Oratorio (horse)

Oratorio
Racing colours of Susan Magnier
Sire	Danehill
Grandsire	Danzig
Dam	Mahrah
Damsire	Vaguely Noble
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	29 April 2002
Country	Ireland
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Barronstown Stud and Orpendale
Owner	Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor
Trainer	Aidan O'Brien
Record	15: 6-3-1
Earnings	£1.085,278
Major wins
Anglesey Stakes (2004) Futurity Stakes (2004) Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (2004) Eclipse Stakes (2005) Irish Champion Stakes (2005)

Oratorio (foaled 29 April 2002) is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. As a two-year-old in 2004 he won four of his seven races including the Anglesey Stakes, Futurity Stakes and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere as well as finishing second in the Phoenix Stakes and the Dewhurst Stakes. He showed his best form when tried over a mile and a quarter in 2005, when he defeated strong international fields in the Eclipse Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes, beating the Epsom Derby winner Motivator on both occasions. He was retired to stud at the end of 2005 and has had some success as a sire of winners.

Oratorio is a good-looking bay horse with a small white star and three white socks bred jointly by the County Wicklow-based Barronstown Stud and Orpendale, a breeding organisation associated with John Magnier's Coolmore Stud.

Oratorio's sire Danehill (who died in 2003) was one of the most successful stallions of the last twenty years, producing the winners of more than a thousand races, including one hundred and fifty-six at Group One/Grade I level. Among his best offspring are Duke of Marmalade, Dylan Thomas, Rock of Gibraltar, George Washington and North Light. His dam, Mahrah, was a moderate racehorse who won one minor race from six starts before being retired to the breeding paddocks. She was a granddaughter of Katonka, who was a full-sister to the dam of the Preakness Stakes winner Codex. Apart from Oratorio, her best runners has been Fahim, who finished second to Awad in the Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap.