With the world in the grip of a pandemic, it may seem crass to write about something as trivial as horse racing, but we all need our distractions.
I was asked via Twitter to look at the overall performance of grandsons of Galileo in National Hunt Racing (I recently wrote about their performance at Cheltenham). As the overuse of sons of Galileo is a bugbear of mine, I didn’t take much persuasion to accept the challenge.
To make a meaningful comparison, I looked at the performance throughout the 2019/2020 season of sire sons of Galileo, Montjeu and Monsun. The numbers confirm that sire-sons of Galileo are nothing special in the world of National Hunt racing. In fact their performance is inferior to that of sires by Montjeu and especially by Monsun.
Methodology:
I looked at the sire standings for National Hunt in 2019/2020 for the top 550 sires from the Racing Post website. I then extracted and aggregated the results for the sons of Galileo, Montjeu and Monsun. The summary results are shown below:
| SIRELINE | Wnrs | Rnrs | W/R % | Wins | Runs | % | Stks Wnrs |
| GALILEO SIRES TOTAL | 127 | 522 | 24.3% | 174 | 1721 | 10.1% | 11 |
| MONSUN SIRES TOTAL | 224 | 797 | 28.1% | 322 | 2637 | 12.2% | 15 |
| MONTJEU SIRES TOTAL | 165 | 613 | 26.9% | 235 | 2023 | 11.6% | 13 |
Summary of Findings:
Sons of Galileo fare poorly in terms of winners to runners and wins to runs compared with sons of Montjeu and especially sire sons of Monsun. There may be some reasons to account for the difference such as a younger age profile of the representatives of the Galileo tribe but there is nothing in the figures to suggest that National Hunt breeders should be flocking to sons of Galileo…
Blindly believing in sire lines on the flat or in National hunt racing will lead to lots of disappointments. There are individual sons of Galileo who could be promising jumps sires (Nathaniel especially) but overall the figures suggest that most sons of Galileo are not that welcome an addition to National Hunt pedigrees. The real concern is that sending one third of mares to sons of Galileo may eventually cause long term damage the National hunt breed by narrowing the gene pool. National Hunt breeders may feel reassured in using sons of Galileo ( everyone else is doing it) , but as the Corona virus has shown, being part of the crowd isn’t always such a good idea….
Detailed Workings: Stallions listed by their placing in the sires table by earnings- figures as shown on Racing Post website on 28/03/2020 and referring to UK and Irish earnings for 2019/2020 season
| Rank | Stallion | Wnrs | Rnrs | W/R % | Wins | Runs | % | Stks Wnrs | Earnings £ |
| 13 | Mahler | 53 | 213 | 25% | 72 | 752 | 10% | 2 | £949,163 |
| 49 | Nathaniel | 17 | 39 | 44% | 22 | 117 | 19% | 4 | £328,541 |
| 98 | Sixties Icon | 5 | 34 | 15% | 7 | 121 | 6% | 0 | £146,624 |
| 114 | Rip Van Winkle | 10 | 29 | 34% | 14 | 101 | 14% | 0 | £121,731 |
| 135 | Sans Frontieres | 6 | 41 | 15% | 9 | 117 | 8% | 1 | £98,224 |
| 141 | Teofilo | 8 | 39 | 21% | 9 | 125 | 7% | 1 | £92,078 |
| 148 | New Approach | 7 | 24 | 29% | 9 | 82 | 11% | 0 | £87,972 |
| 164 | Soldier Of Fortune | 3 | 11 | 27% | 6 | 45 | 13% | 1 | £71,857 |
| 240 | Cima De Triomphe | 1 | 1 | 100% | 2 | 4 | 50% | 1 | £42,105 |
| 246 | Imperial Monarch | 2 | 16 | 13% | 4 | 46 | 9% | 1 | £40,774 |
| 253 | Australia | 3 | 9 | 33% | 3 | 28 | 11% | 0 | £37,282 |
