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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