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.
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.
Giant's Causeway |
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.
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