CLIMBING MOUNTAINS
Mount Nelson was British-bred and Irish-trained. He was bred by the Cliveden Park Stud in Buckinghamshire. His greatest achievement on the racetrack was the Eclipse Stakes in 2008.
Mount Nelson showed great promise as a two-year-old in 2006 when he won the Critérium International less than a month after his racecourse debut. Hopes that he would become a classic contender in 2007 ended when he sustained a serious foot injury early in the year. He returned as a four-year-old to win the Eclipse and ran well in defeat in several other major races. He was then retired to stud and sired several good winners both on the flat and over jumps.
Mount Nelson was from the first crop of foals sired by Rock of Gibraltar who won seven Group 1 races in a row, including the 2000 Guineas. He has gone on to sire a number of other top racehorses, including Society Rock, Eagle Mountain, Varenar (Prix de la Forêt) and Samitar (Irish 1000 Guineas). Mount Nelson's dam, Independence, was a high-class racemare who won four races including the Matron Stakes and the Sun Chariot Stakes in 2001 She was descended from Home on the Range, the dam of the Epsom Derby winner Reference Point.
As a yearling, the colt was consigned from the New England Stud to the Tattersalls sales at Newmarket. On 5 October he was bought for 330,000 guineas by the bloodstock agent Dermot O'Byrne, acting on behalf of John Magnier's Coolmore organisation. Like many Coolmore horses, the details of Mount Nelson's ownership varied from race to race: he was sometimes listed as being owned by Derrick Smith, while in other races he was listed as the property of a partnership of Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor. The colt was trained throughout his racing career by Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle.
Mount Nelson retired from racing to become a breeding stallion at Newsells Park Stud in Hertfordshire, where he stood at a fee of £6,000 along with Nathaniel and the leading sprinter Equiano. The best of his first crop of foals was the filly Purr Along, which won the Prix du Calvados at Deauville Racecourse in August 2012. At Royal Ascot in June 2013, Berkshire, a colt from Mount Nelson's second crop won the Listed Chesham Stakes by two and a half lengths. The most successful of his subsequent offspring was the sprinter Librisa Breeze (British Champions Sprint Stakes).
He later moved to the Boardsmill Stud in County Meath where he stood as a National Hunt stallion, siring the Stayers' Hurdle winner Penhill. After a "prolonged battle with lymphangitis" he died in 2019 at the age of fifteen.
Mount Nelson is the sire of Highclere’s Bartholomeu Dias who is an 8-Year-Old Gelding who has had 46 starts for 8 wins and 9 placings.