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New sires: £/€75,000-£/€30,000
WITH NO retirees to Dalham Hall Stud, Juddmonte Farms or Whitsbury Manor Stud for 2025, it means that there are only four new sires standing in Britain with the three-time Group 1 sprint winner Bradsell the highest on a Timeform rating of 124.
His rating is level with Coolmore’s new sire Auguste Rodin, the middle-distance running son of Deep Impact. He was a winner of six Group and Grade 1 races.
The Derby winner City Of Troy, who was voted Timeform’s Horse Of The Year, is the only retiree in the 130s and, with the small “p” by his name too it indicates that the ratings company thinks there was more to come from him on the track.
CITY OF TROY
Justify-Together Forever (Galileo) Coolmore
€75,000
Europe’s champion two and three-year-old is the most expensive new stallion on the continent for 2025 at €75,000, and the first son of unbeaten Triple Crown hero Justify to retire to stud on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean.
A Coolmore homebred out of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Together Forever, City Of Troy attracted superlatives from the very start of his career with a winning debut over 6f at The Curragh on Irish Derby weekend.
Just two weeks later he was pitched straight in to Group company for the Superlative Stakes (G2) at Newmarket’s July meeting and he was successful to stunning effect, drawing more than 6l clear of Haatem inside the final furlong.
He did not run again until the Dewhurst, but the effect was remarkably similar with an easy success in the Group 1 contest to end the season officially rated 118 and drawing comparisons from connections to all-time greats.
A baffling run in the 2,000 Guineas on his seasonal reappearance was banished next time out in the Derby when, on his first and only try at 1m4f, he was sensational, easily defeating Ambiente Friendly and subsequent Irish Derby hero Los Angeles, with Aidan O’Brien proclaiming him the best of his ten Derby winners.
Despite initial murmours from Ballydoyle that he might travel stateside in August, he followed the Sea The Stars route for his next two starts and, like that great champion, was victorious in both the Eclipse and Juddmonte International with the latter one of the best races of the season.
City Of Troy made the running and lowered Sea The Stars’ track record by a second.
As a son of a Dirt champion and connections with an eye on stallion potential and versatility, that York performance was City Of Troy’s last in Europe as the Breeders’ Cup Classic beckoned but a slow start caused him to be mired in kick back and he finished mid-division.
Officially rated at 125 and celebrated as the Cartier Horse of the Year, City Of Troy retires to stud as one of seven individual Group 1 winners by Justify. From the second crop of Coolmore’s American giant, he is one of four members of that generation to win at the highest level as a juvenile with the Group 2-placed Ramatuelle and European champion two-year-old filly Opera Singer also winning Group 1s at three.
His dam is a full-sister to the Oaks winner Forever Together and a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat and Lennox Stakes winner Lord Shanakill by Speightstown.
Together Forever has produced five winners, all of whom have earned blacktype with the Group 3 Tyros Stakes winner Military Style (War Front) and City Of Troy’s year older full-brother Bertinelli, who was third in the Hong Kong Group 3Queen Mother Memorial Cup, two of her better performers until City Of Troy emerged.
City Of Troy retires to stud as one of seven individual Group 1 winners by Justify
City Of Troy is one of seven stakes winners from 32 runners by Justify out of Galileo mares with the others including the dual Grade 2 winner Buchu and the Group 3 Snow Fairy Stakes winner Red Riding Hood.
Those nicks that have worked for Galileo will apply here as will those that have worked well in Europe with Justify’s sire Scat Daddy such as Danehill Dancer, Street Cry and Oasis Dream. The US broodmare sires who
have done well with runners in Europe include Holy Bull, who produced Caravaggio, while Lady Aurelia was out of a mare by Forest Wildcat and Skitter Scatter was out of a Street Cry mare.
CHARYN
Dark Angel-Futoon (Kodiac) Sumbe
€35,000
A seriously exciting addition to the European sire scene for this year is Sumbe’s brilliant older miler Charyn, a son of the reigning British and Irish champion sire Dark Angel and part of the success story for the O’Callaghan family who bred Dark Angel and stand him at Yeomanstown Stud.
Guy O’Callaghan’s Grangemore Stud also bred Charyn.
The now five-year-old Charyn is out of the Listed-placed Kodiac mare Futoon and was bought for 250,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 by Nurlan Bizakov’s stud farm enterprise just days after his year older fullbrother Wings Of War won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes.
Sent into training with Roger Varian, Charyn made a winning debut over 6f at Haydock in August 2022 and was third to Sakheer in the Mill Reef Stakes (G2) before getting up late to win the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte.
As a three-year-old, he was a high-class performer at a mile. His seasonal debut saw him finish runner-up to Isaac Shelby in the Greenham Stakes (G3) and then he took third behind Paddington in both the St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) and the Sussex Stakes (G1). He was also third again at Goodwood to another Sumbe stallion and son of Dark Angel – Angel Blue – in the Group 2 Celebration Mile over the Sussex course and distance.
Charyn thrived at four, and came into his own last season as a top-class miler making a successful seasonal reappearance in the Listed Doncaster Mile at Doncaster, his first win since his juvenile Group success.
