With the exception of Works of Art (who got a 87+ in the RP for her Redcar run) it has all been pretty ordinary for the King's horses in the last month. Today it's a bonanza with 4 running, 3 at Nottingham and one at Kempton. Two of them have King in their name which to me is a bit lame. I can only recall the Queen giving one of her horses her name and that was the well named Queen's Prize: that being the name of the award given to the winner of the yearly Rifle Shooting contest at Bisley ( well named because the filly was out of a mare called Daring Aim). Be that as it may, first up is the filly King's Ginger (who is at least by Kingman) in the 6f maiden. I'm not sure the soft ground will suit and I also don't like the mare who was one of Warren's imports. This filly's half-brother, Dukedom, was a real rogue and my money is on this mare being sold. King's Ginger will probably go and win now. More interesting is The King's General. He runs in the extended mile maiden and I'd gauge that something is expected of this colt. He has been mentioned in gallops and I'd hope he gets a place today. His useful half-sister Perfect Alibi took her time to get going. Third up is Marching Band, who has been a bit disappointing in his maiden runs but now tries handicapping. He's already entered in the Autumn Sales. At Kempton the Australia filly, Barrier, tries to lose her maiden tag. She's been lightly raced but is chalked up as favourite for this evening's contest. She is also entered in the Autumn Sales but my guess is they'd have preferred to have kept this filly. Tented Camp looks set to run tomorrow.
I see that Reach for the Moon is now appearing in the betting for the Supreme Novices Hurdle. 66/1 the best available price.
A hugely disappointing day with the 4 runners beating collectively about 5 horses: two were stone bonking last. Not any real promise from the 2yos and the two 3yos are a write-off. The only excuse for the first time out 2yos was that the going got very soft.
A further 2yo is introduced at Nottingham by Beckett. Treasure is a filly by Mastercraftsman out of a mare called Shimmering Light. Her first foal died without running. Her 2nd foal was sold very cheaply as an unraced 2yo. Shimmering Light was sold for 60,000gns last year and there are usually two reasons for selling a broodmare so early. The first is that she's no good. The second is that her foals look better prospects than she does/did: hopefully the latter. Tomorrow the sales catalogue for the Newmarket Breeding Stock Sale is published. Last year, mostly at this sale but also at others, the Royal Stud etc. sold about 18 horses. This caused comment in the racing press as to the King's commitment to racing. Tomorrow we'll see what he's selling on the breeding front (he's already got 5 or so horses going to the Horses in Training Sale). Here are my thoughts. If there are more than these I'd start to worry. Humdrum Nathra or Blue Missile Barrier Star Value Gentle Light Two out of Sweet Idea, Companionship and Clear Thinking Approximate One out of Memory, Thought Process and Reminder Torchlight Silver Pageant (if they’ve still got her) That's 11 mares and 3yo fillies.
Treasure gets the King off 13 wins for the year with a pleasing victory at Nottingham. She travelled well from halfway and though she took a while to know what was required of her, ran on resolutely in the the last furlong and a half. Her task was made easier by the 6/4 favourite being withdrawn after getting loose. There must have been some stable confidence behind her though as she was backed into 2-1 favourite in the reorganised market. There must also have been some issues with Treasure throughout this year as though she entered training in December 2022, she was taken out of training in May. She then re-entered training in July. She has a younger sister in a yearling by Magna Grecia.
