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Three-time Group 1-winning son of Galileo joins New Zealand-based farm’s roster for 2021 breeding season
Three-time Group 1 winner Circus Maximus (Galileo) will shuttle to Windsor Park stud in New Zealand for the 2021 season.
The son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) - who has just covered his first book of mares at Coolmore in Ireland - was a model of consistency throughout his career, in which his five victories were headed by wins in the 2019 St James's Palace Stakes (Gr 1, 1m), Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (Gr 1, 1600m) and last season’s Queen Anne Stakes (Gr 1, 1m). He signed off his career with a good second place in the Breeders' Cup Mile (Gr 1, 8f) last November.
A winner of five of his 17 starts, Circus Maximus retired with prize-money earnings of £1,494,375.
“Circus Maximus is a very special racehorse with all the right credentials to make into a successful sire and we’re very proud to have secured him," said Windsor Park owner Rodney Schick.
“He performed in the highest company as a two, three and four-year-old, is a Champion Miler and triple Group 1 winner and has superior genetics matched with a great physique. Boxes ticked."
Bred by the Niarchos Family’s Flaxman Stables, who also raced the colt in partnership with Coolmore, Circus Maximus, the first foal out of the Flaxman Stables-owned mare Duntle (Danehill Dancer), who won twice at Royal Ascot for David Wachman, with her first victory coming in the Sandringham Handicap (Listed, 1m) in 2012 and she took out the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (Gr 2, 1m) the following year.
Duntle herself is out of the regally-bred Lady Angola (Lord At War), who is in turn a sister to Listed winner Lovat’s Lady - the dam of fellow Listed winner Chetten County (Giant’s Causeway).
Meanwhile, Lady Angola is a three-quarter sister to Grade 1 winners Honor In War and La Gueriere - the latter producing the Grade 2 winner Last Approval (With Approval) and Grade 1 winner Icon Project (Empire Maker), herself the dam of Fashion Business (Frankel).
Lady Angola’s other three-quarter siblings include Listed winner Lord Of Warriors and Lady Lochinvar - the dam of Grade 2 winner Master Command (A.P. Indy), Grade 3 winner Aurora Lights (Pulpit) and Listed scorer Street Lad (Street Cry).
Furthermore, the colt’s fourth dam is Lady Winborne (Secretariat), the dam of Grade 1 winner Al Mamoon (Believe It), Group 3 winner Lost Soldier (Danzig) and Born Wild (Wild Again), while the page also features Grade 2 winner Munnings (Speightstown).
A fee for the stallion will be announced in the coming weeks.