Reflections From Royal Ascot

A major event on the racing calendar for people around the world, this year’s Royal Ascot meet was five days of top class racing and story lines. From the longshot homebred Accidental Agent winning the Group 1 Queen Anne in the first race to Pallasator ending the week with a victory in the Queen Alexandra Stakes, there was something for everyone at Ascot.

Here are just a few of the stories that made up one of the biggest race meets of the year.

By the Numbers – The 30 Royal Ascot races this year attracted 494 entries (post-scratches) over the five-day festival. Those entries were sired by 179 different stallions led by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), who had 24 entries go to the gate with his Cliffs Of Moher running twice during the meet (finishing third in his second run). Galileo’s son Frankel led all sires with three winners and 10 top three placers overall to headline a terrific week for Juddmonte.

Two hundred and twenty broodmare sires were represented during the week with Danehill Dancer (Danehill) and Pivotal (Polar Falcon) leading the charge with 14 entries apiece in the category, but Pivotal was the overall winner with the stallion have six placers during the week, more than any other broodmare sire.

Of the 30 different winners, 15 were at least co-owned by their breeder at the time of the race (in 14 cases they were fully owned by their breeders) with 16 of the winners by stallions standing in Ireland this year, nine by stallions in England, three in France, one in Australia (Australia is credited with Fastnet Rock’s winner due to that winner being conceived when Fastnet Rock was standing in Australia) and one in the United States.

Arthur Kitt – A story that started with tragedy ended in triumph during the final day of Royal Ascot. The final foal of 2012 Queen Mary winner Ceiling Kitty, who died giving birth to him, Arthur Kitt (Camelot) added to a stressful night when it took five minutes post-birth for him to breathe.

"This is the most special [victory]. I have more emotion attached to this horse than any other I have owned,” his owner Andrew Black told the Ascot Press Office. "The night he was born was such an incredibly difficult, painful night. I always hoped he would be special and we always thought this was the race, being by Camelot out of a speedy mare. I just thought we would win the Chesham and make it right somehow.”

The undefeated colt, who won his debut by 2 ½ lengths last month, was the second winner on the week for his sire Camelot who has first 3-year-olds this year.

Arthur pic.twitter.com/bXPqjeSshJ

— Andrew Black (@bertthebold) June 23, 2018

Giant’s Causeway – Just a few months after the 2000 Group 1 St. James Palace winner died, it’s fitting that Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat) was well represented at the Royal Ascot meet. While the stallion didn't have any runners himself, his sons and daughters represented him well. 

On Tuesday sons Footstepsinthesand and Shamardal both had winners - including Blue Point in the Group 1 King’s Stand – with Shamardal following that up with a second winner the following day. Giant’s Causeway’s daughters were well represented on the second day of the meet when Afaak (Oasis Dream) finished second in the 30 horse Royal Hunt Cup and Hawkbill (Kitten’s Joy) finished third in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s. The final day saw the stallion’s line on display once more in the Chesham Stakes when Duke Of Hazzard finished third. That 2-year-old is sired by Lope de Vega, a Shamardal son.

Giant's Causeway

John Gunther – There probably isn’t another person in the world who has had a better month than John Gunther. Just two weeks ago the Canadian became the breeder of a Triple Crown winner when the undefeated Justify won the Belmont Stakes. But even after that, he said that a Royal Ascot victory with Without Parole – who he still owns – would be even sweeter.

Another undefeated colt for Gunther, Without Parole (Frankel) kept his record intact when winning the Group 1 St James’s Palace by half a length. As Gunther said in the weeks leading up to the event, the victory was a special one for him.

"It is a dream come true. In all the 20 years I have been coming to Royal Ascot, my dream was just to have a horse run at Royal Ascot. Then we start in a Group One and do it; I don't know what to say,” he told the Royal Ascot Press Office. “This does mean more [than breeding Triple Crown winner Justify] and always will. This was the most important and means everything to me. To be able to mate the mare to Frankel and Juddmonte giving me that nomination even though the mare was unproven. To go through all that and then watch Without Parole being raised as a yearling was so special.”

Without Parole comes from a very American female family as a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Tamarkuz (Speightstown) and out of a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty (Bernardini) and Belmont runner-up Andromeda’s Hero (Fusaichi Pegasus). He was bought back by Gunther for 650,000 guineas (approx. $870,000US) and has paid that back in spades as a valuable Group 1 winning stallion prospect. With the victory, Gunther becomes the only breeder to breed a U.S. Triple Crown winner and Royal Ascot winner in the same year and only second to breed both a U.S. Triple Crown winner and Royal Ascot winner overall.

