Line of Duty a Winner for Godolphin and Coolmore

Godolphin's decision to relax its decade-long boycott of buying stock by Coolmore sires at source last year has already been rewarded on the racecourse in 2018—most notably through Charlie Appleby's group 2-winning filly Beyond Reason, a daughter of Australia bought by Rabbah Bloodstock for 370,000gns (US$515,812).

But the move was vindicated most spectacularly when the Appleby-trained Line of Duty finished strongly to take the Nov. 2 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) at Churchill Downs.

The colt is by Coolmore phenomenon Galileo, whose foals and yearlings the Maktoum family had refused to purchase at auction despite him being champion sire in Britain and Ireland for nine of the last 10 seasons.

Godolphin did buy progeny of Galileo after they had proven their talent on the track, most effectively when securing the sire's champion 2-year-old sons Teofilo and New Approach from their trainer Jim Bolger, who had bet the bank on Galileo in his early years at stud.

New Approach and Teofilo have stood with success under the Darley banner at Sheikh Mohammed's studs to mitigate to a degree the self-imposed lack of access to their sire, and this year Masar, a Godolphin-bred son of New Approach, won the Investec Derby (G1) carrying the operation's royal blue silks.

Line of Duty is one of nine yearlings by Galileo bought by either Godolphin or the affiliated Rabbah Bloodstock at the sales last year.

Others include the dual winner Nayef Road, trained by Mark Johnston for Mohammed Obaida, and Mary Somerville, in the care of John Gosden for Princess Haya of Jordan and a runner-up twice from three starts.

Godolphin also dipped into the drafts of other Coolmore sires at auction in 2017, and the results have included Art du Val, a listed runner-up by No Nay Never, as well as Beyond Reason.

Sheikh Mohammed's team was back in action for more Galileo offspring at the yearling sales in recent weeks, with Anthony Stroud purchasing a number who are likely to race for Godolphin or their associates, including a 1,200,000gns ($1,649,718) half sister to Ivawood and a 1,100,000gns ($1,512,242) colt out of Posset, a sister to Midday.

Line of Duty, winner of the group 3 Prix de Condé last month, was bred by Triermore Stud and is the fourth foal out of the Rock of Gibraltar mare Jacqueline Quest, who finished first past the post in the Stanjames.com One Thousand Guineas (G1) in 2010 but was demoted to second in favour of Special Duty, the stewards deeming she had cost her rival victory by hanging in the final furlong.

Jacqueline Quest, who also finished third in the Coronation Stakes (G1) and was bought by Charlie Gordon-Watson as a breeding prospect for 600,000gns ($972,657) at the end of her racing career, has also produced the listed-placed Hibiscus after being mated to Galileo.

The mare, who hails from the family of group winners Regime, Salut d'Amour, and Title Roll, has a yearling filly by Dubawi sold to Jamie McCalmont for 200,000gns ($274,953) at Tattersalls October Book 1 last month and a Galileo colt foal born March 30.

She was covered by Dubawi again this year.

There were some hairy moments immediately after the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Friday when it appeared that Line of Duty might emulate his dam in the most unfortunate way, with stewards looking into bumping between him and the runner-up Uncle Benny, a son of Declaration of War.

However, on this occasion, the result stood, and Line of Duty became the 75th group/grade 1 winner for Galileo.

Having surpassed his own sire, Sadler's Wells, in this respect—he had managed 73—Galileo now has the all-time record of 84 held by Danehill firmly in his sights.