Galileo, one of the most significant and successful stallions in racing history and a cornerstone of the Coolmore Stud breeding operation, has been put down at the age of 23 after suffering from “a chronic, non-responsive, debilitating foot injury”, the Stud said in a statement released on Saturday. Galileo replaced his own sire, Sadler’s Wells, as Europe’s pre-eminent stallion, having provided Aidan O’Brien, his trainer, with his first Derby success at Epsom in 2001. He was impeccably bred on both sides of his pedigree, being out of Urban Sea, the 1993 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, and made an immediate impact with his first crop of foals, which included Nightime, the 2006 Irish 1,000 Guineas winner. He was Europe’s champion sire for the first time in 2008, when New Approach was the first of a record five sons of Galileo to win the Derby, and then in an unbroken run of 11 seasons from 2010 to 2020. At the time of his death, Galileo had sired 91 individual Group One winners, including the brilliant Frankel, the sire of Adayar, this season’s Derby winner, while in all, 20 of his sons have gone on to sire Group One winners themselves, guaranteeing Galileo’s status as a constant thread running through the pedigrees of top-class thoroughbreds for many decades to come. “It is a very sad day,” John Magnier, Coolmore’s owner, said in a statement on Saturday, “but we all feel incredibly fortunate to have had Galileo here at Coolmore. “I would like to thank the dedicated people who looked after him so well all along the way. He was always a very special horse to us and he was the first Derby winner we had in Ballydoyle in the post MV [Vincent] O’Brien era. “I would also like to thank Aidan and his team for the brilliant job they did with him. The effect he is having on the breed through his sons and daughters will be a lasting legacy, and his phenomenal success really is unprecedented.” Galileo’s covering fee was subject to private negotiation from 2008 onwards, with bloodstock industry rumours suggesting that it could cost between €250,000 and as much as €600,000 for Galileo to cover a single mare. Even at the lower figure, Galileo’s annual book of around 150 mares would have earned gross revenue for Coolmore of nearly €40m a year. At Newmarket, Starman found an exceptional turn of foot from an unpromising position a furlong from home to win the Group One July Cup by a length and a quarter. Tom Marquand was in need of racing room as Dragon Symbol and Oxted, last year’s winner, struck for home, but once Starman was in the clear he flew up the final hill. Ed Walker scratched Starman from the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot last month after heavy rain got into the ground and his decision was rewarded with a first Group One success of his training career. “I always believed so much in this horse,” Walker said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself and it’s great that belief has been vindicated. “His only blip was on bad ground and we’ve been proved to have made the right call in missing the Royal meeting.”