Derby hero Lambourn a timely reminder of what his bargain sire Australia can do

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens takes a closer look at Coolmore resident Australia following Lambourn's win in the Derby on Saturday – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Australia’s covering fee of €10,000 at Coolmore this season, slashed from €17,500 in 2024 and down from €50,000 when he first retired to the stud ten years ago, says all you need to know about his progress as a stallion: simply put, he has not passed down his own brilliant class to his offspring as regularly as was once hoped.

However, the son of Epsom Classic winners Galileo and Ouija Board is no abject failure either. He is a fairly useful, if not exceptional, source of milers, middle-distance performers and stayers, and his seventh-crop son Lambourn, who led his rivals a merry dance in the Derby at Epsom on Saturday, is a reminder of what he can do.

Australia was bought by Coolmore from his breeder Stanley House Stud for 525,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2012, making him only the tenth most expensive progeny of his sire at the auction, in spite of the identity of his dam. He turned out to be by far the best on offer, though.

He quickly developed into an exciting two-year-old, sent out by Aidan O’Brien to score in a seven-furlong Curragh maiden in July and to slam Free Eagle by six lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Trial at Leopardstown in September.

Australia finished a close third behind Night Of Thunder and Kingman in a vintage 2,000 Guineas on his three-year-old bow (all three have supplied Classic winners in 2025 now; the winner being responsible for Desert Flower and the runner-up on the mark with Field Of Gold). He predictably improved for the step up in trip in the Derby, defeating Kingston Hill with some authority at Epsom.

Australia followed up with a straightforward success in the Irish Derby and a powerful victory in the Juddmonte International, by which time he looked like the season’s standout three-year-old middle-distance talent. He was duly sent off at long odds-on for the Irish Champion Stakes, but had to settle for second behind the Prix du Jockey Club winner The Grey Gatsby in a tactical affair.

Australia was being prepared for British Champions Day at Ascot when he started to suffer from problems with his right-hind hoof, and so the decision was made to retire him.

He was welcomed to Coolmore in 2015 with a glittering book of 171 mares that included top-class racecourse performers Ardbrae Lady, Bright Sky, Guadalupe, Mauralakana, Nightflower, Nymphea, Peeping Fawn, Rags To Riches, Ridasiyna, Sense Of Style and Virginia Waters, and the mares who were already, or would become, the dams of Group 1 winners Beauty Only, Cambina, Circular Quay, Coronet, Lucky Lion, Luxembourg, Order Of St George and Rekindling.

He remained popular in the following years, covering 136 mares in his second season, 152 in his third and 190 in his fourth. The proportion who were stakes winners remained steady at around a fifth during that time.

Lambourn and Wayne Lordan after winning the 246th DerbyCredit: Edward Whitaker

Australia made a satisfactory enough start with his debut two-year-olds in 2018, with Beyond Reason scoring in the Prix Six Perfections and Prix du Calvados for Godolphin, and Broome, Sydney Opera House and Western Australia all finishing placed in backend Group 1s for Ballydoyle. He was put in the shade by Coolmore colleague No Nay Never and Kingman, who ruled that year’s freshman sire table, but he was expected to fare better with his three-year-olds, and so it proved.

Australia was briefly the talk of the industry in the spring of his sophomore season, with Broome winning the Ballysax Stakes by eight lengths and the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial by a shorter distance but still with consummate ease, and Bangkok notching a stylish victory in the Sandown Classic Trial.

Australia was duly inundated with 227 mares that season, but the rest of the year didn’t pan out so well. Broome finished a close fourth in the Derby but flopped in the Irish Derby and wasn’t seen again in 2019, and Bangkok was well beaten at Epsom but did at least run second in the King Edward VII Stakes and Strensall Stakes.

The sire’s highest earner in his second season turned out to be Sir Ron Priestley, who progressed through handicaps to take the March Stakes and to finish second behind Logician in the St Leger. He finished the year with a decent tally of eight black-type winners, achieved at a respectable strike-rate of 6.1 per cent, but the trouble was there were few stars to really set the pulse racing.

Australia’s fee was consequently lowered to €27,500 in 2020, and his book fell to 73 mares. His progeny did much better on the track later that year, though, with Galileo Chrome crowning an unbeaten three-year-old season with success in the St Leger, Order Of Australia springing a surprise in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Cayenne Pepper taking the Blandford Stakes and running second in the Pretty Polly Stakes and Irish Oaks. All three emerged from his second crop.

Australia was back in fashion in 2021, covering 165 mares at a fee of €25,000, and he enjoyed a good year on the racecourse again, with Broome winning the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in a busy season, Mare Australis landing the Prix Ganay before being sidelined by an ankle injury, and Bangkok, Epona Plays, Order Of Australia and Sir Ron Priestley winning Group 2s. Broome’s full-brother Point Lonsdale also took high order among the two-year-olds, winning the Chesham Stakes, Tyros Stakes and Futurity Stakes.

