SUPERSTAR Aidan O’Brien horse Delacroix has officially been retired aged three – and now he is set to make his owners millions.
Labelled ‘undoubtedly the best-looking son of Dubawi we’ve ever seen’, the two-time Group 1 winner is primed for a lucrative career at stud.
And he will prove particularly important for all-conquering owners Coolmore.
The benchmark for breeding globally, they have produced winners everywhere thanks to the likes of the late, great Sadler’s Wells and Galileo.
Owners looking for the next big thing paid up to a rumoured £600,000 a cover when Galileo was at his peak.
And while the top these days is the £350,000 commanded by Frankel and Dubawi, Coolmore will hope Delacroix – who punters lovingly call Del Boy – can go some way to matching them.
His world-class pedigree at least gives hope.
Delacroix’s mum is the late former Queen Anne winner and six-time Group 1 queen Tepin, who Coolmore head honcho John Magnier’s son MV paid $8million (£6m in today’s money) for in 2017.
She sadly died in October last year having produced only four foals.
Delacroix, who made £1.7m on the racecourse, was one of those.
He is important to Coolmore because his bloodline doesn’t include their stalwart stallions.
It’s why he has been called ‘a very important outcross’ for the racing behemoth.
Commenting on Delacroix’s retirement after his fourth-place finish in last weekend’s Champion Stakes at Ascot, Coolmore’s David O’Loughlin said: “Delacroix is a gorgeous horse, undoubtedly the best-looking son of Dubawi we’ve ever seen.
“He out of one of America’s greatest racemares of recent times and was an exceptionally sound, tough and talented racehorse with a lethal turn of foot.
“Dubawi’s sons like Night Of Thunder, Too Darn Hot, Zarak and New Bay are all excelling at stud and Delacroix was higher-rated than any of them.
“His pedigree is free of Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Danehill and Green Desert so he will be a very important outcross for Coolmore and many of our clients.”
Delacroix’s time on the track will be remembered for his Coral-Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes wins.
In the former he nutted Ombudsman on the line having looked out of it the whole way before motoring home from off the pace.
And in the latter he breezed past bona fide Group 1-winning monsters to win with ease under Christophe Soumillon, who was deputising for the injured Ryan Moore.
Commenting on that Leopardstown win – his final one – last month, O’Brien, who also saw a £2.5m Group 1 winner also retire from his yard recently, said: “Delacroix is an incredible horse and Christophe gave him a super ride.
“It was off a strong pace today and was always going to be an even run race, but when he said go on him it was over really.
“I haven’t seen a horse do that before.
“We saw him quicken like that at Sandown and what he did was very unusual. He did it again.”
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