Who are we highlighting this week? - Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for this 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 next season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.
Click here for the story on 3YO G1 winners for 2024/2025.
This week we are looking at G1 Golden Slipper runner up Wodeton.
The handsome colt was the best performed juvenile in a raft of exciting prospects which emerged from the eagerly anticipated first Australian crop of Coolmore sire sensation Wootton Bassett (GB)
The first “Aussie Wootties” hit the ground running and at one point the stallion had five of the top eleven fancies in the bookies' Golden Slipper markets.
Wootton Bassetts were to the fore in many of the earlier two year old stakes races, but it was our subject Wodeton ( Exceed And Excel) - after no luck at all in the straight - who shone on Golden Slipper day, with a hard - closing second to freakish filly Marhoona in the big one.
Another exciting colt by the sire was State Visit (Redoute's Choice), runner up in the G1 Inglis Sires to Vinrock ( with Wodeton fourth) - and though Wootton Bassett did not get that coveted juvenile G1 winner from his first Australian crop, his merit as a sire of early runners was on full and impressive display all through the season.
Before taking a closer look at Wootton Bassett and his remarkable rise to the top of Coolmore's Thoroughbred empire, let's look at the breeding of Wodeton, who was born to be a star!
From the moment he was delivered at Segenhoe Stud from the Exceed and Excel mare Fiera Vista, the spotlight of expectation has been trained firmly upon Wodeton.
He runs for Coolmore and partners, with his breeder Fairway Thoroughbreds retaining a share in the ownership.
The colt created a huge buzz when he appeared at the 2024 MM Gold Coast Yearling sale as part of the Segenhoe draft.
It was a satisfying result for the stud and his breeder Joe Camilleri when the handsome youngster fell to the $1.6 million bid of Coolmore's Tom Magnier, and was duly placed in the care of the mighty Chris Waller stable.
The beautiful colt, a rich bay adorned with two neat white hind socks, was the second foal for his lightly raced, stakes winning dam.
Her 2023 colt by I Am Invincible was another high profile Magnier purchase at the Gold Coast earlier this year for $1.15 million.
Yet to be named, he’s a good chance of being in the thick of the juvenile features in 2026!
Fiera Vista missed to the cover of Dundeel, and was sent to GB to be covered by Too Darn Hot - she is now safely back in Australia for that 2025 foaling.
Fiera Vista raced nine times and won twice including the Listed Morphettville Guineas 1800m when she romped home by three lengths.
Bred and owned by John Camilleri under the banner of his Fairway Thoroughbreds ( like the immortal Winx and elite performers Sunshine In Paris, Vancouver, Dariana and Fairway himself), Fiera Vista is one of only two daughters left by the Encosta de Lago mare Empress Jade, who sadly died shortly after her export to Japan in 2017.
As a half sister to legendary three times World Champion Sprinter and dual Hong Kong HOTY Silent Witness (El Moxie) and to the brilliant, multiple Group winning sprinter miler Sister Madly by Redoute's Choice, the untimely loss of Empress Jade was a real shame. Fortunately, her two surviving daughters are carrying on this incredibly commercial female line with distinction.
Like so many great NZ families the line descends from a daughter of the mighty broodmare sire Foxbridge, Lady Reynard - a three quarter sister to the Foxbridge -sired Lady Ridicule who became dam of the 1960 Melbourne Cup winning mare Hi Jinx - a shock $50 result in the 100th edition of the great race!
The line goes back to the 1860 import Juliet (GB) through her prolific daughter Sylvia ( dam of 1883 Melbourne Cup hero and champion sire Martini-Henry and an even greater sire in Goldsborough)
Sylvia's daughter Wood Nymph, a full sister to Martin -Henry is the tail female ancestress of Wodeton's family line.
The immortal Australian racemare Wakeful was bred 5f x 4f to Juliet.
Too many great horses descend from Blue Hen Sylvia to list, but one notable individual flying the flag for this line at the moment is Coolmore’s superstar racehorse and sire So You Think.
Things were going to plan when Wodeton, cruised around effortlessly in a couple of Warwick Farm trials.
He didn't win either of them, but such was the standout quality of the horse that track watchers were talking of nothing else.
The bandwagon with the Slipper numberplate was already rolling and after Wodeton's debut win (1100m at Rosehill) it went to warp speed.
Things could have gone awry - a very soft track, an escaped filly bolting around under his nose - but Wodeton looked the complete professional as he won without fuss, by four lengths, barely raising a sweat.