So here's the list for the sales. In total it's 13 fillies and mares. The 4 2yos to be culled are a sign that they are ready to be more rigid in their selection. 2 are unraced (Crystal Clearwater and French Farce) and will hopefully prove to be correct, the two raced are a bit more difficult as Lady Wulfrun appeared to have some ability and Treasure won yesterday. Maybe the latter has redeemed herself. Of the 3yos Barrier, Gentle Light and Torchlight are not surprises. More surprising is the sale of Value Added (I favoured the sale of her dam) and very disappointing is the sale of Candle of Hope who definitely had ability. When you add the latter to the sale of Lady Wulfrun and their dam Good Hope it means there is no Feola family (Aureole, Highclere, Nashwan, Deep Impact and Baeed) mare in the stud for the first time since about 1935. The family's Royal fortunes now hangs by the thread of two yearling fillies and a filly foal. Less mares are going to the Sales than I would have expected and to me they are slightly surprising. Good Hope (already mentioned), Shama and Queen's Prize make up the trio. Shama is from the Shergar family and has been disappointing getting 3 small winners. I can understand her sale and there is a filly foal by Too Darn Hot. Queen's Prize has had a couple of winners and her daughter Award Scheme is in the stud. She also leaves a yearling filly by Too Darn Hot and a filly foal by Sottsass. Why I am surprised is that families that have been serial failures have been reprieved:- those being the Nathra and Sweet Idea families. Also why do they need so many from the Memory family. Anyway interesting selections and certainly not an indication that the King is not interested in racing and breeding. If all these sales go through that would indicate three 3yo fillies are going to the paddocks. The are Market Value (Estimate family : I recommended the sale of Approximate), Blue Missile (I recommended that both Blue Missile and her dam should be sold) and Reminder (Memory family).
the publication of The Return of Mares annual allows me to gauge the King's commitment to the Royal stud . Here are the sires used by the Royal Stud in 2023:- 3 mares: Night of Thunder; Kingman and Frankel (though one of the Frankel's was also covered by Saxon Warrior) 2 mares: Baaeed; Land Force and Dubawi 1 mare: Blue Point; Wootton Bassett; Zarak; Siyouni; Australia; Camelot; Lope de Vega; Sea the Moon; Cracksman; Too Darn Hot; Naval Crown and Saxon Warrior (see above). One mare rested So 27 mares with 26 covered (one barren so far) and I'd say a very reasonable set of sires. Three mares are going to the Sales, one is the rested mare, one is barren (to Land Force) and the other is in foal to Naval Crown. It would seem that being covered by Land Force is a sign you are on your way out (the other mare covered by him is Star Value: who escapes this time). If all goes to plan, and I'm right about the 3 new mares, then The King will have 27 broodmares at The Royal Stud next year. As regards the Sires, then Night of Thunder is moving up the charts with Kingman also popular. Frankel has not been a success with the Royal mares but will hopefully produce 2 or 3 foals. The maiden sire Baaeed gets a vote of confidence, while Dubawi loses his position but is still important. Newly used sires are Blue Point, Naval Crown and Zarak. I'd say the King is committed. This week some Horses in Training were sold. Barrier went for 10,000gns, Lady Wulrun for 16,000gns, Educator for 52,000gns and Tented Camp for 3,000gns. Surprisingly Saga was withdrawn. The King recouped nearly a million last year with his HiT sales but nothing like it this year.
For the first time in my memory a Royal Stud yearling is being sold. The colt is out of the mare Kinematic and (guess what) is by Land Force. Kinematic has a filly foal by Dark Angel and is in foal to Blue Point. There are still 22 yearlings.
The 2yo Picture by trainer. Balding 5 2yos Works of Art: winner but best performance 2nd in Redcar 2yo Trophy (entered Friday in Listed Race) Lady Wulfrun: winner but sold Calculate (Cracksman colt): unraced Drumstick (Land Force colt): unraced Falsetto ( Galileo filly): unraced Beckett 5 2yos Serried Ranks: 2 wins but frustrating Treasure: won only race (entered in Breeding Sale) Welsh Harbour: disappointing maiden (entered in Breeding Sale) Anglepoise (Zoustar filly): unraced but currently withdrawn from training Royal Command (Kingman filly): unraced but withdrawn from training Haggas 5 2yos Hard to Resist: winner but best performance in Prestige Stakes when 3rd Kings Ginger: once raced maiden Candle Wax (Dubawi colt): unraced Gilded Water (Fastnet Rock colt): unraced Transitory (Le Havre colt): unraced but withdrawn from training Gosden 4 2yos Crown Estate: placed and originally in Sales and out of training but now back in training The King’s General: once raced maiden High Order (Frankel colt): unraced Rainbow’s Edge (Night of Thunder filly): unraced Stoute 1 2yo Reaching High: once raced maiden Prescott 2 2yos Tented Camp (f by Shalaa); unraced (entered in Breeding Sale) Unnamed f by Almanzor: unraced Unallocated French Farce (Le Havre filly): entered in Sales Trout Stream (Siyouni colt) In all that’s 7 colts unraced and two once-raced. There are 5 unraced fillies and one once-raced maiden (ignoring those set for the Sales). That’s 15 2yos that are maiden and either unraced or lightly raced. That seems quite a high proportion of unraced horses. Hopefully in the last 9 weeks of the year some of these 2yos will make their debuts. Even so there looks likely to be nearly 10 unraced 3yos next year. Of those that have run Works of Art and Hard to Resist look the best fillies but not of Group standard. Of the colts Serried Ranks looks the best but will struggle to win a listed race judging by his 2yo career, so a good season next year looks to firmly depend on the unraced colts and fillies. A feature of modern training seems to be this use of pre-training outfits. This seems to be happening with the Royal horses, as illustrated by Treasure's year.
