Seeing Footsteps

I was home on Sunday watching a race at Warrnambool when a horse of modest form, by Coolmore’s ex-shuttler Footstepsinthesand, came on to the screen. I muttered what a distinct disappointment the unbeaten Group 1 Two Thousand Guineas (1600m, Newmarket, UK) winner had been at stud, especially in Australia.

Blow me down, the next day Footstepsinthesand (pictured) sired the first two winners of the day – two well-named youngsters, who broke their maidens at Echuca and Muswellbrook.

Ballydoyle (f 2, ex-Whistles ’n’ Bells, by Danzero), trained by Chris Hyland, debuted with a win at Echuca; at Muswellbrook, Beachcomber (g 3, ex-Kashcrop (NZ), by Kashani (USA)) broke through at his third start for trainer Kris Lees.

Foostepsinthesand (br or blk h 2002, Giant’s Causeway (USA)-Glatisant (GB), by Rainbow Quest (USA)) stood at Coolmore in the Hunter Valley for two seasons, covering 101 mares in 2005 but only 65 in his second stint in 2006. Coolmore saw that the writing on the barn door and has since kept him off the shuttle express.

Despite his unbeaten record from only two starts and a Classic to his name, Australian breeders didn’t warm to Footstepsinthesand. He wasn’t a robust stallion and he had the Giant’s Causeway legacy of offset knees – inherited from Giant’s Causeway’s sire Storm Cat. Footstepsinthesand remains on Coolmore’s roster in Ireland, where he is the sire of the 2010 Group 2 Railway Stakes (1200m, The Curragh) winner Formosina.

Footstepsinthesand is not the first Two Thousand Guineas winner to fail to have an impact as a sire in Australia – in fact, there’s a long list. Before him came Darley’s Refuse To Bend (by Sadler’s Wells (USA)) and King’s Best (Kingmambo (USA)), Coolmore’s King Of Kings (Sadler’s Wells (USA)) and Independent Stallions’ Tirol (Thatching (IRE)). New Zealand, too, wasn’t exempt from Guineas winning stud failures, headed by Entrepreneur (by Sadler’s Wells (USA)) and Rodrigo de Triano (El Gran Senor (USA)).

On the other side of the ledger, Guineas winners Rock Of Gibraltar (by Danehill (USA)) and Golan (by Spectrum (IRE)) have done a sound job in the southern breeding barns.

The most recent Two Thousand Guineas winner to come to Australia is Coolmore’s Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo (USA)), whose first foals (from 144 mares covered) will be born in 2010. Henrythenavigator stands this coming breeding season at a fee of $33,000 (inc. GST).