Who are we highlighting this week? - Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for last season has made us realise how many horses on this list took giant strides from two to three, so we are looking into the crystal ball to find some juveniles we believe could end this season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.
Click here for the story on 3YO G1 winners this season.
The much-missed global supersire Wootton Bassett (GB) posthumously notched up his first Australian-bred G1 winner in May this year, when classy colt Providence strode to a commanding victory in the Queensland Derby.
As a juvenile in the Waller stable, Providence was fourth in the G1 JJ Atkins to the star of the season Cool Archie, and our Crystal Ball subject this week is another Waller-trained “Woottie” who went one better in the Brisbane feature this year when third to his stablemate Tron Bolt.
One of this year’s Cox Plate dreamers (See this story) Spring Classics are firmly on the radar for Stormy Marco!
The handsome colt is stamped with the distinctive look of his late sire.
Stormy Marco races in the Hermitage Thoroughbreds silks - dark green with red chevrons - colours famously carried by champion galloper The Autumn Sun.
Hermitage share the ownership of his superstar daughter Autumn Glow with Arrowfield.
These and further G1 winners Lady Shenandoah, Egg Tart and September Run are / were Waller trained for Hermitage, and Stormy Marco will be looking to add his name to the list of their elite performers.
Hermitage Thoroughbreds is owned by retired Hong Kong businessman Eugene Chuang and his wife Karen, who are well known for their
Hermitage teamed up with Chris Waller Racing and Mulcaster Bloodstock to purchase Stormy Marco for $300,000 at Inglis Easter from the Coolmore draft.
The colt was a successful pinhook, having been picked up as a $70,000 Inglis Weanling from Rathmore Lodge.
As it happens, Hermitage also own Tron Bolt (Toronado), and the JJ Atkins may have been a preview of exciting G1 contests to come between two talented gallopers!
Stormy Marco debuted over 1400m at Hawkesbury in May, as the least fancied of three Waller runners in the Clarendon Stakes. Despite racing greenly, he led home the stable trifecta with the $1.7m Snitzel colt Nations League in second and Godolphin's royally bred Frankel filly Fondness in third.
The Clarendon Stakes carries no black type, but it has been a launching pad for many good horses including Australian champion sire Zoustar.
Stormy Marco was next unplaced in the G2 QTC Sires behind the smart Berzelius ( Extreme Choice).
Jockey J Mac pulled the right rein in jumping aboard the stablemate for the juvenile G1, leaving Nash Rawiller to take the steer on Stormy Marco. In something of a muddling run race, the colt came home well for Nash on a testing track for third.
Stormy Marco was spelled in anticipation of big Spring targets, having won and placed in three starts for earnings of $207,900.
The son of Wootton Bassett is the fourth foal from the placed, Irish-bred Elusive City daughter Rose Memory, imported from GB in 2021.
Rose Memory has had four winners from five foals to race, but Stormy Marco is her first Black Type performer.
Rathmore Bloodstock / Avesta Bloodstock / McConnell Bloodstock purchased Rose Memory for $55,000 from the Newgate consignment at the 2023 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale, in foal to Wootton Bassett with Stormy Marco the result of the mating.
Just a year later she went through the same ring again, selling for $6,000 from Rathmore Lodge to Shack Bloodstock, having been covered by Zousain. Unfortunately Rose Memory slipped that foal.
For her latest owners, Rose Memory has produced a colt by Dirty Work, but was not covered last season.
The advent of Stormy Marco on the scene has lifted the stocks of this well travelled matron - and she always had the pedigree potential to bring forth a top class performer.
Rose Memory is from Galileo's classically bred, stakes placed Rose Melody and is a half sister to French G2 winner Hard Dream ( Oasis Dream) who raced and won in HK as Chater Dream.
Rose Melody was a half sister to three stakes winners produced by her dam Horpharly ( Pharly) who raced but once.
They were the G1 placed, 3 x American G2 winner and sire Gold And Steel, and the French Listed winners Befuto and Golden Marvel. Notably, all three won at sprint distances as well as staying trips.
Horpharly was three quarter sister to the talented Astrea by Lyphard's son Bellypha, a stakes winner in Italy and third in the G1 Italian Oaks, who went to stud in Japan.
Horpharly was the only foal from her dam Hollydja ( Djakao) sired by Lyphard's 3 x G1 winner Pharly, and the mating was an interesting one!
