Galileo's Full Brother Earns Maiden Win at the Curragh

Two races before stablemate Johannesburg's second-place run in the Gladness Stakes at the Curragh Sunday, Galileo's full brother Black Sam Bellamy won a 1 1/4-mile maiden race, according to Racing Post.

Black Sam Bellamy had shown promise as a juvenile, finishing third by a neck in his October debut before concluding the year with a third-place finish in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud. In that French Group I race, Black Sam Bellamy was beaten by only two lengths by the winner -- Ballingarry, a winner of a French group II race Sunday -- while racing on a yielding surface. Kentucky Derby (gr. I) bound stablemate Castle Gandolfo was second, a length ahead of Black Sam Bellamy. He has now won one race in fours starts.

Michael Tabor and Mrs. John Magnier's Black Sam Bellamy, like Galileo, is by Sadler's Wells and out of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-I) winner Urban Sea (by Miswaki). Galileo swept both the group I Epsom and Irish Derbys last year. He also won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (Eng-I). His half-sister by Lammtarra, Melikah, placed second in the Irish Oaks (Ire-I) and third in the Epsom Oaks (Eng-I). In addition to Urban Sea, Black Sam Bellamy's second dam Allegretta (by Lombard) also produced Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) winner King's Best (by Kingmambo). Last year's French Derby (Fr-I) winner Anabaa Blue is out of Allez Les Trois, a daughter of Allegretta by Riverman.

"Black Sam Bellamy could go for one of the Derby trials in France and maybe develop into a French Derby candidate," trainer Aidan O'Brien told Sporting Life. "Michael (Kinane) was delighted with the horse, which was mentally immature in his first two runs last season but then ran a smashing race behind Ballingarry."