Some years ago, this scribbler invited himself to Coolmore Stud in south Tipperary to meet what was then the most prepotent young stallion in Europe. Sadlers Wells behaved with the sort of patrician grace that only the truly blue-blooded possess. His visitor didn't.

It was just too easy to resist. Monty Python's nudge-nudge, winkwink sketch was straight compared to the resultant article.

You know the sort of stuff. Gratuitous comparisons to Mick Jagger and Warren Beatty. Images of a love machine roaming around the Golden Vale conjured with all the subtlety of a short-sighted Hugh Hefner wannabe. When told that the farm's pony, whose job it was to "tease" the mares in preparation for the main act, was named Tarzan, the copy was nudging and winking enough to make a move on a sister paper. Of course the breeding industry by its very nature is open to such juvenile innuendo. Let's face it, if there's anything to reincarnation the life of a thoroughbred stallion would be preferable to say, a dung beetle, or a smutty-minded hack.

But Sadlers Wells is so much more than a vehicle for a cheap laugh. As a focal point for an industry, he has few if any competitors, anywhere in the world. As a source of consistent excellence he ranks with any sporting institution and as a financial investment, he is simply a walking, oat-guzzling, galloping goldmine.

The latter aspect alone shows what a disservice that previous article did to the bay horse, now 17, with the broad white face and the pliable but proud temperament that is so valued in his sons and daughters. That and their ability to run faster than their contemporaries.

Sadlers Wells has been passing on that ability since he started his stud career in 1985. A classic winning triple Group One winner himself as a racehorse when trained by Vincent O'Brien, he moved the short distance to Coolmore and began building the sort of dynasty that O'Brien, John Magnier and Robert Sangster hoped he was capable of.

From then up to the start of the 1998 breeding season which lasts from January to June, Weatherbys Statistical Record shows that Sadlers Wells covered 1,145 registered mares. Last year was his busiest to date with 153 mares returned. Sadlers Wells is used on a no foal, no fee basis but considering that the lowest his fee for a single mare has ever gone is £75,000, and is currently £100,000, only the cretinous could see anything to snigger at. This is big business and the dividend is all tax free.

Of course when business is based on a living, breathing creature there are complications. Fairy King, a brother of Sadlers Wells, has ridden on the coat tails of his relative's success to become a major sire himself but after his fee had reached £50,000 this season he has been beset with fertility problems and has got virtually no mare in foal this year. Sadlers Wells has had similar problems in the past but recovered to a near 90 per cent fertility rate. Nevertheless in the most basic sense this is not a cold, inanimate industry.

Overall it could be viewed differently, however. Coolmore advertised 37 stallions in Ireland at the start of the current breeding season and 14 others at its American base in Kentucky. The volume of mares visiting these horses is immense, especially in Ireland.

"When all the earnings from stallions are tax free it's inevitable that there is an encouragement to cover. Whether it's good for the game or not to have horses covering huge numbers, I wouldn't have thought so but it's the way of the world," says the widely respected breeding expert and writer, Tony Morris.

Although a huge admirer of Sadlers Wells, Morris falls short of describing him as the most important stallion in the world, attributing that honour to another son of Northern Dancer, Nureyev. Numbers are the deciding factor for him.

`It's difficult to judge but I would say the ratio of Stakes winners to foals is as accurate a guideline possible because it shows what horse throws up class regularly. Nureyev's highest ever foal crop was 59. Sadlers Wells had 103 in 1997 alone," said Morris.

"I suppose it's inevitable that the best mares go to the best horses. Breeders are very much like sheep in that they fall in with each other and there's no doubt that Sadlers Wells' influence cannot be over emphasised in Europe."

Breeders who buy into Sadlers Wells genes do so to hopefully produce classic winners or have a yearling to profitably sell on. Sadlers Wells has consistently produced the goods in both areas, consistently siring racehorses of the quality of Old Vic, Opera House and the Irish-trained King Of Kings who runs in today's 2,000 Guineas.

His yearlings have also regularly made over £1 million in the sales ring. All told, Sadlers Wells has sired the winners of over 890 races, including 31 Group Ones, and his progeny have earned almost £25.5 million. For a trainer there are few more exciting horses to gallop in the morning than Sadlers Wells' sons and daughters, even if the gallops themselves may be less than spectacular.

"They are usually pretty lazy at home so if they are working indifferently it doesn't mean there is a lack of talent there. That allows the hope that they are good last longer than normal!" says John Oxx, who trained the Sadlers Wells filly Ebadiyla to win last year's Irish Oaks and French St Leger.

"There is a Sadlers Wells type. The colts are very blocky and weighty and because of that they probably prefer a little cut in the ground. Temperament-wise they are very relaxed. Sadlers Wells himself is a lovely looking horse, very strong and masculine," Oxx adds.

That type has been a major factor in turning Coolmore into the leading stud farm in the world and while Sadlers Wells is now 17, his potent career is far from over. Stallions can keep covering well into their 20s and Dr Des Leadon of the Irish Equine Centre which specialises in equine medical studies says: "There is no data to suggest the covering of a particular number of mares will have a deleterious effect on a stallion."

The result is that while Coolmore's search for an ultimate replacement for Sadlers Wells may be on, the old man's fabulously rewarding career is far from over which only copper-fastens the farm's hold on the industry.

"Without doubt, John Magnier is the foremost player in world breeding. I doubt if anyone in Europe can move without getting in contact with him. He's pretty much in control of the game," declares Tony Morris of the Coolmore supremo. "He is undoubtedly a very clever and wealthy man. But such control may not be the best, except for John Magnier of course."

The focal point of the empire however remains blissfully ignorant of such considerations. As long as he's fed, watered and groomed he will continue to do what comes naturally. The happy consequences for those around him are huge financial rewards and the possibility that Sadlers Wells will eventually sire a son that can eventually emulate his father.

Maybe King Of Kings can help make himself that son at Newmarket today but whether any horse will ever emulate the impact of Sadlers Wells is doubtful. Class and style are, after all, unique.