Gatewood is a

thoroughbred racehorse The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

. A British horse with Australian connections, Gatewood was lightly raced and had plenty of potential. Australian owners OTI realised this potential in 2012 and approached US owner George Strawbridge to purchase the horse. After initially knocking them back, Strawbridge later offered OTI the opportunity to purchase a 50 percent share and they jumped at the chance. OTI's Terry Henderson described the son of Galileo as a “progressive and beautifully bred horse” who was bought with the goal of chasing Melbourne Cup glory. After just seven career starts, Gatewood achieved victory four times and only missed out on a place on one occasion. Gatewood scored the first stakes victory of his career when winning the Listed Wolferton Handicap at

Royal Ascot Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and ...

in June 2012. Securing a total of eight wins and ten minor places from just 25 competitive starts, Gatewood travelled to Australian in 2012 and was entered in all the major spring features in 2012 with a view towards running in the

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbou ...

, he took out the Geelong Cup (2400m) in just his second appearance but then failed to fire in his stints in Australia and failed to make the 2012 field for the Melbourne Cup. Remaining in Australia under the care of Chris Waller following his ill-fated 2012 Melbourne Cup campaign, Gatewood displayed a definite disdain for the Australian racing conditions and failed to make an impact over four starts through the 2013 Autumn Carnival. Returning to Britain and the care of Gosden in late 2013, the Galileo entire ran second in the Conditions Stakes (2414m) before claiming back-to-back victories in the Listed Buckhounds Stakes (2414m) and Listed Tapster Stakes (2414m). Overcoming poor running position to finish second in the Listed Fred Archer Stakes (2414m) on 28 June, Gatewood returned to the winner's circle in the Group 3 Prix De Reux (2500m) on 10 August before running a close second in the Group 2 Grand Prix De Deauville Lucien Barriere (2500m) last time out. He finished in 12th place in the 2014 Melbourne Cup. 2014 Melbourne Cup Gatewood retired to stud in Ireland in 2015. He is standing at John Lynch's Windmill view stud, Kiltormer, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.

References

* * * *{{cite web, title=Australian team buy into Gatewood , url=http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/article/22888/7887150/syndicate-buys-gatewood-share , work=Sporting Life, accessdate=5 September 2012, date=10 July 2012 Thoroughbred family 8-i 2008 racehorse births Racehorses bred in the United Kingdom Racehorses trained in the United Kingdom