2020 has been a bad year and it's been a very poor year for The Queen and the Royal Stud: very poor. Whatever way you look at it you can't be impressed by the 2020 performance. This year the Queen had her highest number of horses in training yet has had only 15 winners year to date. Now you might argue 'what would you expect;?'. Which is a fair question except that this owner and her stud has had produce by many of the best sires. Amongst the 2yos she has 2 Galileos, 3 Dubawis, 2 Kingmans, 2 Sea the Stars, 3 Siyounis, a Frankel and a Deep Impact. Many owners would give a lot to have such a list of sires (and the other sires aren't bad either), yet The Queen's 2yos has managed only 5 winners, My criticism for sometime has been that quality 'fast' sires have not been used: when they did use fast sires they have been Highclere inmates eg Cable Bay. The star of this year has been Tactical, but his limitations have been exposed. At least he has shown himself to be the best Royal 2yo since Height of Fashion (1981). The 3yos have been shocking: the one who did seem to have something about him, First Receiver, has not run since Royal Ascot. None of the 4yos fired and good old Natural History won two races (sold now for 105,000gns). At the moment the 2yos look nothing special. The one glimmer of hope is the brought-in Wakening but she ran only once. All in all. a poor show and it's no surprise to see 12 Royal mares and fillies going to the December Sales. It may not be enough. She appears to be keeping Dusty Dream and Approximation who both appear woefully slow. Speed wins races, whatever distance the race is over. The Royal Stud needs an njection of speed.
After the above rant, as if to order, Evaluation (Estimate's 3rd foal) ran a poor second race and is possibly suffering from a bad case of slowitis. He is the third consecutive Dubawi foal of Estimate, which shows a total lack of imagination by the Queen's breeding advisers (I acknowledge Grendel also pointed this out). Next year's colt is by Frankel ( wow something different)) and her next foal was a filly by Siyouni. Maybe a cause for optimism, but this is soon drained when she is then sent to Sea the Stars. I'm a big fan of Sea the Stars but isn't it time she was sent to someone like Kodiac or Blue Point for example? Having said all this a few days later she had two runners who appeared to have something about them. The first was the appearance after almost a year of the 3yo Shamardal filly Desert Flyer who, despite running green showed real courage to win a 7f all-weather race. Hopefully she'll get another run before she retires to the paddocks. Then Haggas unveiled a hugely encouraging Galileo filly out of a fine Australian mare called Sweet Idea. Definitely one to watch even though the winner, Final Applause, beat her more comfortably than the length distance would make you think. Both fillies should be followed I'd think. Today an interesting Charlton trained colt called Orchestral appears at Kempton. He is a half=brother to the useful Eightsome Reel who won two good races before running 4th at Royal Ascot and never appearing again. Out of the very useful racefilly Set to Music he is partnered by Ryan Moore.
The Queen appears to have named most if not all of her 2yos for next year. As 2022 is her platinum jubilee it would be quite something (although fanciful) if one of these 2yos goes onto Classic glory. Here is a handful of the best bred colts for the Derby trip. Dukedom c by Dubawi out of Nathra Transpire c Frankel out of Estimate Reach for the Moon c by Sea the Stars out of Golden Stream Line of Defence c by Ulysses out of Touchline Educator c by Deep Impact out of Diploma If I had to pick out one it would be Line of Defence who's a half brother to the useful First Receiver.
Unfortunately I'm watching the first series of the Crown. I'm not sure about the veracity of the main stories or the likelihood of some of the conversations but if the racing content (which is widely reported and easily checkable) is anything to go by I'd be very doubtful about the whole programme's provenance. In episode 9 the King George VI and QE is covered. Mrs Windsor has a telephone call with Lord Porchester about how to beat Darius in the upcoming race. Surprisingly they say that Aureole was beaten by Darius in the Guineas (Shome Mishtake Shurely). While Aureole did run in the 2000G and Darius did win the 2000G, their two events were a year apart. This is just sloppy research. They then get the Ascot perspective all wrong and looks as if the shot was done at somewhere like Newbury but the wrong way round (other than that in 1954 the Royal Box was in the old Silver Ring). Though Lord Porchester was certainly very close to The Queen he didn't become her Racing Manager until 1969. Though conversations may have taken place I'd think the subject matter discussed would have been in conversations with her trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort and Manager Charles Moore. You then get Porchester advising The Queen on sending Aureole to stud whilst the retirement of Aureole had probably more to do with Boyd Rochfort and sending him to stud would have been in Moore's domain and not friendly Porchie. I await Highclere and Dunfermline in later series.
"You might ask what’s wrong with that, he was the top sire wasn’t he? Well soon as you do something like that, and you are a stud that breeds, you are precluded from using sons and grandsons of Sadler’s Wells. Daughters of Hellenic could not be covered by Galileo (a greater sire arguably than Sadler’s Wells) and his son Frankel. " Yes, as I asked at the end of your post ie. Bustino, educate me..... Is the reason for this that such inbreeding transmits the negative traits of the grandsire ? And what other reasons are there?
