Press release, 5 July 2012

Helmet, the record-breaking winner of last year’s G1 Caulfield Guineas and multiple G1-winning juvenile, has been retired and will stand at Darley in Australia for the forthcoming breeding season.

Powerful and precocious, Helmet made his debut a fortnight before his second birthday and ran up a sequence of four straight triumphs at two, culminating with a G1 double in the Sires’ Produce Stakes and the Champagne Stakes. He finished the season rated 123 by Timeform, behind only fellow Darley homebred Sepoy – high enough to be Champion juvenile colt in each of the previous ten seasons.

The front-running colt was even more imposing and brilliant at three when a third G1 victory came in record time in the Caulfield Guineas, won in recent years by Champion Australian sires Redoute's Choice and Lonhro – both of whom were rated inferior to Helmet at three. His Timeform rating of 127 – behind Sepoy's 129 – puts him equal of Fastnet Rock and ahead of Starspangledbanner, So You Think, Choisir and his own sire Exceed And Excel at that age.

Bred by Sheikh Mohammed, Helmet is a son of sensational sire and fellow Darley stallion Exceed And Excel – the world’s most prolific sire of two-year-olds. Helmet is out of the Singspiel mare Accessories, also dam of G1 Australian Guineas second and G3 winner Bullbars as well as Epaulette, one of Australia’s leading two-year-olds.

Oliver Tait, Darley’s Chief Operating Officer said, “Helmet was among the very best colts in an elite generation. Few horses can win three G1s across two consecutive seasons and Helmet did it the hard way, out in front. He was a remarkable talent, rated superior to his sire Exceed And Excel who is such a successful and popular horse on our roster.”

Helmet will stand at Darley’s Northwood Park in Victoria at a fee of $33,000 (inc. GST).

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