Both Pharly and Hollydja descend from the same mare Aziyade, via half sisters.
Aziyade was sired by the beautifully bred but little known Phalaris son Herbalist who - as we will see - is a far from humble player in this pedigree! He was a grandson of the G1 Coronation Stakes heroine Fascination.
Herbalist was thus a close relation of the legendary Australian racehorse and sire Ajax, and a more distant relation to another in Luskin Star. Luskin Star's famous family ( Teppo) descends from Fascination's dam Charm.
Aziyade's dam Farizade by the great French champion Sardanapale became the third dam of the important sire Prince Chevalier.
This esteemed family descends from the G1 French Oaks winner Saint Astra ( Ladas) and is the Astrology branch of the 9-f tribe.
Astrology's son Star Shoot became a leading sire in the USA. His male line did not survive, but daughters of his son Uncle (damsire of Stimulus) had an influence - more on that below.
Star Shoot’s daughter Uncle's Lassie became dam of the great matriarch Betty Derr, ancestress of Green Desert, while Saint Astra's champion grandson Asterus sired the dam of Ardan, who sits on the damline of both Kodiac and Kingman's sire Invincible Spirit.
Those great sires clicked to a degree with Stormy Marco's dam, but Wootton Bassett had more to offer her.
From another branch of the 9-f family (The Apple) we get Bull Lea, who is always a major genetic factor!
Stormy Marco is bred
Gone West 4m x 4m
Danzig 5m x 5m
Northern Dancer 5m x 5m
The colt carries two of Wootton Bassett's most successful nicks - Elusive City and Galileo.
While Coolmore’s high profile buy had unleashed a torrent of stakes performers with his NH progeny, there were frustrating near- misses at the highest level with Wootton’s first Australian bred runners. None more so than on Golden Slipper day in 2025, when first crop son Wodeton had little luck in running yet stormed home to go down by a nose to Marhoona!
Wodeton will stand his first season at Newgate Farm this spring. He didn't shake the G1 bridesmaid tag, but racing can be a game of centimetres.
Had Wootton Bassett got a Slipper winner in his first SH crop, it would have been the ultimate validation of the faith shown in him by Coolmore. As it was, the performances of Wodeton, State Visit and others highlighted his rare versatility as a sire.
Wootton Bassett responds so well to duplications of his great grandsire Gone West - probably not the first inbreeding prospect that came to mind for mare owners - but now an established avenue to success.
A talented dirt miler and a G1 Dwyer Stakes winner at three in a vintage generation, Gone West’s racetrack contemporaries included Gulch, Java Gold, Polish Navy and the great Alysheba. He was not considered as good a performer as any of them.
Yet he proved to be the one who harboured dynastic qualities, and would duly establish his own stirp of the Mr Prospector line.
A beautifully made dark bay with a neat star and three socks, Gone West stood 16hh. He had a particularly lovely head and expression, which recalled the look of his damsire Secretariat.
On retirement, the entire was secured and syndicated by Mill Ridge Farm in Kentucky, entering stud in 1988.
Juddmonte owned a share in Gone West and they bred champion Zafonic from his second crop. A brilliant juvenile and an English Classic winner at three, Zafonic put Gone West on the international map and was a successful (though not great) stallion - but as a sire of sires he was a disappointment. Until his G2 winner Iffraaj came along!
Gone West was bred 4 x 4 to Nasrullah and 5 x 5 to Discovery.
His full brother Lion Cavern ventured down under, and sired the legendary sprinter Apache Cat!
Their G2 placed dam Secrettame by “Big Red” was a half sister to multiple US G1 winner Tentam (Intentionally) and his three quarter brother, the G1 2,000 Guineas winner Known Fact, by Intentionally’s sire In Reality.
Secrettame and her siblings were produced by Tamerett, half sister to the sire Atan by Native Dancer, an important influence through his great son Sharpen Up.
Their dam Mixed Marriage was sired by the peerless speedster Tudor Minstrel from Persian Maid by Tehran - a great stayer!
Persian Maid’s dam Aroma was a daughter of Aloe, half sister to Feola and Sweet Aloe all out of studbook matriarch Alope (2-f)
The Galopade factor (23-b)
Galopade was imported into the US in 1833 and is one of the great foundation mares of the North American studbook. She is the direct ancestress of Domino and Discovery (to whom Gone West is inbred as the damsire of Native Dancer and Bold Ruler) as well as of Gone West's second damsire Tim Tam, who was out of a Bull Lea mare.
