Coolmore moving young stallion Caravaggio from Ireland to Ashford Stud

After a stellar reception for his first yearlings in the sales ring, the international Coolmore group announced that Group 1 winner Caravaggio, by Scat Daddy, will move from its Irish headquarters to its Ashford Stud in Kentucky for 2021.

Caravaggio won 7 of 10 starts in his own racing career. He got off to a quick start as a juvenile when he won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting. Later that season, he added the Group 1 Phoenix in Ireland. He was again a multiple group stakes winner at 3, highlighted by another Royal Ascot victory in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.

The best sons of Scat Daddy – including Triple Crown winner Justify – went to stud after their sire’s sudden death in 2015, when his star was still very much on the rise. That dynamic has helped create high commercial demand for his sons, and Caravaggio has been no exception.

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In addition to yearlings sold for six figures at the Tattersalls and Goffs sales in Europe, his small contingent turned in a breakout performance at the Keeneland September yearling sale, no doubt influencing the decision to move him to America. Caravaggio was represented by six yearlings who sold for an average price of $212,833 at North America’s largest yearling sale, ranking third by average among first-crop sires and trailing only Eclipse Award champions Gun Runner and Arrogate.

He also ranked 12th overall by average among all stallions with three or more offspring sold at the sale. Caravaggio’s most expensive lot at Keeneland was a $400,000 filly purchased by Stripes Stable. The Irish-born filly is out of the winning Unbridled’s Song mare Mundus Novus, dam of Group 1-placed stakes winner Consort. Grade 1 winner Aruna appears on the catalog page.

In a release announcing Caravaggio’s move to Kentucky, Ashford director of sales Charlie O’Connor noted that prominent North American breeders and trainers have supported the young stallion on the track and in the sales ring. He also cited Caravaggio’s American-based female family, as he is out of the Holy Bull mare Mekko Hokte, a stakes winner on dirt who also produced the Grade 2-winning dirt sprint mare My Jen.

“All in all, we thought it made a lot of sense to bring him over,” O’Connor said.