Wootton Bassett, one of the world’s great sires, has sadly passed away today at Coolmore Australia.
He suffered from choke and subsequently developed an acute pneumonia which deteriorated rapidly. Despite round-the-clock care from a dedicated team of vets, overseen by Dr Nathan Slovis from Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Kentucky, he was unable to be saved.
Wootton Bassett’s story as a sire is a unique one. Nicolas de Chambure got him off to an incredible start at Haras d’Etreham in France before he was acquired by Coolmore in 2020.
In his time at Coolmore, he developed into a world-class sire, with 25 Stakes winners and six Group 1 winners from his current two and three-year-old crops conceived in Ireland.
Included amongst these are multiple Group 1-winning sons Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse, as well as this season’s multiple Group 1-winning filly, Whirl.
His current two-year-old crop in Europe already includes six Group winners. Albert Einstein, who defeated subsequent Group 1 winner Power Blue in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes, is considered by both Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore to be one of the best two-year-olds ever seen in Ballydoyle.
Two more colts, Constitution River and Puerto Rico, have won Group 2 races in recent weeks, while a pair of fillies, Composing and Beautify, both scored at the same level. Coolmore’s valued clients have three more crops in the pipeline, the first of which will come under the hammer at the yearling sales in the weeks ahead.
In Australia, his first crop is highlighted by this year’s Golden Slipper runner-up and first colt home Wodeton, who lines up in the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes this weekend for Chris Waller.
