When Australian broodmare owners headed to the Hunter Valley stallion parades in 2002 they had the privilege of seeing Epsom Derby winner Galileo at Coolmore in his first Australian season at stud and the champion son of Sadler’s Wells clocked up his 100th Group I winner at York overnight when three year-old filly Content won the Yorkshire Oaks.
Continuing a hot run of success for the Ballydoyle team, the Aidan O’Brien trained Content had been working up to a win with placings in the Group I Irish Oaks and Pretty Polly Stakes at her two previous starts.
Ridden a positive race by Ryan Moore, Content was too strong at the finish kicking on to win by three-quarters of a length over another three year=old filly You Got to Me (Nathaniel) with seasoned campaigner Emily Upjohn in third place.
A homebred for the Coolmore partners, Content has three wins and four placings from 12 starts and there is more to come this season.
“She's not straightforward or easy, but the pace was stronger today and she kept coming. She's a very brave filly and she'll be better again in a faster run race,” said Aidan O’Brien.
“She could go to one of the fillies trials, like a Vermeille. She could end up in an Arc, or in America, she's definitely going to be better where the pace is strong as when she gets into a gear it'll be amazing to see what she can do off that kind of a pace.”
Content has a place in history as the 100th Group I winner for her sire with Racing TV putting together a great clip with ten of his best starting with Frankel!
Content is a three-quarter sister to this year’s Group III winning two year-old filly Bedtime Story and is the best of three winners from Champion Female Sprinter Mecca’s Angel, a dual Group I winner by Dark Angel.
Galileo passed away in 2021 at the age of 23 and Content comes from his second last crop of foals which has already produced 30 winners, six of them stakes-winners including Grosvenor Square, who won the Group III Irish St Leger Trial last week by 20 lengths.
Footnote: Galileo shuttled to Australia for the first five seasons of his stud career and produced 28 stakes-winners – five of them Group I winners – Linton, Niwot, Sousa and Igugu and Mahbooba, who won their G1 races in South Africa.