| 255 | Heliostatic | 3 | 5 | 60% | 4 | 12 | 33% | 0 | £36,694 |
| 259 | Battle Of Marengo | 2 | 6 | 33% | 4 | 26 | 15% | 0 | £35,329 |
| 294 | Finsceal Fior | 2 | 12 | 17% | 3 | 28 | 11% | 0 | £27,716 |
| 390 | Vendangeur | 1 | 4 | 25% | 1 | 20 | 5% | 0 | £14,971 |
| 435 | Frankel | 0 | 9 | 0% | 0 | 24 | 0% | 0 | £11,521 |
| 444 | Noble Mission | 1 | 3 | 33% | 2 | 6 | 33% | 0 | £11,039 |
| 451 | Roderic O’Connor | 1 | 7 | 14% | 1 | 15 | 7% | 0 | £10,552 |
| 465 | Intello | 0 | 9 | 0% | 0 | 19 | 0% | 0 | £9,464 |
| 485 | Feel Like Dancing | 1 | 1 | 100% | 1 | 5 | 20% | 0 | £8,178 |
| 512 | Ruler Of The World | 1 | 4 | 25% | 1 | 10 | 10% | 0 | £6,607 |
| 529 | Cape Blanco | 0 | 3 | 0% | 0 | 6 | 0% | 0 | £5,688 |
| 537 | Red Rocks | 0 | 3 | 0% | 0 | 12 | 0% | 0 | £5,478 |
| GALILEO SIRES TOTAL | 127 | 522 | 24.3% | 174 | 1721 | 10.1% | 11 | ||
| Rank | Stallion | Wnrs | Rnrs | W/R % | Wins | Runs | % | Stks Wnrs | Earnings £ |
| 11 | Getaway | 75 | 258 | 29% | 98 | 866 | 11% | 5 | £1,100,603 |
| 16 | Network | 21 | 61 | 34% | 32 | 196 | 16% | 3 | £845,837 |
| 29 | Arcadio | 30 | 141 | 21% | 45 | 481 | 9% | 1 | £541,960 |
| 30 | Shirocco | 39 | 148 | 26% | 55 | 436 | 13% | 2 | £531,547 |
| 57 | Schiaparelli | 10 | 50 | 20% | 14 | 154 | 9% | 1 | £283,101 |
| 63 | Gentlewave | 6 | 12 | 50% | 8 | 39 | 21% | 1 | £233,923 |
| 72 | Samum | 4 | 6 | 67% | 8 | 19 | 42% | 1 | £201,211 |
| 82 | September Storm | 9 | 33 | 27% | 17 | 149 | 11% | 0 | £181,315 |
| 133 | Salutino | 5 | 14 | 36% | 11 | 65 | 17% | 0 | £102,638 |
| 149 | Aizavoski | 9 | 30 | 30% | 12 | 79 | 15% | 0 | £87,690 |
| 167 | Manduro | 5 | 14 | 36% | 8 | 49 | 16% | 0 | £69,827 |
| 220 | Noroit | 3 | 16 | 19% | 4 | 55 | 7% | 0 | £48,225 |
| 254 | Lauro | 3 | 5 | 60% | 4 | 14 | 29% | 0 | £37,087 |
| 264 | Axxos | 2 | 3 | 67% | 2 | 15 | 13% | 0 | £34,877 |
| 303 | Ocovango | 1 | 4 | 25% | 2 | 8 | 25% | 1 | £26,632 |
| 367 | Speedmaster | 2 | 2 | 100% | 2 | 12 | 17% | 0 | £17,480 |
| MONSUN SIRES TOTAL | 224 | 797 | 28.1% | 322 | 2637 | 12.2% | 15 | ||
| Rank | Stallion | Wnrs | Rnrs | W/R % | Wins | Runs | % | Stks Wnrs | Earnings £ |
| 17 | Scorpion | 42 | 189 | 22% | 55 | 719 | 8% | 1 | £810,218 |
| 35 | Walk In The Park | 8 | 27 | 30% | 9 | 80 | 11% | 4 | £483,862 |
| 36 | Fame And Glory | 33 | 136 | 24% | 49 | 380 | 13% | 1 | £473,569 |
| 37 | Authorized | 22 | 59 | 37% | 32 | 200 | 16% | 1 | £451,972 |
| 77 | Pour Moi | 11 | 30 | 37% | 18 | 90 | 20% | 0 | £195,358 |
| 92 | Montmartre | 7 | 27 | 26% | 12 | 88 | 14% | 2 | £155,773 |
| 96 | Maxios | 8 | 17 | 47% | 11 | 51 | 22% | 1 | £150,255 |
| 97 | Motivator | 7 | 20 | 35% | 12 | 59 | 20% | 1 | £148,850 |
| 103 | Papal Bull | 8 | 31 | 26% | 10 | 113 | 9% | 1 | £139,334 |
| 105 | Davidoff | 2 | 5 | 40% | 4 | 18 | 22% | 1 | £135,129 |
| 120 | Jukebox Jury | 6 | 10 | 60% | 12 | 31 | 39% | 0 | £114,475 |
| 153 | Camelot | 5 | 28 | 18% | 5 | 83 | 6% | 0 | £84,328 |
| 352 | Honolulu | 2 | 4 | 50% | 2 | 10 | 20% | 0 | £19,342 |
| 375 | Frozen Fire | 2 | 6 | 33% | 2 | 21 | 10% | 0 | £17,080 |
| 400 | Hurricane Run | 0 | 11 | 0% | 0 | 32 | 0% | 0 | £14,439 |
| 455 | Masked Marvel | 1 | 2 | 50% | 1 | 7 | 14% | 0 | £10,104 |
| 461 | Spider Flight | 0 | 5 | 0% | 0 | 20 | 0% | 0 | £9,735 |
| 484 | Recital | 1 | 6 | 17% | 1 | 21 | 5% | 0 | £8,221 |
| MONTJEU SIRES TOTAL | 165 | 613 | 26.9% | 235 | 2023 | 11.6% | 13 |