Champion stayer Yeats represented by first winner

Yeats, Europe’s champion stayer for four consecutive years, was represented by his first winner on Saturday, as his first starter, Dress Drive, won a 1,400-meter (about seven-furlong) maiden race at San Siro Racecourse in Milan.

The 2-year-old colt out of the unraced Cadeaux Genereux mare Diagon Alley won by two lengths for owner Enrico Di Simone and trainer Daniele Arienti.

Yeats covered both flat and steeplechase mares in his first season at stud. The 12-year-old son of Sadler's Wells currently stands under Coolmore’s National Hunt banner at an advertised fee of about $8,000 (6,000 euros).

Racing for Coolmore, Yeats won all three of his starts at 2 and 3 but fully emerged as a 4-year-old in 2005, when he won the about 1 1/2-mile Coronation Cup at Epsom. In 2006, Yeats won the first of four consecutive editions of the about 2 1/2-mile Gold Cup at Ascot. He also won the Irish Field St. Leger in 2007 and the Prix Royal Oak-French St. Leger in 2008.

Yeats retired in 2009 with 15 wins from 26 starts, including seven Group 1 wins, and over $2.5 million in earnings. He was honored as Europe’s champion stayer from 2006-2009.

Yeats, out of the winning Top Ville mare Lyndonville, is a half-brother to both Group 2 winner Solskjaer and Group 3 winner Tsukuba Symphony.