Galileo (horse)

Galileo
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Sire:	Sadler's Wells
Grandsire:	Northern Dancer
Dam:	Urban Sea
Damsire:	Miswaki
Sex:	Stallion
Foaled:	1998
Country:	Ireland
Colour:	Bay
Breeder:	David Tsui and Orpendale
Owner:	Sue Magnier, Michael Tabor
Trainer:	Aidan O'Brien
Record:	8:6-1-0
Earnings:	$2,245,373
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
Ballysax Stakes (2001) Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial (2001) Epsom Derby (2001) Irish Derby Stakes (2001) King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2001)
Racing Awards
Cartier Racing Award for Three-Year-Old Colts (2001)
Infobox last updated on: 20 September 2006.

Galileo is a thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1998, who won the Epsom Derby, Irish Derby Stakes, and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes in 2001. He is a son of Coolmore Stud's Sadler's Wells and Arc heroine Urban Sea. Galileo, owned by Sue Magnier and Michael Tabor, raced only once as a two year old, winning an Irish maiden by an impressive 14 lengths. At three, he went to Epsom via the same route as the previous year's Derby winner Sinndar, winning the Ballysax Stakes and Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial in Ireland. He went to Epsom joint favorite alongside the Two Thousand Guineas winner Golan. The 2001 Epsom Derby field was generally high-class, with Tobougg, who had won the previous year's Dewhurst Stakes, and the winners of most of the major Derby trials. Galileo won impressively by three and a half lengths from Golan. He was even more impressive when winning the Irish Derby, scoring by four lengths despite being eased down. His next test was against older horses in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, when chief among his rivals was Godolphin's Fantastic Light, winner of the previous year's Dubai Sheema Classic. It was Galileo's first big test as a racehorse, but he battled on to win by two lengths. The two horses would meet again in the Irish Champion Stakes over a mile and a quarter, and it was here that Galileo met with his first defeat, with Fantastic Light triumphant by a head in a thrilling contest. Galileo ended his racing career disappointingly, well beaten in the Breeders' Cup Classic - his first run on dirt. Nonetheless, he was voted Cartier Three-Year-Old European Champion Colt. He now stands as a stallion at Coolmore, shuttling between Coolmore's main farm in Ireland (during the Northern Hemisphere breeding season) and its Australia branch (during the Southern Hemisphere breeding season). Galileo recently sired a colt with 3 time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva.

Trivia

• As the horse won the 2001 Epsom Derby, BBC Television racing commentator Jim McGrath paraphrased Queen’s 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody, by saying as the horse completed the race, “This is the real life, this is not fantasy!” That Derby was also the last of many thousands of races covered for BBC Radio by Peter Bromley.

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