Sadler's Wells Influence Strong in 3-Year-Old Classics

Sadler's Wells (Coolmore Photo)

While it’s not unusual to see Northern Dancer dominating the pedigrees of stakes runners around the world, on Saturday his son Sadler’s Wells follows in his footsteps in two of the most important races for 3-year-olds in Europe – the Investec Derby and Investec Oaks.

Sadler’s Wells' sireline is responsible from every runner in the Investec Derby with all but one of those through his son Galileo’s branch. Galileo is the sire of six runners with all but one of them trained by Aidan O’Brien, who is saddling seven Derby runners in the race.

O’Brien also has one runner by Galileo’s dual-Derby winning son Australia and is the trainer of the only non-Galileo lined horse in the race in Camelot’s (Montjeu) Sir Dragonet.

Galileo son Noble Mission is pulling a double of sorts in this race with his first crop yielding both a Kentucky Derby runner (second placed Code Of Honor) and an Investec Derby runner (John Gosden’s Humanitarian).

Noble Mission isn’t the only first crop sire with runners in the race either. Australia has two runners in the race, one (Broome) trained by his own trainer Aidan O’Brien and the other (Bangkok) by Andrew Balding.

Anthony Van Dyck looks to be the top choice of Galileo's runners in the Derby

While Galileo can’t take credit for giving his sire all 13 Derby runners, his dam Urban Sea can. That one runner by Camelot is from Urban Sea’s granddaughter Sparrow, making it so every single runner in the race traces back to that legendary bluehen mare.

But before we get to the legendary achievement of Sadler’s Wells and Urban Sea on Saturday, the Oaks provides a nice warm-up a little under 24 hours earlier.

It is a similar scenario in that race with Sadler’s Wells’ sireline responsible for six of the 14 runners. Five of those runners are sired by Galileo or his son Frankel while one is sired by Sadler’s Wells grandson Camelot.

It was thought when Frankel retired that he may be his sire’s heir apparent and he's taking steps toward that in the Oaks. Galileo is the sire of two of the runners (both trained by O’Brien) while Frankel has three.

In addition to the six runners sired by Sadler’s Wells son and grandson, his sons and grandsons (and the stallion himself in one case) are the sires of five of the broodmares with runners here. 

One of Frankel’s Oaks runners, Anapurna, is out of a Montjeu mare, giving her a 3 x 3 cross to Sadler’s Wells. That cross is similar to that of 2017 Oaks winner Enable (Nathanial), who is by a Galileo son and from a Sadler’s Wells mare to give her a 3 x 2 cross to Sadler’s Wells.  

2017 Investec Oaks winner Enable is bred 3 x 2 to Sadler's Wells

The Sadler’s Wells over Danehill cross has proven to be a prolific one with 52 Group winners by Sadler’s Wells sons out of Danehill mares and 13 Group winners by his grandsons out of Danehill mares (Sadler’s Wells runners out of Danehill mares produced two Group winners).  That cross is seen a decent amount in these two races

Seven of the classic runners (six in the Derby, one in the Oaks) from Sadler’s Wells stallions are out of Danehill-lined mares with Danehill Dancer the most popular as the damsire of three of the runners. Galileo has proven to match well with his former Coolmore studmate with 12 Group winners bred on the Galileo/Danehill Dancer cross (including three Group 1 winners). That cross could produce a third classic winner with all three of those runners from Danehill Dancer mares by Galileo.

It should be noted that Frankel, who has three classic runners here, and his full brother Noble Mission are bred on the Galileo/Danehill cross that has produced 34 Group winners including 12 Group 1 winners.

In all, unless there are scratches in the races, Sadler’s Wells is responsible for sire lines or damsire lines of 23 of the 27 runners (85.18%) in the two classics.

Sadler’s Wells Derby and Oaks Runners

Runner	Race	Sire	Damsire
Anapurna	Oaks	Frankel	Montjeu
Anapurna	Oaks	Frankel	Montjeu
Anthony Van Dyck	Derby	Galileo	Exceed And Excel
Bangkok	Derby	Australia	Darshaan
Blue Gardenia	Oaks	Mastercraftsman	Galileo
Broome	Derby	Australia	Acclamation
Circus Maximus	Derby	Galileo	Danehill Dancer
Delphinia	Oaks	Galileo	Danehill Dancer
Fleeting	Oaks	Zoffany	Motivator
Frankellina	Oaks	Frankel	Shamardal
Hiroshima	Derby	Nathanial	Excellent Art
Humanitarian	Derby	Noble Mission	Dynaformer
Japan	Derby	Galileo	Danehill
Line of Duty	Derby	Galileo	Rock of Gibraltar
Madmoon	Derby	Dawn Approach	Haafhd
Maqsad	Oaks	Siyouni	Galileo
Mehdaayih	Oaks	Frankel	Gone West
Norway	Derby	Galileo	Kingmambo
Peach Tree	Oaks	Galileo	Pivotal
Pink Dogwood	Oaks	Camelot	Shamardal
Sir Dragonet	Derby	Camelot	Oasis Dream
Sovereign	Derby	Galileo	Danehill Dancer
Tauteke	Oaks	Sea the Stars	Sadler's Wells
Telecaster	Derby	New Approach	Shirocco