When the Australian bred Phelan Lucky broke his maiden over 1400m in front running style at Kenilworth on Saturday, he became the first South African winner for outstanding miler Excelebration (Exceed And Excel).

Trained by originally by Marco Botti before being bought of the yard and sent to Aidan O’Brien, Excelebration was a top class miler, who won or placed in 13 of his 15 outings. However, he would have, no doubt, an even more impressive resume were it not for the fact that the bay had to race against Frankel.
Excelebration faced the undefeated Frankel on five occasions, and got closest to the champion when four lengths second to him in the Gr1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes of 2011 and Gr3 totesport.com Greenham Stakes of the same year.

A winner of two of his three outings at two, Excelebration’s eight wins included three at Gr1 level –the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Prix Jacques le Marois and Qatar Prix Du Moulin. He also romped to a seven length victory in the Gr2 German 2000 Guineas (Mehl Mulhens-Rennen) and a six length win in the G2 CGA Hungerford Stakes of 2011.

The son of Exceed And Excel was represented by his first stakes winner this weekend when his unbeaten son Barney Roy (who ironically defeated the Frankel colt Dream Castle) made it two wins from as many outings when landing Saturday’s Gr3 JLT Greenham Stakes at Newbury.

A grandson of Danehill, Excelebration, who was produced by the non winning Indian Ridge mare Sun Shower, is a half-brother to Gr3 winner Mull Of Killough (Mull Of Kintyre) and to Gr1 Dewhurst Stakes runner up Lancaster Bomber (War Front).

Excelebration, whose first Northern Hemisphere crop are three this year, stood at Coolmore for a fee of €10 000 this year.