To quote Vivian Stanshall ' that family is so inbred even their dog has a club foot'. I think you'd agree that close inbreeding is believed to raise the risk of infirmities in humans, in other species it can be endemic in the wild yet wherever we have 'domesticated' animals it is generally avoided. So in racehorses, whilst some inbreeding has always been carried out, too close inbreeding has generally been avoided. I'd say that 2 x 2 inbreeding is avoided (that means the sire's sire is the same as dam's sire). Having said that the 1948 Queen Mary Stakes winner and 1949 Arc winner, Coronation, was inbred in such a way. She was bred by Marcel Boussac, who used inbreeding increasingly over a span of 40+ years. However it was this strategy that was felt to contribute to the eclipse of his once mighty racing and breeding empire in the '60s and '70s. So 2 x 2 inbreeding became generally not followed. The point I was making was that Hellenic's filly foals by Sadler's Wells would not be seen as breedable to Galileo ( or any other son of Sadler's Wells) as it would amount to 2 X 2 inbreeding. Why didn't they send her to Rainbow's Quest for example and then send any resulting filly to Galileo or indeed Sadler's Wells? If they had sent one of those fillies to Frankel you'd then have 3 X 2 inbreeding, which is plenty close for enough some people. Enable is inbred 3 X 2 to Sadler's Wells and it doesn't seem to have done her any harm. The interesting thing will be to whom she is now bred and how those matings work out. I'm sure she won't be further inbred to Sadler's Wells but she will struggle not to be further inbred to his sire Northern Dancer. It is this surge of inbreeding to sires of the Northern Dancer line and the general decrease of the gene pool that is worrying many experts in this field. The fear is the breed is being weakened. Horses are not felt to be as robust as they were 50 years ago. A horse you admired for its toughness (and ability) was Dahlia was inbred but at a totally accepted level of 4 x 5 x 4 to Hyperion. 4X5 is not really considered as inbreeding these days. So I think there is a chance that too much inbreeding weakens the breed but in the case of Ballymacoll's Hellenic and the Queen's Phantom Gold it shows a total lack of imagination in sending them sheeplike to Sadler's Well so much, with ramifications they may come to rue. The fact that Hellenic's daughters and granddaughters have achieved so little at stud could be just one of those ramifications. I'll paraphrase again the words of Tesio ' try a bit of inbreeding, try outbreeding, try some nicks but don't continually send mares to the same sire'. Hope that makes sense and helps
Thanks, Bustino. Very interesting subject, this breeding! Incredible that a useless racehorse like Archive produced a horse like Arkle, but you'd say that it was down to the grandsire, Nearco. Happy New Year to you and your family.
But Archive was beautifully bred as his mare Book Law (reckoned by her trainer Joe Lawson the best filly he ever trained) came from the formidable Astor family of Popinjay, who was a daughter of one of the most important mares in the stud book (Chelandry). Book Law was a half-sister to an Oaks winner and won the Queen Mary as a 2yo, then was 2nd in the 1000G and Oaks before winning the Coronation Stakes and then the St Leger. She unfortunately only produced two fillies but before Archive she dropped the Eclipse winner Rhodes Scholar, who was a big success as a sire and snapped up by Bull Hancock for his Claiborne Farm. In the UK he sired the great stayer Black Tarquin. It was probably this plus his breeding that led to Archive going to stud. I always remember he also sired Arkloin, trained by Dreaper, who won the 1965 RSA Novices Chase at Cheltenham. He featured in an episode of the Archers as the last winning bet of Walter Gabriel and Ned Larkin, where they kept the money running onto the next horse. Not a lot of people know that. Have a happy and healthy New Year Tamerlo.
Yes, I remember Arkloin. I suppose that, breeding-wise, who really knows, despite probabilities, what mating will produce that magical offspring. You could list, say, Urban Sea as a wonderfully successful broodmare. Then you could contrast her with say, R.Price’s mare, Red Dove, whose dam, Cottage Lass, was a non-thoroughbred, broken down point-to- pointer. Yet Red Dove sired six winning fillies and one of them, Shakey Dove, sired Champion Hurdler, Flakey Dove. Which is the greater success story? Arguably the latter is the better fairy tale.
Wind up 2020 with a few words. The Queen had 18 wins in 2020 with 14 stud wins and 4 brought-in wins: a low score in a year she had her highest ever stable of horses. Highlights were Tactical's July Stakes win and Natural History's return as a 5yo to win 2 races and finish 2nd in a Group 3. The 3yos were poor. The best was probably First Receiver who didn't run after his Royal Ascot 2nd (he was subsequently gelded). Almost all of the 2yo colts were gelded, which says something. The Queen sold 9 mares and fillies at the breeding sale in December yet retained Dusty Dream and Approximate: two fillies who definitely appeared to have the slows. Caraboss, who had been covered 3 times in her stud career by Dubawi, was sold for 4,000g. The best new mares are probably Award Scheme and Desert Flyer. If there is any hope it is in the 2020 2yos Wakening (who won her only start) and Companionship (who won her 2nd start). Hopefully Tactical will improve on better ground, but looks second class. All in all a poor year. Must do better.
Saw this in the RP today Queen's family that was hanging by a thread hits Grade 1 heights at Santa Anita | Bloodstock News | Racing Post
Thanks Janabelle. There are no relatives of Example or Pas de Deux in the Royal Stud now. I remember Strategy but the best recent Royal runner was Peacock who ran 2nd to Golden Horn and then Time Test in good races. Natural History brought the curtain down for this branch of the Amicable (there are still many members of this family through Example’s full sister Expansive) branch when he won twice this year. I was surprised 5 years ago when they sold Peacock’s dam Rainbow Edge. The Queen’s advisors seem to have an unerring ability to prune the wrong branch.