Haggas has his third 2yo entered twice this week, though looking likely to run Wednesday at Kempton. Candle Wax is by Dubawi out of Shama (from the family of Shergar). On paper this colt looks interesting but his full-sister Calmly was sold after winning her maiden earlier this year. In addition Shama (in foal to Naval Crown) is entered for the Sales in a few weeks, which would indicate they don't think much of the family (the only glimpse of hope is that there's a filly foal by Too Darn Hot). Hopefully Candle Wax will prove the brains at the Royal Stud to be wrong. Looking through the Ante-Post prices for next year's Classics I was stunned to see Treasure quoted at 33-1 for The Oaks. Bookmakers don't take chances but at the same time they don't list horses unless there is some interest. So there must be some interest somewhere but yet again Treasure is listed to be sold at Newmarket Sales in 3 weeks time.
A little more Royal news, tweet from Ascot racecourse "Wishing His Majesty The King a very happy birthday. In celebration, we are delighted to announce that the King’s Stand Stakes, the Group 1 sprint run on the opening day of #RoyalAscot, will be permanently renamed as the King Charles III Stakes."
4 of the intended 13 are withdrawn although in reality it is only 2 as the two withdrawn have already been sold.. The two to be kept are Treasure and Value Added.Value. Added Value, if she is not being sold privately, will become the first daughter of Star Value to go to the Royal Paddocks. Presumably Treasue will return to Beckett.
The Royal Stud trousers 286,000gns for 6 mares/fillies sold today at Newmarket. Top price of 100,000 went to Candle of Hope, let's hope they don't regret letting go of that one. The 40,000gns paid for Gentle Light, a Frankel full-sister to a Group 2 winner may prove to be a bargain. I was surprised that someone paid 27,000gns for the seemingly useless Welsh Harbour. As a full-sister to Kings Lynn it shows that it helps to have good connections. 3 more are to be sold tomorrow.
At the end of a basically disappointing season a (perhaps) final 2023 runner from the Gosdens called High Order. The disappointments have been Slipofthepen, Candle of Hope and the 2yos (well most of the 3yos too). The bright moments were supplied by Desert Hero. High Order is by Frankel out of a listed Dubawi winner called Diploma, herself out a listed Montjeu winner called Enticement. He is therefore inbred 3 x 4 to Sadler's Wells. The first foals of Diploma were both by Deep Impact but, though promising a lot, never delivered.. Diploma was sent back to Frankel this year so maybe that's a good sign. High Order runs in a Newcastle maiden tomorrow.
Dwelt at start, ran green 3f out then straightened up in final furlong. Not punished and will improve but needs to if he's going to be any more than an ordinary horse. High Order ran 2nd and needed the experience.
Another 2yo ran (Candle Wax: his 3rd start and has now beaten 5 horses home in those races) but did not distinguish himself. So the year ended with 14 winners and Desert Hero apart, lots of disappointment. News is that Circle of Fire has been sold to race in Australia.