And literally within minutes he was at the top of every Slipper market in the land.
Bandwagon still tracking smoothly. Next stop the G2 Silver Slipper and Wodeton was duly sent out hot favourite, only to get too far back - upstaged by Godolphin’s Bivouac youngster Beiwacht, with another Wootton Bassett, West Of Swindon just ahead of Wodeton in third.
The action moved to the big Randwick track and the 1200m of the G2 Todman Stakes - again Wodeton was sent to post favourite - but was narrowly beaten this time over the Freedman stable's Victorian “raider” Tentyris (Street Boss) who had just been pipped by Devil Nght in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes.
A fitter Wodeton and his regular rider “J Mac “ did absolutely everything right - except actually win. Hitting the front at the ideal moment, the colt was being hailed the victor until Tentyris came home like a train out wide and just got there in the final strides.
So while the bandwagon hadn't gone off a cliff or got stuck in reverse as two year old bandwagons are prone to do - it had come back from warp speed at this point.
Despite drawing a good gate for the Slipper and premier hoop JMac sticking firm, Wodeton had gone from “unbeatable” to “keep safe” in many a punter's mind, sent out at $6.
G2 Reisling winner Tempted (Street Boss) had assumed the mantle of hot Slipper favourite with runaway G3 Pago Pago winner Skyhook (Written Tycoon) and his G2 Skyline conqueror Rivellino (Too Darn Hot) right on her heels.
But as history records, of the three only Tempted filled a placing after the Reisling runner up Marhoona (Snitzel) at $7, peaked on the day.
As Wodeton had endured a chequered passage in the straight and his Golden Slipper second was really eyecatching the G1 Inglis Sires looked to be “his race” - or did it?
Punters had him well in the market but they were more keen on the G2 VRC Sires winner Vinrock (I Am Invincible) and they were spot on, with that colt fighting hard to defeat $16 chance State Visit (WB) in a dogged finish, with Buffalo (Written By) running on well for third.
Again things just didn't go quite right for Wodeton, as he sat wide all the way, loomed and fought on well but was just out of the placings in fourth.
It wasn't a poor run by any measure, but Waller had seen enough to bypass the Champagne and send his valuable youngster for a well earned spell.
He was the first colt home in the Golden Slipper, he had been a model of consistency all season and proved himself beyond doubt a talented and genuine racehorse - but it was undeniably somewhat disappointing that Wodeton didn't have a stakes win on his CV when he went to the paddock - though he did have over $1m in prizemoney in the bank!
The big question now is, how will Wodeton and his fellow Wootties go in their three year old season?
It's a burning question too, with Coolmore recently announcing that Wootton Bassett's 2025 fee is set at a record-smashing $385,000, which eclipses even that of Redoute's Choice at the height of his powers.
That's up from $71,500 in his first two Australian seasons of 2021 and 2022, at $93,500 in 2023, and by fee on arrangement last year.
It matters nought to Aussie breeders though, who have flocked to Wootton Bassett like seagulls to a bucket of hot chips. Many of the best mares in the land have visited or soon will be visiting the good looking sire as will, of course, a great number of Coolmore's queens.
This Spring these will include the recent high profile Magnier purchases Estriella and Tiz Invincible ( both daughters of Am Invincible).
This calibre of mare cements the meteoric rise of the now seventeen year old Wootton Bassett to truly global prominence.
It's not that the undefeated French champion 2YO was from the wrong side of the equine tracks by any means - but nor was he expected by most people to be anything that might be labelled “exceptional” at stud. Not many are.
But exceptional is exactly what he proved to be from day one.
At the time Wootton Bassett retired to stand at Haras d’Etreham in France at the end of 2011 his sire Iffraaj was not yet established as a “sire of sires”
The strikingly handsome Wootton Bassett was the only stakes winner from his multiple Listed placed dam, Balladonia and the jewel in her crown.
She had ten raced foals, all winners. There were two full brothers to Wootton Bassett among them that were winning stakes class juveniles, and a half brother by Kyllachy who was Listed placed at two.
Balladonia was sired by the quality speedsire Primo Dominie and from the precocious Chief's Crown daughter Sasquehanna Days. She was one of two stakes winners for her dam, while her placed half sister went on to produce French 2YO Listed winning colt Biraaj by Iffraaj and the G3 placed Lida (Lope De Vega)
Primo Dominie is an interesting sire - tail male to Nearco through Derring-Do, whose son High Top appears in many mare pedigrees. Primo Dominie’’s damsire My Swanee is also the damsire of Eight Carat's daughter Cotehele House - the dam of Danewin and Commands, ancestress of Deep Field, Shooting To Win, Zed and our immortal racemare Verry Ellegant, (who was bred x 2 to her)
This was a quality pedigree for sure but it wasn't telegraphing any hint of what greatness was to come.
