Group I Australian mares Nechita and Mossfun have produced winners in the Northern Hemisphere in recent weeks and we can add 2014 Group I MRC Thousand Guineas winner Amicus to the list after her three year-old Galileo colt Okita Soushi won on debut in Ireland at the end of last week.
Trained by Joseph O’Brien for Japanese owner Toshihiro Matsumoto, the Coolmore bred Okita Soushi opened his account with a four and a half length maiden win at Fairyhouse over 1m4f.
He is the first foal of Fastnet Rock’s royally bred Group I winner Amicus, who retired in 2016 with five wins and over $800,000 in prizemoney and was sent to stud in Ireland.
A $500,000 Magic Millions purchase for Chris Waller Racing, she ran for a syndicate of stable clients proving an outstanding investment.
Amicus is a half-sister to stakes-winner Cheer Leader from a stakes-placed half-sister to world champion sprinter and Group I sire Starspangledbanner.
She has a two year-old filly by Galileo called Peach Blossom to follow Okita Soushi.
The success of Fastnet Rock over daughters of Galileo has been well documented, but we thought it was worth a look to see how it’s working in reverse with Galileo over daughters of Fastnet Rock.
The results are certainly encouraging with 11 winners from 16 runners, those winners including three stakes-winners – all Group winners – High Definition, Innisfree , Russian Emperor – the stakes-winner to runner strike rate coming in at nearly 19% stakes-winners to runners.
Those stats are comparable to the reverse of Fastnet Rock over Galileo mares which runs at 20% stakes-winners to runners.
