JUDDMONTE BLUE HENS
Article appearing in issue 10, James Underwood’s
European Racing & Breeding Digest, 6th May
Prince Khalid Abdullah and his Juddmonte team must have been
disappointed to see Empire Maker come up short in the Kentucky
Derby, yet they enjoyed a remarkable weekend with two Graded stakes
wins (including a Grade One), plus seconds in two more Grade One
events on the Churchill card. Then the following day
Intercontinental placed third in the 1000 Guineas.
TOUSSAUD
Juddmonte purchased Empire Maker’s grandam Image Of Reality at
the 1987 Keeneland November Sales. That she was an attractive Grade
One performer, and a recent stakes producer, was appeal enough but
being in-foal to El Gran Senor was an additional enticement for the
Saudi breeder. Prince Khalid’s outstanding performer Rainbow Quest
had faced El Gran Senor on three occasions and was comprehensively
beaten each time. Thus there was no stallion that Juddmonte’s owner
held in higher esteem at that time. Carrying the future stakes
winner Navarra at the time of purchase, Image Of Reality returned
to El Gran Senor to produce Toussaud. Astutely handled by John
Gosden at two and three, Toussaud blossomed under Bobby Frankel and
would have won an Eclipse Award as leading female turf performer
had she not been unlucky-in-running when second behind future
champion Flawlessly in the 1993 Matriarch Stakes.
Toussaud was voted ‘Broodmare of the Year’ for 2002. She holds
the remarkable record of producing four Grade One winners (Chester
House [by Mr Prospector], Honest Lady [by Seattle Slew], Chiselling
[by Woodman] and Empire Maker) and an additional Grade Three
(Decarchy [by Distant View]) winner from her first six foals.
Honest Lady retired to stud to visit Storm Cat and Danzig in her
first two years. There are two more fillies from Toussaud as she
has a yearling filly by Seeking The Gold and filly foal by
Kingmambo.
KERALI
There are two more Juddmonte mares making a remarkable impact at
the present time. It might be surprising to regard Heat Haze and
Intercontinental’s dam Hasili in the same bracket as Toussaud, but
she is the dam of three Group/Graded stakes winners and a classic
placed performer from her first four foals. First foal Dansili is a
Group Two winner and placed second in the Sussex Stakes-G1; second
foal Bank’s Hill won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf-G1;
third foal is Heat Haze and Intercontinental the fourth foal.
Hasili’s dam Kerali was a daughter of the stayer High Line
and Sookera, a daughter of Roberto who won the Cheveley Park
Stakes. Sookera was a very broad and powerfully built mare, which
she has stamped on her line. This could be attributed to her
broodmare-sire Grey Sovereign (a top-class speed influence).
Lightly raced because of an extremely nervous temperament, Kerali
proved – despite the influence of High Line – to be best at seven
furlongs, winning one race from four starts and earning a Timeform
rating of 88. A good-sized mare Kerali was light of bone and
upright of her pasterns. Kahyasi, who is an influence for stamina,
was selected for Kerali on physical and temperamental grounds. He
is a smaller horse with quite slack pasterns. The fact that Kerali
was by High Line gave her a chance to find a compatibility with the
stamina influences of Kahyasi, who had Nijinsky and Blushing Groom
as his two grandsires. The union thus produced Hasili, who stayed
true to type of her female line by proving useful from 5 to 8½
furlongs. Kahyasi and High Line were both successful sires, but the
source of Hasili’s excellence as a producer goes back to Sookera
and her brilliant sire and broodmare-sire, Roberto and Grey
Sovereign respectively.
VIVIANA
Juddmonte’s brightest moment last Saturday was the display of
Sightseek, a daughter of Juddmonte’s own Distant View and Viviana,
a Listed winner by Nureyev out of Nijinsky Star, who is a daughter
of Nijinsky and the American champion Chris Evert. Nijinsky Star
was another 1987 Keeneland November Sales purchase. She had already
produced Kentucky Oaks placed Hometown Queen and Juddmonte’s first
mating, to Riverman, produced Grade Two winner Revasser. To
compensate for Nijinsky Star’s big, plain and angular conformation
she was selected to Nureyev for the next three seasons. It was a
typically audacious mating with a 2x3 in-breeding to Northern
Dancer. The first union produced the very attractive, high-quality
Viviana, who was a useful 8 to 10 furlong performer for Andre
Fabre. The second live foal from the union produced the bigger and
slightly coarser Willstar, who was slightly less talented than
Viviana but was an 8 furlong winner in Paris nonetheless.
At stud Viviana’s second foal was the high-class Rahy filly
Tates Creek. Sightseek, who has yet to finish out of the first two
and looks to have improved quite significantly from three to four,
is the third foal and looks to be top-class. Willstar meanwhile has
also proved her worth with second foal Starfan (by Lear Fan)
running fourth in the 2001 Prix Marcel Boussac. A year later
Willstar’s Miswaki filly Etoile Montante ran second, behind Six
Perfections, in the same race. Etoile Montante is expected to line
up in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches next.
GROUP ONE PRODUCERS
Having isolated three mares for special mention above, we should
not forget Hope (who produced Group One winners Zenda and Oasis
Dream in 2002), Dokki (dam of Grade One winners Sleep Easy and
Aptitude), Modena (Elmaamul & Reams Of Verse) and Irish Oaks
winner Wemyss Bight, who produced Beat Hollow. Other dams of
Grade/Group One winners are Andaleeb-G3 [Prophecy], Bahamian-SW
[Wemyss Bight], Carya [Ryafan], Chain Fern [Spanish Fern], Devon
Diva [Tinners Way], Diese-G3 [Senure], Eva Luna-G2 [Brian Boru],
Flit [Wince], Kinema [Mizzen Mast], Krisia [Continent], Musicanti
[Distant Music], Rougeur-SW [Flute], Seven Springs-G1 [Distant
View], Shining Water-G3 [Tenby], Skimble-G2 [Skimming] and
Stellarina-SW [Observatory].
Besides some above mentioned females, Group One winners
still at stud include the likes of All At Sea, Bolas, Jolypha,
Super Staff and Wandesta. There must be especially high hopes for
another Grade One winner in Yashmak and her stakes winning sister
Jibe, as they are both Danzig daughters of the exceptional Slightly
Dangerous (dam of Warning, Commander In Chief, Dushyantor, Deploy,
etc). There are also two stakes winning sisters to Danehill,
including the high class Harpia, at the stud. There are many more
Group Two and Three winners, stakes winners, stakes placed
performers, stakes producers as well as smart non-black-type
winning daughters of Group winners with the Juddmonte
operation.
Prince Khalid’s breeding operation came to the fore in the
early 1990s producing horses such as Zafonic and a couple of Derby
winners in Quest For Fame and Commander In Chief. The operation has
more than doubled since then and its quality in depth has increased
in measure. Juddmonte has already been a multiple Eclipse
award-winning breeder in America, plus won numerous awards in
Europe. Yet it looks – to me at least - that Juddmonte’s best days
are still ahead and it is very likely to return with other
candidates as good as Empire Maker for a run at Americas most
famous race.
Date:
10 June 2003