There was also the fact that Wootton Bassett had failed to impress on the track at three - though he had suffered a little injury setback before recommencing training - and perhaps it affected him more than was realized, given the way so many of his star juveniles have trained on!
But at the time, French breeders felt decidedly lukewarm and the stallion's first crop consisted of a mere 23 foals, his second only 18. That fact in itself would have consigned most sires to permanent obscurity but everything changed when Wootton Bassett's first crop hero the 2016 European Champion 3YO Almanzor blazed across the turf of three countries to collect G1 wins in GB, Ireland and France.
A near- continuous stream of top class performers has flowed ever since.
Speaking after Coolmore had purchased the then twelve year old Wootton Bassett (for a sum which has never been disclosed) in 2020, the global giant's leading bloodstock consultant James Bester summed up their reasons:
“Wootton Bassett had shown he was capable of producing first-class, Group 1 horses like Almanzor from a very low service fee in France. I think he might have got down to €4000 ($A6500) at one point."
In subsequent crops Wootton Bassett sired Wooded who, at three years old, won the 1000-metre, open-age Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp. (Wooded sired his first G1 winner last weekend, read about Woodshauna here).
“Right away, his first two stars were a 10-furlong European champion and a two-year-old sprint star, and that poked Coolmore’s attention,” Bester said.
“It was a wide range of ability he was showing, unusual almost, and right away Coolmore knew this was a special horse.
"It’s a pattern Coolmore has already seen as successful in Australia through So You Think, who has had winners of Australia’s richest sprint, The Everest, right up to 3200m. Wootton Bassett was an unbeaten champion Group 1-winning two-year-old, so there’s your clue for Australia right there.”
In a way, Wootton Bassett and his barn-mates So You Think and Justify embody the full maturation of the globalisation phenomenon as it applies to the Thoroughbred breed.
This evolution has always been a case of meritocracy in action - we've all marvelled at stories of breeders of long ago who went to absurd and extraordinary lengths to obtain their desired blood, it's nothing new.
But today the entire world's Thoroughbred gene pool is one big melting pot being seasoned and stirred 24 hours a day, which affords a great sire genetic opportunities which were just not possible in the past.
What has never changed and what has brought it all about, is the ever-roving eye of the passionate breeder. An eye always attuned to the possibility that an unexpectedly great sire can spring his prepotency upon a broodmare population unforeseen.
Aussie breeders are particularly quick to spot that unicorn when it appears, notable recent examples being Not A Single Doubt, Written Tycoon and I Am Invincible.
He must get a precocious type and lots of them - that's the key Aussie criteria.
And that's where Wootton Bassett has it over his sire Iffraaj, who at first was something of a disappointment to Australian breeders when he shuttled “down under” to New Zelaand - not so much to the Kiwis who were more attuned to his progeny it seems.
Iffraaj, by Zafonic by the great Mr Prospector son Gone West, like so many great sires was out of a Nureyev mare.
That was the fine producer Pastorale also fam of Faaraaj (Dubai Destination) who placed in a G1 Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf and our own G1 Mackinnon Stakes; Kareymah a G3 winning full sister to Iffraaj, and the top stayer Mijhaar (Shirocco) twice placed at Royal Ascot.
Pastorale was out of Blue Hen Park Appeal and thus Iffraaj is a close relative of her famous son Cape Cross and grandson the elite sprinter Diktat.
But with a couple of notable exceptions, this wasn't generally an early maturing family and though Zafonic was a champion juvenile, Iffraaj - a minor winner at two - didn't race in Group company until four when he became a top class sprinter.
The Iffraaj yearlings were amazing looking types, and because he had been champion first season sire in GB they sold for big prices to Aussies with Slipper dreams.
But they failed to deliver. Many of the Iffraaj babies didn't respond well to our demanding juvenile training methods, despite the fact they had great class about them and a lot of natural speed. They needed a bit of time.
Northern Hemisphere breeders had worked it out and so had emerged the likes of unbeaten juvenile Wootton Bassett, out of a mare by a specialist sire of precocious sprinters in Primo Dominie, a sire who passed on extreme durability as well as the mental and physical attributes required.
