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Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale - First Season Sires
Caravaggio - the superfast son of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) - was retired in 2018, having landed seven races in ten starts, amassing £753,244 in career prize-money for trainer Aidan O’Brien.
Unbeaten in all four starts as a juvenile, the colt kicked off his career when landing a maiden over five furlongs at the Dundalk and was tested at stakes level on his second in the Marble Hill Stakes (Listed, 5f), which he won by two and a quarter lengths.
Caravaggio was then sent to Royal Ascot and proved too strong for his classy opposition when winning the Coventry Stakes (Gr 2, 6f), after which he landed his first race at elite level when sauntering to a four length victory in the Phoenix Stakes (Gr 1, 6f).
After being kept in training as a three-year-old, Caravaggio made his seasonal debut in the Lacken Stakes (Gr 3, 6f), which he won by four and three-quarter lengths, before completing a Royal Ascot double with a win in the Commonwealth Cup (Gr 1, 6f), defeating the subsequent dual Group 1 heroes Harry Angel (Dark Angel) and Blue Point (Shamardal) a in a memorable clash.
It was Harry Angel who brought an end to Caravaggio's perfect record, when beating him into fourth in the July Cup (Gr 1, 6f) at Newmarket. Caravaggio’s final career victory came in the Flying Five Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) at the Curragh, before he finished third in the British Champions Sprint Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) on what proved to be the final outing of his career.
Bred in America, Caravaggio is out of US Listed winner Mekko Hokte (Holy Bull), whose other winners are headed by Grade 2 scorer My Jen (Fusaichi Pegasus).
Further afield the sire hails from the same family as Grade 3 scorer Sharp Performance and Listed-winning duo Silver In Flight (Silver Sense) and Meisho Tensui (Dunkirk).
Carravaggio’s first yearlings offered in the northern hemisphere were well received, with 64 selling for an aggregate of £6,198,238, at an average of £96,847 and his top colt made £544,041 when selling to Northern Farm at the JRA Select Yearling and Foal in Japan.