2011/2012 season, largely thanks to the Classic-winning fillies Atlantic Jewel (Aus) and Mosheen (Aus). Even so, it had been a brave move to bring him to Ireland in 2010. Although that was merely six years ago, the reverse-shuttle system was still not nearly as well accepted then as it is now, even though the previous year Scenic Blast (Aus) (Scenic {Ire}) had become the fourth VRC Lightning S. winner to take the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot in seven years, emphasising yet again the merit of Australian sprinting form. A point in Fastnet Rock's favour was that Exceed And Excel (Aus) (Danehill) was already doing very well in Britain despite, like Fastnet Rock, having done all his winning Down Under.

At first, though, Fastnet Rock did not make the impression which Coolmore might have hoped. Although he had been both a quick-maturing horse and a very fast one, he was turning out not to be a particular influence for precocity or sprinting. Many of his stock (often big, powerful horses in their sire's image) were showing that they needed a bit of time to develop, a bit of distance over which to race, and often some ease in the ground to show their very best form. However, we now know that, while Fastnet Rock is not the dead-set fountain of precocious sprinters that some might have assumed, he is something much better than that: as his father was before him, he is an influence for class.

Although a sprinter who sired many good sprinters, Danehill achieved greatness because he could sire top-class horses right across the distance spectrum, including the likes of G1 Derby S. winner North Light (Ire), G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Dylan Thomas (Ire), G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Westerner (GB) and G1 VRC Derby winner Nothin' Leica Dane (Aus). Fastnet Rock comes from a very fast family. His dam, Piccadilly Circus (Aus) (Royal Academy), was placed in the G1 Blue Diamond S. over 1200 metres as a juvenile and his granddam, Gatana (Aus) (Marauding {NZ}), finished second in the G1 Newmarket H. in 1994, just as her grandson did 11 years later. But the blending of this damline–the stallions in which include the outstanding sources of high-class stamina Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) and Twig Moss (Fr) (Luthier {Ire})–with Danehill has produced a horse who is as able to sire Classic horses as well as sprinters.

Last year was a wonderful one in Europe for Fastnet Rock and this year is shaping up in similar fashion. The stallion is now responsible for 23 individual Group 1 winners, victors collectively of 32 Group 1 races (27 in Australasia, five in the British Isles). The distances of these wins range from the 1200 metres of the Group 1 victories of high-class sprinters such as Sea Siren (Aus), Wanted (Aus) and Foxwedge (Aus) to the 2500 metres of the G1 VRC Oaks victory of Mosheen (Aus), the 12 furlongs of the G1 Oaks S. success of Qualify (Ire) and the 2200 metres of the G1 Queensland Derby triumph of Magicool (Aus).

As we observe so often, a pedigree with Danehill on one side and Galileo (Ire) and/or his sire Sadler's Wells (Northern Dancer) on the other can be a stunning recipe for success. There has been a plentiful supply of Galileo/Sadler's Wells mares available to Fastnet Rock at Coolmore. He came up with three group winners during the recent big weekend of racing in the British Isles: G1 Moyglare Stud S. heroine Intricately (Ire) at the Curragh, G2 Champagne S. winner Rivet (Ire) at Doncaster, and G3 Kilternan S. winner Zhukova (Ire) at Leopardstown. All are from Galileo mares, as were last year's Classic winners Qualify (Ire) and Magicool (Aus); while 2015 G1 Matron S. winner Diamondsandrubies (Ire) is from a daughter of Sadler's Wells.

For the bloodstock world in general and for Coolmore in particular, Sadler's Wells and Danehill were the gifts that kept on giving. They continue posthumously to give, very often in tandem, and Fastnet Rock is turning out to be one of the principal facilitators of their shared bounty.