Champion St Mark's Basilica An Exciting Coolmore Addition

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00:00St. Mark's Basilica may be the only new recruit to Coolmore Stud in Ireland this year, but

00:06what a recruit he is. A champion at 2 and 3 and awarded Cartier Horse of the Year in

00:122021, St. Mark's Basilica is a hugely exciting stallion prospect. Mark Byrne of Coolmore

00:17spoke to TDN about the classic winning son of Siuni.

00:22St. Mark's Basilica, who is the son of Siuni, he's a world champion three-year-old and of

00:27course he's a half-brother to our very own Magna Grisia as well. So an extremely exciting

00:32young horse to bring into Ireland again. He was a brilliant racehorse at both 2 and 3.

00:37He was the European champion two-year-old, Cartier two-year-old. He won the Dewhurst

00:41and that springboarded him in. Then he won the French Guineas, he won the French Derby,

00:45so very like Chamardale. And then he went on to win the Coralie Cliffs and of course

00:50that day in Leperstown as well when he beat multiple Group 1 winners behind him in an

00:55exciting finish to his career.

01:13He never disappointed us and he just went from strength to strength and to finish up

01:18as world champion two-year-old, joint world champion two-year-old is remarkable.

01:22The mare Cabaret, she actually raced in Ballyda for the partners Magner, Tabor and Smith and

01:27she was sold and she was bought by BB Ireland for Robert Scarborough. She boards in Norland

01:32Stud in County Kilkenny who are actually going to be great supporters of him this year as

01:36well. It's a family name, when the guys went back and saw Magna Grisia as a foal, he was

01:41the most expensive foal by Invincible Spirit at the time when they bought him and he came

01:45out to be a Group 1 winning two-year-old and a Classic winning three-year-old. So he was

01:49actually the only horse by Invincible Spirit to win a Group 1 at two and three. So I think

01:54that had their lights on that day in Newmarket when they went to see him and he didn't disappoint

01:58when he came out of the box down in Norland's there in Newmarket and Tavistock's Buck One.

02:02He was a 1.3 million Guineas graduate from that sale and he lived up to his looks and

02:08his pedigree which is so often such a hard thing to achieve.

02:12He's a beautiful looking horse. He's very striking when you see him, very attractive.

02:17He's got great muscle and very athletic. He's the size and scope that would have got him

02:22the 10 furlongs but he's also loads of muscle and that's what brought in the speed as well.

02:28It's an interesting cross, the Sioni Galileo cross. It looks like it's from the few samples

02:33that have been there. It's an extremely explosive cross. As I mentioned already, we've got Sotsas

02:38who was a World Championship three-year-old as well and a Bregel Erk winner. They're both

02:42kind of different in the types. They've both got a lot of quality, Sotsas and St. Mark's Basilica.

02:48But in particular, St. Mark's Basilica probably has a bit more muscle to him and that's probably

02:52what led to him being the champion two-year-old that he was. It's incredible.

02:57He's standing at €65,000 but it's like he's standing with an extra zero on that price.

03:01The mares that he's getting, he's getting the Dams of Breeders Cup winners, he's getting

03:05Oaks winners, he's getting champion two-year-olds. The best breeders in the world from all over

03:09the world as well, from Europe and Asia and America all the way through. That's before

03:14our own mares have got into him and at the moment we've selected some absolutely beautiful

03:18mares for him as well. It's an extremely exciting time and he won't be lacking support at stud

03:23and if the foals can look like him or his brother, we know we'll be in good stead.

03:39you