Breeding analysis: Al Riffa huge winner for Wootton Basset

By Laura Joy

Horse Racing

Sun September 18, 2022 · 2y ago

Laura Joy looks at the pedigree of Al Riffa and why his National Stakes win may be very significant for the Coolmore team.

With every Group One that ticks by, there are naturally pedigree pointers to ponder.

We look to measure up their influence on the future of the breed and the market as well as the impact on the current season. Champion sire, the next Mehmas or 6,000,000 guineas sales topper Marsha, or perhaps a future star of the stallion ranks? Some results can have a magnitude of influence, some less so but last Sunday at the Curragh one winner gave us a glimpse into the not-so-distant future.

It's subjective, but it’s difficult to oppose the belief that nobody on this planet understands the stallion making business quite like Mr. John Magnier. From sourcing breed shapers like Storm Bird on the first transatlantic journeys to Keeneland, to revolutionising the way a stallion’s career is managed it’s well established that when Coolmore speak, you listen.

When the purchase of young French sire Wootton Bassett was announced in August 2020, the bloodstock world sat up and did just that. It will be 2024 before the bold move will be put to the ultimate test but a colt trained by an O’Brien you wouldn’t expect, out of a Galileo mare who is not part of the esteemed families with whom he is typically associated, laid down a serious marker as to what is to come.

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The significance of Al Riffa’s Group One National Stakes success is impossible to pinpoint to one triumph. A first Group One for his young talented jockey Dylan Brown McGonagle and another to add to the burgeoning young trainer Joseph O’Brien’s growing list, there was much to be celebrated for the future of Irish racing.

Most notably though from a pedigree perspective, this was Wootton Bassett’s first stakes winner out of a Galileo mare, never mind the fact it came in a Group One. And get this, he was bred at least 12 months before any moves were made to relocate his exciting sire from France to Ireland.

Al Riffa was a €31,000 foal purchase in December 2020 and therefore sold after Coolmore announced their vote of confidence in his sire. A yearling price of 150,000gns indicates a marked improvement or perhaps the market itself waking up to Wootton Bassett’s capabilities.

His first crop yielded European champion three-year-old Almanzor from just 23 foals and a €6000 fee, whilst Breeders’ Cup winner Audarya was bred from his fourth crop, notoriously a stallion’s weakest. His ascension from a career low of €4000 to a French career high of €40,000 promised enough, but not as much as his six figure Irish-bred crops.

The significance of a sire moving to a farm like Coolmore is near immeasurable. Access to some of the best mares in the world as well as a vast client base of esteemed breeders. Replacing or filling the void left by the ineffable Galileo is probably impossible and finding a suitable mate for his multitude of esteemed daughters is almost insurmountable.

On the basis of Al Riffa’s bedazzling National Stakes success, it looks as though they have done just that. The importance of Wootton Bassett adding another Group One winner to his record is one thing, but to do so with a once inexpensive colt (€31,000 foal remember) out of a Galileo mare who was sold for €11,000 at the same sale? Now it’s really time to sit up and take note.

Credit to Al Riffa’s dam Love On My Mind where it’s due, she has depth to her pedigree. She is a full sister to the Luca Cumani-trained stayer Mizzou who was second in the Gold Cup and won the Group Three Sagaro Stakes twice. Their dam Moments Of Joy is by Darshaan, widely recognised as one of the finest broodmare sires around.

Send a Darshaan mare to Galileo and you have gone some way to increasing your chances of breeding an above average thoroughbred. But remember, she went through the ring for just €11,000. It doesn’t take an expert to recognise that a fully booked stallion standing for €100,000 and subsequently €150,000 is not going to receive many if any, who are valued so low.

We’ve seen the 2021 Return Of Mares (Weatherbys) and the calibre of mares Wootton Bassett received would take another article to document. From Group One winners like Clemmie (Galileo), Found (Galileo) and Was (Galileo) to the dams of Audarya, Harry Angel and Zoustar, if it wasn’t there in black and white you wouldn’t believe the depth of quality. Arguably the most exciting could be a Wootton Bassett half-brother to Oaks winner Snowfall, out of the Group 3 winning Galileo mare Best In The World.

To think that Al Riffa began his life from relatively humble beginnings in comparison to the current crop of foals and what is to come from Ireland is inconceivable. Given the inevitable gap between purchasing Wootton Bassett and reaping the rewards of such exceptionally well-bred foals, momentum could be forgiven for waning. Thanks to Al Riffa, Wootton Bassett’s name is back in the headlines once again.

The Wootton Bassett – Galileo match now looks made in heaven more than ever before.

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