Sadler's Wells is horse in a million

While they are no longer with us and their progeny increasingly rare, this 20-year-old has - if the Gods are smiling - up to seven years left of breeding. Indeed, were it not for the tenacity of Godolphin's Mutafaweq in the Vodafone Coronation Cup 45 minutes prior to the Oaks, Wellbeing would have brought his dad the title a day earlier with an amazing whitewash of Epsom's Group One events.

Is this modern-day phenomenon a rags-to-riches tale? The case of an unlikely hero?

Well, no. It's much more rare than that. This is a story of great expectations, met . . . and then exceeded. Sadler's Wells' dam Fairy Bridge was purchased for Robert Sangster - a founding partner of Ireland's giant Coolmore Stud enterprise.

She was mated to sire of sires Northern Dancer and the product raced 11 times as a juvenile and three-year-old winning six times for illustrious trainer Vincent O'Brien.

Both victories at two years of age came with wide margins, including a Group Two, but his later career prompts ultra-modern comparisons with Giant's Causeway. Like last year's people's champion, when Sadler's Wells won in his three-year-old year of 1984, it wasn't by much.

He won the Irish 2,000 Guineas, but his most famous win came in the Eclipse when he cut down the early leader and showed fierce resolution to deny the late challenges of Time Charter and Morcon.

Another strength was his resilience. In the twilight of an un-remitting three-year-old campaign asked of few top-class horses in the modern era (except Giant's Cause-way), he bounced back from a below-par effort to take the Phoenix Champion Stakes in his homeland.

But he was not the best racehorse of his generation - official figures crown stablemate El Gran Senor - nor unique as a well-bred son of Northern Dancer.

What made Sadler's Wells different was only partly circumstance.

It helped that the Maktoum family's millions had priced Sangster out of the bloodstock-auction ring, so Coolmore's merry-go-round of newly-retired, beautifully bred, potential stallions slowed a little.

But his success is of his own making. He is related to Nureyev, the deposed 1980 2,000 Guineas winner who was already a commercial success as a sire. In hardy Sadler's Wells was the prospect of betterhumoured, more relaxed progeny that stayed far better. So it proved - and rather more immediately than could have been dreamed.

From his first crop, Prince Of Dance and Scenic dead-heated for the 1988 Group One Dewhurst Stakes, Old Vic completed the 1989 French-Irish Derby double and In The Wings won the 1990 Coronation Cup.

His second crop included triple Group One heroine Salsabil, and on it goes - Opera House, Barathea, Entrepreneur, Kayf Tara, Dream Well, King Of Kings, Montjeu. For novelty value, don't forget triple champion hurdler Istabraq.

Sadler's Wells is a licence to print money for Coolmore. A lofty initial covering fee in 1985 of IR125,000gns was immediately justified and is now worth IR200,000gns.

He began by covering around 60 mares a year, was upped to a ton in the early 1990s and last year mated with 196 - a massive number for a stallion of his calibre. That's earning-power on paper of £40m in 2000.

Champion Flat sire for 10 of the past 11 years, it's not premature to predict that Galileo's big moment has already secured Sadler's Wells a 10th consecutive title.