Windsor Park Stud will stand world champion miler Rip Van Winkle for the 2011 southern hemisphere breeding season.  The Coolmore colt was a G1 winner of the 2009 Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes and Ascot’s Queen Elizabeth 11 Stakes over 1600m.

Along with his sire Galileo, Rip Van Winkle is the highest rated 3YO galloper to come from the famous Ballydoyle stables of Aidan O’Brien.  He earned a Timeform rating of 134 in a vintage crop that also included champion Sea The Stars.

“Rip Van Winkle is the most natural athlete we’ve ever had,” O’Brien said.  “His main asset is class and he’s as hard as concrete mentally.”

Rip Van Winkle won the G3 Tyros Stakes at the Curragh as a two year-old and returned for fourth placings in the English 2000 Guineas and English Derby in the spring of 2009.

He followed up with a second to Sea The Stars in the G1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown and then scored a comprehensive G1 victory in the Sussex Stakes over 1600m  Timeform rated it the best Sussex in 30 years.

Rip Van Winkle then won his penultimate start that season in the G1 Queen Elizabeth 11 Stakes over 1600m at Ascot.  

Kept in training, Rip Van Winkle’s five Group 1 outings in 2010 included another G1 in the International Stakes at York (2100m) as well as seconds in the Sussex Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes and Queen Elizabeth 11 Stakes.

Windsor Park’s Nelson Schick is excited to have Rip Van Winkle on board in New Zealand.  “It’s a privilege to be able to offer Australasian breeders a stallion of this calibre.  When you analyse Rip Van Winkle, you understand how special he is to have consistently achieved such a high level of performance.”

Rip Van Winkle’s sire Galileo was twice Champion European Sire of 2YOs in 2007 and 2010 and twice Champion European Sire in 2008 and 2010.  Galileo is a member of the trinity of Sadler’s Wells best performed sons at Coolmore Stud, the other two being Montjeu (Timeform 137) and High Chaparral (Timeform 132) who both shuttled to Windsor Park with great success.

Windsor Park also has a close connection with Rip Van Winkle’s female line as he comes from the same family as its eight-time Champion Sire Volksraad.

Rip Van Winkle (Galileo – Looking Back by Stravinsky) will join European Champion 2YO Mastercraftsman and G1 winning 2YO Thewayyouare among Coolmore Stud stallions shuttling to Windsor Park.

Coolmore head John Magnier will contribute nominations to the three Coolmore stallions standing at Windsor Park as a fundraiser for the Christchurch earthquake appeal.