Australia received a pay rise to €35,000 in 2022, and received 173 mares during that season, only to become inconsistent thereafter. He has been represented by some very smart horses since then, including Classic-placed Adelaide River, Cercene and Tasmania, but real headline acts have been few. In fact, Ocean Road, who struck in the Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita for Qatar Racing in May 2022, was his last top-level winner until Lambourn scored in the Derby this weekend.

His large 2020 crop, which contained 144 named foals who were conceived against the backdrop of first-crop sons Broome and Bangkok winning Classic trials, was especially damaging to his reputation as it threw up only four Pattern scorers, all at Group 3 level. More was expected, not unjustifiably.

Port Fairy beats Lava Stream in the Ribblesdale StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Australia’s fee and book sizes entered a downward spiral, with 111 mares covered at a fee of €25,000 in 2023 and just 60 covered at a fee of €17,500 last year. His much reduced price this season will surely have arrested the decline in numbers, though – especially as his sales results haven’t actually been too bad.

Indeed, even after a quieter season on the track in 2024, when Ribblesdale Stakes heroine Port Fairy was one of his few highlights, his yearlings in Europe sold for an improved average of 54,500gns and median of 42,000gns. There were few blockbuster prices for his lots, but trade for them was solid enough.

That might have been because they were the result of those improved covers in the wake of the racecourse exploits of Broome, Mare Australis and co in 2021, or it might have been reflective of the greater appreciation of later-maturing, staying stock in the marketplace as buyers wise up to the better resale opportunities for them.

If those versatile middle-distance horses are what you want, Australia was a bit of a no-brainer at his price of €10,000 this year, as his statistics stand up well next to other reliable sources of stamina, in spite of the lack of celebrity offspring.

According to Weatherbys, he is operating at five per cent black-type winners to foals of racing age, behind Sea The Stars (2024 fee: €250,000) on nine per cent and Camelot (€75,000) on six per cent, but ahead of Golden Horn (£10,000), Nathaniel (£20,000) and Sea The Moon (£22,500), all on four per cent.

Comparisons can be odious and it should be noted, for example, that Nathaniel has delivered many more ‘sexy’ horses in his time and has more jumps-bred offspring on the ground, which holds back his Flat percentages.

Either way, Australia’s supporters are in good company, as the sire is reputedly a favourite of Aidan O’Brien, whose family has loyally sent him a decent number of mares every year. As a matter of fact, Annemarie O’Brien is the breeder of the sire’s Group 3-winning daughter Wemightakedlongway, who finished a gallant fourth in the Oaks on Friday for son Joseph.

It’s not difficult to see why Australia should appeal to trainers like the O’Briens, though, when his progeny are generally uncomplicated, relentless gallopers who can withstand plenty of racing.

Lambourn, who has put Australia in the spotlight, owes a lot of his ability to his dam as well, of course. He was bred by Coolmore and is the second foal out of the sharp Scat Daddy mare Gossamer Wings, who finished a short-head second to Signora Cabello in the Queen Mary Stakes and filled the same position behind Soldier’s Call in the Flying Childers Stakes at two, but appeared not to train on at three. Truth be told, she was far from her sire’s only precocious offspring to be gradually overtaken by her peers as they grew older.

Galileo and Scat Daddy appear to complement each other in that regard. Galileo and his sons and daughters have lent matings with Scat Daddy’s offspring a higher degree of class, and progression over more than one season, while Scat Daddy’s raw power and speed helps prevent Galileo’s more dourly bred descendants like Australia becoming overloaded with stamina.

Australia's daughter Wemightakedlongway wins the Salsabil StakesCredit: Patrick McCann

Wemightakedlongway is out of a mare by Scat Daddy’s son No Nay Never, while last year’s Derby hero City Of Troy is by Scat Daddy’s son Justify and out of the Group 1-winning Galileo mare Together Forever – with Coolmore now throwing everything but the kitchen sink at replicating that particular cross.

Interestingly, the mare who has clicked better with Australia than any other to date, Broome and Point Lonsdale’s dam Sweepstake, was also very precocious, being by Acclamation and having won the Listed National Stakes over five furlongs at Sandown on her second start at two.

Sharpening up the sire with a speedier mare is obviously not a bad idea, then, but it’s worth pointing out that it isn’t the only recipe for success. Bangkok is out of a Darshaan mare who was Listed-placed over 12 furlongs and Mare Australis is out of a middle-distance daughter of Rainbow Quest, and both horses had enough boot to win big races over ten and a half furlongs.

Here’s hoping Australia has continued to receive a mixture of mares at his reduced fee of €10,000 this year, including a few with a touch of class, in order to give him every chance of success in the future.

His performance as a sire might have been solid rather than spectacular but as a proven, commercially credible stamina-orientated sire standing in the budget bracket, able to get a proper top-notcher like Lambourn every now and again, he is a rare commodity in British and Irish Flat breeding.

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