Queenstown added another chapter to Galileo's remarkable legacy when landing the Prix Royal-Oak (G1) at Saint-Cloud Oct. 25, becoming the late Coolmore super sire's 105th individual group/grade 1 winner.
The Aidan O'Brien-trained 6-year-old gelding was backing up just eight days after a brave second-placed finish in the Long Distance Cup (G1) at Ascot and he showed no ill effects from that performance when he defeated the Sir Mark Prescott-trained Consent, who is incidentally out of a daughter of Galileo.
It was a much-deserved win at the highest level for Queenstown, who, alongside his Champions Day near miss, had also come close to group 1 glory when finishing a narrow runner-up to Arrow Eagle in last year's renewal of the Prix Royal-Oak, before finding only Scandinavia too good in last month's Irish St Leger (G1).
He had also posted further placed efforts in the Prix du Cadran (G1) this year and in 2025.
O'Brien said: "He's an incredible horse, very brave, very genuine and handles the ground. He's very genuine, and even though he wears the blinkers, it's only because he's a gelding, just to keep him focused, but he really stays and gallops."
A Coolmore homebred from Galileo's third-last crop, Queenstown is a brother to Snow Fairy Stakes (G3) winner and Irish Oaks (G1) runner-up Rain Goddess, who has made a successful start at stud as the dam of Dee Stakes winner San Antonio.
Queenstown and Rain Goddess are out of Where, a placed daughter of Danehill Dancer and the 2005 One Thousand Guineas (G1) heroine Virginia Waters.
Queenstown is the first new group/grade 1 winner for Galileo since Changingoftheguard struck in the Sydney Cup at Randwick in April, further extending the extraordinary record of the 2001 dual Derby winner, who died in 2021.
In terms of individual group 1 winners, Galileo has been out on his own for some time now, having surpassed Danehill's benchmark of 84 when Peaceful landed the Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) in June 2020.
He bettered the record of his father, Sadler's Wells, a few years earlier when Magical became his 74th elite-level winner in the 2018 British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes (G1) at Ascot, the first of her seven top-level successes.
This also makes Queenstown the 10th individual group/grade 1 winner bred on the hugely successful Galileo-Danehill Dancer cross, joining the siblings Minding, Tuesday and Empress Josephine, as well as Sovereign, Jan Brueghel, Alice Springs, Circus Maximus, Serpentine and The Gurkha.