So now there was the whole package - and it shows with Wootton Bassett's ability to sire G1 winners from a huge variety of mares, forming lucrative nicks with Galileo and his son Frankel, and with speed sources such as Pivotal, Oasis Dream, War Front and Elusive City.
And notably his foals out of more classically bred mares seem no less likely to win a G1 at two years than their more precociously bred peers.
In fact, Wootton Bassett's first 17 stakes winners were out of mares by 17 different sires which is a rare feat and another indication of his unusual prepotency.
As Breednet readers will know exciting new juveniles seem to be popping up every couple of days in the NH while the stars of last season have trained on beautifully to headline carnival success at three.
Aidan O'Brien summed it up after Wootton Bassett iron filly Whirl (Galileo) simply refused to surrender and held off the challenge of her older rival Kalpana in a thrilling finish to the G1 Pretty Polly Stakes last month.
“"She's the ultimate racing machine “he said.
“It’s amazing with those Wootton Bassetts, one after another they are coming. They just get better the more you train them.”
Music to the ears of Australian breeders and trainers!
Wodeton is bred to Northern Dancer 5m x 5m,5m,5m most notably via Danzig (4m x 4m) and this is one of Wootton Basset's best nicks. In particular Danehill's son Exceed And Excel is an exciting match!
That’s due to Wootton Bassett's second damsire the influential Danzig son Chiefs Crown - this individual is from the tail female line of Exceed And Excel (23-b), and both sires are strongly linebred to the tribe.
The damsire of Chief's Crown Secretariat, is a son of Bold Ruler out of a mare by Discovery (23-b), and Wootton Bassett is bred 5f x 5f to Secretariat.
This ties in beautifully with Wodeton's dam who brings sex balanced duplications of Sir Ivor, by Secretariat's half brother Sir Gaylord.
Through his dam Wodeton has lines to the related sires Foxbridge, Doutelle, Exbury, Umberto, Aureole, Alcide and Round Table (twice) - this is the family of his tail male ancestor Gone West and a very big activating factor in his pedigree.
Wootton Bassett is linebred to the prolific stallion-producing 9-e family through his grandsire Zafonic and damsire Primo Dominie - it's the wider family of Dubawi, Dalakhani, Daylami and In The Wings - and interestingly, that of Coolmore's new sensational stud prospect, the great juvenile and World Champion Racehorse City Of Troy.
It is also interesting that Wootton Bassett's French-bred Royal Patronage (Dalakhani) - an Australian G1 winner of the Canterbury Stakes, 2 x winner of the G2 Tramway and runner up in the G1 Doncaster Mile - is another linebred subject.
It's a family that will likely reward further duplication if and when Wodeton commences his own stud career.
He needs his G1 to really get that ball rolling! Where might he find it?
His dam’s stakes victory came over 1800m so it's possible that 1400 - 1600m might be the beginning of his best distance range, not the end of it. The way he races plays into that too.
James Macdonald commented on his flowing, pure stride and exceptionally amenable temperament.
That suggests a horse that's going to relax and get over a bit more ground, rather than a more wound up sprinter and there's such a good blend of stamina and speed in the pedigree he appears as a horse that could be really versatile.
With Exceed and Excel, speed was his calling card we know but like all the true greats he wasn't limited to throwing one “type” of speed - let's not forget he was the damsire of the ill fated Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck and grandsire of Melbourne Cup hero Gold Trip!
With Wodeton there's some good dual purpose sires through his dam - Encosta de Lago, Lord Ballina, Grosvenor, plus the inherent speed of his damline.
I envisage Wodeton tapping into that blood as he matures. He could easily become a Guineas prospect.
If Wodeton throws more to the kind of speed that is best early in a prep I can imagine him following a sprinting pathway as a Golden Rose type or Newmarket type.
There's going to be some stiff opposition around. Apart from the quality Wootton Bassetts we've mentioned there are some beauties waiting in the wings - one example is Wodeton’s stablemate the $1.4 m colt Central Coast (Zoustar) a half brother to stakes-winner Dawn Service and the second foal from Champion 3YO Filly and triple GI winner Sunlight, now owned by Coolmore.
In early June the youngster was unveiled at Canterbury where he impressed as runner up to exciting colt Autumn Boy who went north to post a facile victory in the Listed J J Atkins at his next start.
It's going to be exciting to watch the Wootton Bassetts growing up, and to see where Wodeton's story goes next!
