While Fiorente was busy earning accolades in Melbourne with his stunning VRC Australian Cup G1 victory, his dam Desert Bloom was being courted by a champion Australian sire in France.
The unraced daughter of Pilsudski and Desert Beauty (by Green Desert) was served at the weekend by Redoute’s Choice, who is standing his second Northern Hemisphere season at the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval in Normandy.
Fiorente’s breeder Ballymacoll Stud also welcomed a Redoute’s Choice colt from Fleur De Cactus (Montjeu-Desert Bloom) on 2 January. He was the first foal born this year on the famous Irish farm owned by the Weinstock and Sobell families.
Fiorente is the third horse to complete the Melbourne Cup-Australian Cup double in the same season, after Hall of Famers Let’s Elope and Makybe Diva. His season earnings of $4.9 million are keeping his champion German sire Monsun, who died in 2012, among Australia’s current top ten sires, with prospects of plenty more as Fiorente returns to Sydney for the Autumn Carnival, including The Championships.
Ballymacoll Stud has had great success with Fiorente’s female family over a long period of time. His second dam Hellenic won the Yorkshire Oaks G1 and proved a gem at stud, as the dam of five Group winners, three of them successful at Group 1 level: Champion filly & mare Islington (by Sadler’s Wells); Mountain High (by Danehill; Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud G1) & Greek Dance (by Sadler’s Wells; Champion older male in Germany).
Fiorente is directly descended from Coventry Belle (Hyperion-Carpet Slipper), purchased as a foal at the 1938 Newmarket December Sales for 2300 guineas by Dorothy Paget, the previous owner of Ballymacoll Stud. Coventry Belle, whose siblings included Classic winners Godiva and Windsor Slipper, is also the ancestress of outstanding English miler Reform and Golan (Newmarket 2000 Guineas G1 & Ascot King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. G1).
