![Wotton Bassett [Coolmore]](https://betsy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wootton-Bassett-Paddock.jpg)
Champion stallion Wootton Bassett has died after suffering acute pneumonia at Coolmore in the Hunter Valley.
Coolmore confirmed the shuttle stallion, who stood for $385,000 this season, had died on Tuesday, only days after Sahlan had become his 16th Group 1 winner in France.
“Wootton Bassett, one of the world’s great sires, has sadly passed away today at Coolmore Australia, having suffered from choke and subsequently developing an acute pneumonia which deteriorated rapidly,” Coolmore said in a statement.
“Despite round-the-clock care from a dedicated team of vets, overseen by Dr Nathan Slovis from Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Kentucky, he was unable to be saved.”
Wootton Bassett had started to make his mark in Australia and Wodeton and State Visit will run for Coolmore and partners in the Golden Rose on Saturday.
His only Australian Group 1 winner was Royal Patronage in the Canterbury Stakes, but he is set to have a great influence on the spring with Australian Bloodstock-owned Al Riffa, favourite for the Melbourne Cup after winning the Irish St Leger earlier in the month.
Coolmore bought him in 2020, and he has quickly become one of the most sought-after stallions in the world and Europe’s champion sire of two-year-olds in 2024.
“Wootton Bassett’s story as a sire is a unique one. Nicolas de Chambure got him off to an incredible start at Haras d’Etreham in France before he was acquired by Coolmore in 2020,” the statement continued.
“In his time at Coolmore, he developed into a world-class sire, with 25 Stakes winners and six Group 1 winners from his current two and three-year-old crops conceived in Ireland. Included amongst these are multiple Group 1-winning sons Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse, as well as this season’s multiple Group 1-winning filly, Whirl.”
“His current two-year-old crop in Europe already includes six Group winners.”
“Albert Einstein, who defeated subsequent Group 1 winner Power Blue in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes, is considered by both Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore to be one of the best two-year-olds ever seen in Ballydoyle.”
“Two more colts, Constitution River and Puerto Rico, have won Group 2 races in recent weeks, while a pair of fillies, Composing and Beautify, both scored at the same level. Coolmore’s valued clients have three more crops in the pipeline, the first of which will come under the hammer at the yearling sales in the weeks ahead.”
