For the last several years, Coolmore has obviously been looking for a successor to their aging super stallion Galileo. Mastercraftsman, by Danehill Dancer, has proven himself a good sire, but not in Galileo’s class, and Galileo’s sons Australia, Churchill, Gleneagles, Highland Reel, Ruler of the World, and The Gurkha are too young to have made a mark as yet. The result of Saturday’s Irish Derby, however, may indicate that Coolmore’s search for a successor has already found a future king in the form of Camelot, sire of the Derby’s upset winner, Latrobe. Bred in England by Sheikh Abdulla bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Camelot was purchased by Demi O’Byrne on behalf of the Coolmore syndicate for about $875,000 at the 2010 Tattersalls October yearling sale. Camelot proved himself the best of the 126 black-type winners sired by Montjeu, in turn the best racing son of Galileo’s sire, Sadler’s Wells. A great sire in his own right, Montjeu led the French sire list in 2005 and sired a record-equaling four winners of the Epsom Derby, but his progeny were generally considered more delicate, particularly temperamentally, than the Galileos. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Camelot won both his starts at 2, including an impressive 2 1/4-length victory in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy, making him the highweight on both the English and Irish 2-year-old handicaps. He made his first start at 3 in the 2000 Guineas, the first leg of England’s original Triple Crown, and Joseph O’Brien threaded his way through from the back of the field to edge French Fifteen by a neck. That made him a 3-5 for the Epsom Derby, and he romped to an easy five-length victory over future American champion turf male Main Sequence. He was just as impressive over soft ground in the Irish Derby, beating Born to Sea by two lengths. Camelot was unbeaten in five career starts and the first serious candidate to win the English Triple Crown since Nijinsky II’s famous sweep in 1970. There are several reasons to think that he should have completed the sweep in the St. Leger. For once Joseph O’Brien did not shine in the saddle, allowing Camelot to be trapped on the inside at the crucial moment and extracting him too late to catch Encke who stole a march and held off Camelot’s dramatic closing charge by three-quarters of a length. The following spring another cloud descended on the result when Encke was one of several not allowed to race for a year because of the steroid scandal that engulfed his trainer, Mahmoud al Zarooni, but no retroactive action was taken. Camelot finished seventh in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe two weeks later and never really regained his best form in three starts at 4, when he won the Group 3 Mooresbridge Stakes but was twice beaten by Al Khazeem. Retired to Coolmore in 2014, breeders had every right to expect him to be a prominent stallion. A champion at 2 and 3 who probably should have won the Triple Crown, his dam, Group 3 winner Tarfah, by Kingmambo, is from the excellent English family founded by the Royal Record mare Seventh Bride. His first crop of 150 Northern Hemisphere foals now includes seven black-type winners, including Italian classic winner Wait Forever (out of Mt McLeod, by Holy Roman Emperor), Group 2 winner Fighting Irish (Quixotic, by Pivotal), and Group 3 winners Hunting Horn (Mora Bai, by Indian Ridge) and Pollara (Brooklyn’s Storm, by Storm Cat), in addition to Latrobe. Bred in Ireland by Sweetmans Bloodstock, Latrobe was purchased for only about $87,000 by his trainer, Joseph O’Brien, at the 2016 Tattersalls October yearling sale on behalf of Australian owner Lloyd Williams. He is the third foal out of stakes-placed Question Times, by Shamardal, whose first foal Diamond Fields, by Fastnet Rock, won the Group 3 Gladness Stakes. Question Times is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Sunday Times, by Holy Roman Emperor, dam of stakes winner Classical Times, by Lawman. Second dam Forever Times, by So Factual, is a half-sister to two stakes winners, and he descends from a fair sort of family that has wandered from Argentina to the United States and now to Europe. Coolmore stallions have led the combined English/Irish sire list for an amazing 28 years in a row since the first of Camelot’s grandsire Sadler’s Wells’s record 14 championships in 1990. Danehill took up the crown from Sadler’s Wells in 2005, and since Galileo’s first of nine championships, only Danehill’s son Danehill Dancer in 2009 has intervened. Galileo has a comfortable lead again this year, but after Latrobe’s victory Saturday, Camelot now sits in fourth place with only his first crop of 3-year-olds. There will surely be more to come.