This is one reason Wootton Bassett has nicked so well with Galileo, who has as damsire the Mr Prospector son Miswaki - dam by Buckpasser (like Tim Tam, a son of Tom Fool ) x Princequillo and Nasrullah daughters ( sex balances for Secretariat) x Bull Lea and descending from a daughter of the stallion Ariel, who was inbred to his own ancestress Mannie Gray (23-b) via full brother and sister Domino and Mannie Himyar.
Wootton Bassett also duplicates this mix of bloodlines through Chief's Crown (23-b) including via a Secretariat daughter, and himself descends from a mare by Stimulus, son of the very inbred Ultimus who was 2m x 2f to Domino.
Wootton Bassett x Elusive City
Swettenham Stud stand Wooded, who won Europe's champion sprint race, the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye and is already a G1 sire with his first crop. His full brother Bucanero Fuerte was also a G1 winning sprinter.
By Wootton Bassett from an Elusive City mare, the mating is 4m x 4m Gone West.
Wooded's second damsire is Affirmed (23-b) and he descends from a daughter of Clarion ( inbred to the tribe) - note Stormy Marco's third dam is bred 5f x 4m to Clarion.
The cross works in reverse too - Elusive City's G1 winner and G1 sire Vespa ( unfortunately sold to China) stood in NZ, and his grand dam was a Gone West mare.
Wootton Bassett x Galileo
Wootton Bassett, like many if not most leading sires, has found a great friend in Galileo and the son of Sadler’s Wells is his most prolific cross.
Let's just look at his recent headliners out of Galileo mares - Al Riffa and Whirl, the latter a full sister in blood to G1 winning colt Hawk Mountain.
We see a concurrent pattern emerging - Wootton Bassett's love of the Woodbine family (8-c) to which belongs the stallion Falls Of Clyde carried by his damsire Primo Dominie.
That horse descends from a full sister to the champion English sprinter Portlaw, who is the fourth dam of Ahonoora.
The duplicated Tim Tam has many lines of the wider family, as does Secretariat's sire Bold Ruler and the dam of Chief's Crown - so it is super important for Wootton Bassett.
Whirl and Hawk Mountain trace directly to one of the great Blue Hens of the 8-c family Schiaparelli, through Mill Princess, the dam of Last Tycoon.
Not only that, their damsire Pivotal (another big G1 nick for Wootton) was by Polar Falcon who traces to Schiaparelli's daughter Barley Corn. Their dam also brings a line of Gone West's close relation Known Fact.
G1 hero Henri Matisse is another bred on the Galileo x Pivotal x Mill Princess cross, while the dam of dual G1 winner Puerto Rico is Galileo x Storm Cat (8-c)
This is where Stormy Marco's fourth damsire Djakao steps up to play a key role as his second dam is Barley Corn. The next damsire on the damline is Klairon - sex balanced in this pedigree, his damsire Kantar brings the male line of Perth (8-c)
Ahonoora ties it together
Not only do we have a sex balance of Klairon as the tail male line of Ahonoora - a rather special nick is going on with his damsire Martial by the Bull Lea (9-f) son Hill Gail. Martial's fifth dam is Picardel, and she is sex balanced in Stormy Marco's pedigree via her son Herbalist, who sired the colt's inbred ancestress Aziyade.
Djakao is also important as he was out of a Ribot mare. Ribot is always a prime candidate for duplication and his great son Tom Rolfe ( from the same family as Galileo) is both Wootton Bassett's third damsire and the only line of Ribot he possesses.
Elusive City sex balances Ribot and amps it up with son Graustark.
Pharly's sire Lyphard is from the same damline ( 17-b) as the three quarter brothers Flares and Omaha, both present in Zafonic's damsire The Minstrel.
Flares, and Wootton Bassett's tail female nick Stimulus, are the first and second damsires of Nasrullah son Nantallah carried by sex balanced Blue Hen Special ( Nureyev / Sadler's Wells)
Stormy Marco is also linebred to Somethingroyal ( Secretariat / Sir Gaylord).
His dam provides multiple sex balanced lines of La Troienne, which Wootton Bassett lacks - but he carries her close relation Adargatis, and their distant relation Will Somers.
Stormy Marco has a fascinating pedigree - certainly Derbies look like prospective targets, but there’s plenty of speed on hand as well. It will be interesting to watch his progression this Spring!