Juddmonte – Royal Ascot was a banner meeting for Juddmonte from beginning to end.

Frankel led the charge in the stallion division with 10 runners hitting the board – including three winners to top all sires at the meet. Perhaps most impressive is that he did this with only two crops of racing age - as he didn’t have any 2-year-old entries - and he had at least one horse hit the board every day of the meet. He does have to share the attention though as his first-crop sire stablemate Kingman (Invincible Spirit) had one (impressive) winner from one runner and the recently pensioned Dansili (Danehill) and Oasis Dream (Green Desert) also had multiple placers on the weekend for the stallion division. Dansili nearly caught Frankel’s amount of winners for the weekend, just in another division with the stallion’s daughters producing Group 2 winner Magic Wand and Group 3 winner Expert Eye.

Juddmonte’s stallions weren’t the only ones having a good meet with Kingman’s Calyx winning impressively for the racing division to start off the week and Monarchs Glen shutting out that first day by giving both Frankel (who also had Without Parole, talked about above) and Juddmonte doubles on the day. The racing division kept rolling on Day 2, this time with a horse by a non-Juddmonte stallion, when Expert Eye (Acclamation) earned his first victory since the Group 2 Vintage Stakes last August. While the colt isn’t by a Juddmonte stallion, he does trace back to one with Dansili as his broodmare sire.

CALYX'S VICTORY

Overall, between Juddmonte’s stallions and its racing division it was represented by five different winners.

Invincible Spirit – One look at the produce record of Rafha’s (Kris) produce record tells you the mare is special. A Group 1 winner herself, she went on to produce eight stakes winners or stakes placed horses in her broodmare career and is the granddam of Italian champion Nayarra (Cape Cross) and three other stakes winners. But perhaps her biggest contribution to the breed is that as the dam of sires Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) and Kodiac (Danehill).

The two sires combined for four top three finishers during the week with Invincible Spirit showing his younger brother the ropes. The stallion pulled off a rare Group 1 feat when his sons finished first and third in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup on Friday with the stallion also playing the part of broodmare sire of Chesham Stakes third Duke Of Hazzard (Lope de Vega) on Saturday.

His impact was greater than just the runners he sired however with six sons also having runners. That included Kingman, who had impressive Coventry winner Calyx; Lawman who had Group 1 King’s Stand second Battaash; and Mayson with Windsor Castle second Sabre, to make for three sons with big performances. While Invincible Spirit is coming up on the end of his stallion career, he looks to have good representation around the world with many sons’ first runners coming in the next few years as well.

Pivotal – If there’s a big race meet, you can bet Cheveley Park’s Pivotal is going to be involved. The 25-year-old started his week off as a sire in the first race when his Group 2 winning son Lightning Spear took his tally of Group 1 placings to six. But Pivotal really shined as a broodmare sire.

Only a race after the Queen Anne, Advertise (Showcasing) gave him his first placing as a broodmare sire when finishing second. That was followed by another Group 1 showing in the King’s Stand when Mabs Cross (Dutch Art) was third. It was a quieter Wednesday for the stallion when Cracksman (Frankel) was his only runner from five as a broodmare sire to hit the board with no placers at all on Thursday. However, the fun started again on Friday when Fairyland (Kodiac) finished third in the opener four races before Veracious with third in the Group 1 Coronation. Pivotal ended his run on the final day of Royal Ascot with his only runner of the day when Dreamfield (Oasis Dream) was second.

In all, Pivotal sired one horse to hit the board but was the damsire of six others. His influence as a sire and damsire was felt in four Group 1s, one Group 2, and one Group 3. No other stallion could get close to his success at the meet as a broodmare sire with Sadler’s Wells being second best at three placers and a handful of others with two.

Sadler’s Wells – Supersire Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) hasn’t bred a mare in 10 years but that didn’t stop him from reminding everyone what a dominant stallion he was at this meeting. Forty-six different stallions at the meeting found Sadler’s Wells in their sire line (39) or the sire line of their broodmare sire (7). Of those 46 who find him in one of those two spots in their pedigrees, 28 were the sires of runners at the meet while 18 were broodmare sires of runners. Sadler’s Wells himself was also the broodmare sire of 13 runners.

Overall, through those 46 horses Sadler’s Wells played a part in the pedigrees of 166 of the 494 runners (33.6%) at Royal Ascot with 11 winners, 15 runner ups, and 13 third place finishers.