Folkswood a high-earning son of Exceed And Excel

FOLKSWOOD (GB) - 2013 bay gelding

Intercontinental travel has become a common feature in the careers of many racehorses and it has enabled the better ones to accumulate massive earnings totals as well as developing a wide fan base.

Folkswood is not a leading light among them but he is a talented performer with some good efforts in top company. Godolphin's five-year-old is trained by Charlie Appleby and his narrow victory in this afternoon's Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan was both his first pattern success and the run that pushed his earnings past the £500,000 mark.

It was his first start since finishing a two-length fifth to Tosen Stardom in the Group 1 Emirates Stakes at Flemington in November, which was his third run in Australia in the space of a month. His first outing there saw him easily win a listed handicap at Cranbourne, his second was an honourable third to Winx and Humidor in the Group 1 Ladbrokes Cox Plate at Moonee Valley – beaten by a half-length and four and a quarter lengths – and those races, like today's, were over 10 furlongs.

A seven-furlong Goodwood winner on the second of two starts as a juvenile, he won a mile handicap at Newmarket from four runs at three, and the first half of his four-year-old campaign was split between Dubai and England, featuring a neck second to Decorated Knight in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta and placings in both the Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket and Group 3 Huxley Stakes at Chester.

'Great finish.' It's oh so close but it's just Folkswood and William Buick who scrape the paint on the rail to get through and deny Leshlaa in the G3 Dubai Millennium Stakes #DRCCarnival pic.twitter.com/Xvmtuflmo8

— Racing UK (@Racing_UK) February 22, 2018

Folkswood was bred in England by Hascombe & Valiant Studs and the 160,000gns Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 2 graduate represents one of that team's famous families.

​The son of Darley's leading international sire Exceed And Excel (by Danehill) is the first foal out of Magic Nymph (by Galileo), an unraced daughter of Group 1 Coronation Stakes heroine Balisada (by Kris). His dam is, therefore, a full-sister to Group 2-placed 12-furlong stakes winner Galactic Star and also to the stakes-placed Irish Cesarewitch winner El Salvador, a Killack Stud stallion whose first crop are now two-year-olds.

A half-sister to the stakes-placed four-time scorer Stirring Ballad (by Compton Place), Balisada is the best of a string of winners out of Balnaha (by Lomond), a winning full-sister to the talented and influential Inchmurrin.

That small filly won the Listed Harry Rosebery Challenge Trophy at Ayr as a juvenile, went on to take the Group 2 Child Stakes (now Falmouth Stakes) at Newmarket, was runner-up in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Ascot and fourth in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes at Woodbine, and became the dam of Inchinor (by Ahonoora) and Ingozi (by Warning).

The former won the Group 3 Greenham Stakes and Group 3 Hungerford Stakes, he was runner-up in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, and although he was only 13 when he died, his progeny feature the Group 1 stars Cape Of Good Hope, Notnowcato, Silca's Sister and Summoner, and he has made an impact as a broodmare sire too.

Ingozi was a mile listed race winner at Sandown, her daughter Miss Keller (by Montjeu) took the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes at Woodbine, and her grandson Harbour Law (by Lawman), who has been sidelined since taking third to Big Orange and Order Of St George in the Group 1 Gold Cup at Ascot last summer, won the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster in 2016.

Folkswood, who has now won five of his 16 starts, is a talented performer from eight to 10 furlongs and there should be plenty more good prizes to be earned with him on the international circuit, even though his official rating before this latest success was just 112.