He then claimed a mile Group 2 at Sandown and then only lost out to an audacious run by Audience in the Lockinge Stakes (G1).
At Royal Ascot, he earned a deserved breakthrough Group 1 triumph in the Queen Anne and followed that up with victory in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois over Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) winner Metropolitan.
He split Tribalist and Henry Longfellow in the Prix du Moulin (G1) and, then returning to Ascot, he triumphed in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
His final run came in a bold bid for glory in Japan in the Grade 1 Mile Championship at Kyoto, in which he finished a brave fifth.
That was one of just two runs in his 19-race career in which he failed to finish in the first two, the stallion demonstrating tenacity, consistency and soundness over three seasons.
Charyn retired as the winner of seven of his 19 starts, and he was placed in eight more runs.
His full-sister was bought by Sumbe for 850,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 in 2023, while their 2024 yearling full-sister was bought by Godolphin for 2,900,000gns at Book 1 last October.
Futoon, a two-time winner at two, is a precious broodmare for the O’Callaghans and the best of four winners out of Vermilliann, herself a winning Mujadil full-sister to Galeota, another member of the family to be successful in the Mill Reef.
Charyn is one of 17 individual Group 1 winners from 65 Group winners and 108 black-type winners sired by Dark Angel, himself a Mill Reef Stakes and Middle Park Stakes winner.
Dark Angel has been successful with a wide-range of broodmare sires – his 17 Group 1 winners are by 16 different stallions.
AUGUSTE RODIN
Deep Impact-Rhododendron (Galileo) Coolmore
€30,000
Auguste Rodin is another impeccably bred Derby winner to join the Coolmore line-up and, like City Of Troy, his dam is a Group 1 winner by Galileo.
Auguste Rodin bears a striking resemblance to his grandsire, Deep Impact’s breed-shaping sire Sunday Silence, and the five-year-old combines two of the most globally influential bloodlines of the past four decades in his pedigree, making him of enormous interest and importance as a stallion prospect.
Auguste Rodin was a Group 1 winner at two, three and four marking him out as a top-class performer and his talent was evident from the get-go, despite failing to win on his debut at The Curragh over 7f.
He corrected that when successful at odds-on in a Naas maiden on his second start, winning by 7l. He was next seen at Leopardstown at the Irish Champions’ Festival where he won the Group 2 Golden Fleece Stakes.
Auguste Rodin ended that first season with three wins from four starts, the final victory coming in the Group 1 Futurity Trophy at Doncaster.
Something of an enigma at three and four, Auguste Rodin set the template that City Of Troy would follow a year later when inexplicably disappointing in the 2,000 Guineas only to resurrect in the Derby when he outstayed King Of Steel to claim Epsom glory.
Auguste Rodin was a Group 1 winner at two, three and four
He added the Irish Derby to his CV, but ran no sort of race in the King George (G1) behind Hukum. He produced a comeback win in the Irish Champion Stakes (G1), beating the Group 1 winners Luxembourg and Nashwa. His fifth top-level victory came in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) at Santa Anita.
Kept in training at four, he made a disappointing seasonal reappearance in the Dubai World Cup (G1) before finishing second to White Birch in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (G1) at The Curragh.
He showed determination and resolution to defeat Zarakem in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (G1) at the Royal meeting, but disappointed in Ascot’s mid-season highlight, for the second season in succession.
He returned to form once more at Leopardstown where his bid to join Dylan Thomas and Magical (a full-sister to his dam) as dual winners of the Irish Champion Stakes was thwarted by Economics. He finished his career when eighth in the Japan Cup (G1), but beaten less than 5l by Do Deuce.
Auguste Rodin retires to stud as the winner of eight of his 16 starts with a trio of seconds also on his list of accomplishments.
Bred on the same cross as Classic winners Saxon Warrior and Snow Fall, Auguste Rodin is one of seven stakes winners from 45 runners bred this way and he is the only foal of racing age so far out of the triple Group 1 winner Rhododendron.
Like her son, she was successful at Group 1 level in each of her three seasons to race winning the Fillies’ Mile (G1) at two, the Prix de l’Opera (G1) as a three-year-old and the Lockinge Stakes (G1) at four. She was also second in the 1,000 Guineas (G1) and the Oaks (G1) to Winter and Enable respectively.
Rhododendron is a full-sister to the seventime Group 1 winner Magical, whose first foal is the Dubawi filly Ballet Slippers, who finished third in the Fillies’ Mile last season.
They are out of the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Nassau and Sun Chariot Stakes winner Halfway To Heaven, who is also the dam of Group 3 winner Flying The Flag (Galileo).
A daughter of Pivotal, Halfway To Heaven is a half-sister to Tickled Pink, the dam of Saxon Warrior’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road.
Another of her half-sisters is the Group 3 Summer Stakes winner Theann, dam of the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes winner Photo Call by Galileo.
Auguste Rodin’s third dam is the Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes winner Cassandra Go, a brilliant broodmare by Indian Ridge and a half-sister to the Group 2 Coventry Stakes winner and sire Verglas.
