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The Man o' War Stakes (gr. I) witnessed not only the defeated of Curlin on his turf debut, but also a return to form of the 2006 Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. I) hero Red Rocks, who was taking his first stakes win since the spring of 2007.

Red Rocks, a son of one of Europe's dominant sire Galileo, is out of a mare by Machiavellian, who - like Galileo's broodmare sire, Miswaki - is a son of Mr. Prospector. In general, crossing Galileo back over mares by sons of Mr. Prospector has been disappointing - there is only one other stakes winner on the cross for a total of two stakes winners from 25 starters - but what has redeemed the mating may well be some clever inbreeding. Galileo is by Sadler's Wells out of a mare by a son of Mr. Prospector, and when we look at Red Rocks' dam, Pharmacist, we find that she is by a son of Mr. Prospector out of a mare by Fairy King, a brother to Sadler's Wells, so a reverse cross to Galileo.

As far as the Mr. Prospector cross is concerned, it may be worth noting that there are only three starters by Galileo out of mares by Machiavellian, and in addition to Machiavellian, the cross has produced group I-placed Rockmaster, so Machiavellian mares might still be well worth considering here.

Another recent group winner for Galileo is Incanto Dream, who took the Prix Maurice de Nieuil (gr. II). Out of a mare by Sadler's Wells' three-parts-brother Nureyev, Incanto Dream is bred on a cross that has not been a high percentage one for Sadler's Wells in general. However, the cross that produced Incanto Dream - rated A++ by TrueNicks - is rather different as Galileo has already also sired stakes winner Classic Legend out of a mare by a son of Nureyev.

Interestingly enough, there is something of a similarity between the pedigree of Classic Legend and that of Red Rocks, as Classic Legend's broodmare sire is bred on a Nureyev/Raise a Native cross that is a parallel to the Sadler's Wells/Raise a Native cross that produced Galileo.

Returning to Incanto Dream, we can note that his pedigree has another important factor. Via Sadler's Wells and Nureyev, Incanto Dream is linebred 4 x 3 to the mare Special - granddam of Sadler's Wells and dam of Nureyev - but in addition, his fourth dam, Horse of the Year Moccasin, is a sister to Special.

On the subject of inbreeding to Special and relatives, we shouldn't overlook Archipenko (Kingmambo - Bound, by Nijinsky II). Making his first start since winning the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (gr. I), he took the Summer Mile Stakes (gr. II)) at Ascot. Archipenko's dam, Bound, is by Nijinsky II out of Special, and is therefore, a three-parts-sister to Nureyev, the broodmare sire of Kingmambo.

Filed under: Recent Winners, Emerging Nicks