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Bolshoi Ballet gets off the mark at Leopardstown
The Aidan O’Brien-trained Bolshoi Ballet (2 c Galileo - Alta Anna by Anabaa) - who is a brother to last year’s Zipping Classic (Gr 2, 2400m) winner Southern France - shed his maiden status at the second time of asking when he landed a maiden race over a mile at Leopardstown on Friday.
Last seen running third over a mile at Newmarket on October 3, the two-year-old colt led from pillar to post, eventually surging clear to beat O’Reilly (Frankel) by four lengths, while Moktaffy (Lope De Vega) was another half a length further away in third.
The colt becomes the fifth winner out of the unraced Anabaa (Danzig) mare Alta Anna, whose progeny is headed by the aforementioned Southern France.
Alta Anna herself a half-sister to Group 3 winner Abbatiale (Kaldoun) - the dam of multiple Group 3 winner Bewitched (Dansili), who in turn produced fellow Group 3 scorer Pablo Escobar (Galileo).
Further back the colt hails from the same family as Group 2 winner Sir Boris (Due Diligence), Group 3 scorer Aviateur (Intense Focus) and Listed-winning pair Aubergade (Kaldoun) and Verglacial (Verglas).
Being out of a daughter of Anabaa (Danzig), the colt is bred on the same cross as nine stakes winners, headed by Group 1-winning pair Capri and Lush Lashes.
Galileo’s (Sadler’s Wells) progeny is headed by 89 Group 1 winners and he is represented in Australia this season by his sire sons Adelaide, Churchill and Highland Reel. He finished Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale as the leading sire by both aggregate and average with 14 lots having sold for 11,610,000gns at an average of 829,286gns.