The King and the Royal Stud 2026

The Royal year begins on the Flat with the second start of Lorca's Waltz at Southwell on Saturday. I say on the flat because Bold Step, an unraced 6yo gelding, made his debut at Exeter last Friday. In training with Henderson he showed enough for one to believe he could win a race.
Lorca's Waltz started favourite on his debut in December. He ran very green and it is to be hoped he shows some ability on his second start.

Return of Mares shows that the Royal Stud has 21 mares who could foal this year. This is well down from the 30 in-foal mares the late Queen had just 5 years ago. One missing is Kinematic (the dam of King's Lynn) who has died. Surprisingly 4 of the mares were sent to Frankel. In addition Too Darn Hot, Zarak and Blue Point were each sent 2 mares. The other stallions used were Auguste Rodin, City of Troy, Starspangledbanner, Wootton Bassett, Camelot, Kingman, Night of Thunder, Mostadhaf, Siyouni, Churchill and Baaeed. Of course the mares were covered but they may not foal: but more of the foalings later.

There are 16 possible 2yos, as yet unnamed. Until they are named it's impossible to know if they exist and whom they they are in training with. Usually names start coming through in January.

There are 12, maybe 13, possible 3yos The doubt is over Kings Trust who was led out unsold.

Poor run by Lorca's Waltz, just beating one home. His dam has proved costly having been bred to Galileo 3 times, Dubawi, Kingsman and Night of Thunder without producing anything of real substance. This Lope de Vega colt appears another dud. If you've read this column in the past you'll know I've been calling for the mare to be culled.

Names of 2yos begin to appear with some assigned to trainers: -

Amber Spyglass colt by Kingman out of Mellow Yellow
Lancaster Tower colt by Kingman out of Castle Lady
Glimpse of Lightning colt by Night of Thunder out of Nathra
Romantic Melody colt by Baaeed out of Light Music
Persian Touch filly by Zarak out of Light Refrain: in training with E Walker
Lord in Waiting colt by Kingman out of Companionship
Rough Guess colt by Siyouni out of Estimate
King's Prize filly by Kingsman out of Award Scheme: in training with R Beckett
Golden Reflection colt by Sea the Moon out of Golden Stream
Coup de Foudre colt by Night of Thunder out of Enticement
Top Scholar colt by Frankel out of Diploma
La Torre filly by Lope de Vega out of Magnetic Charm: in training with R Beckett

Unnamed
colt by Blue Point out of Kinematic
filly by Dubawi out of Desert Flyer
colt by Dubawi out of Daphne
colt by Frankel out of Sweet Idea

So a possible 16 two year olds. The unnamed could be in that state because of any reason. There's the possibility that that they just need to register a name and are struggling to find one allowed. But it can mean that the horse will never go into training.
It's very much a colts year with 9 already named (3 fillies).
Three first foals in the shape of Amber Spyglass, Persian Touch and King's Prize
Golden Reflection, King's Prize and Coup de Foudre are well named. The Queen had a filly called Queen's Prize and in fact she is the granddam of King's Prize. Both are the prize given by the reigning monarch to the winner of the Bisley shooting competition: so a nice connection. Coup de Foudre means thunderbolt: so let's hope she is. Persian Touch's sire Zarak means brilliant in Persian so let's hope she is brilliant.

I'm yet to understand why Nathra, Sweet Idea and Desert Flyer are still in the stud. I hope we find out this year.

More on these lot as they are named or put into training.

Two changes: -
The Daphne 2yo is named Laurel Crown
The Gosdens are training Lancaster Tower

In addition it looks as if something amiss with the Desert Flyer 2yo as she was not fully registered.

Looks very much as if the King could have a much smaller team this year. At the moment he has one 4yo in training (which is no surprise) and definitely has seven 3yos. They are listed below. However, after that there is some doubts.

Warrant Holder 4yo bc Frankel out of Diploma: Gosden
Won two all weather races as 3yo
Food for Thought 3yo bf Dubawi out of Thought Process: Beckett
Twice raced maiden, half-sister to Rainbow’s Edge
Golden Orbit 3yo bf by Sea the Stars out of Diploma: Beckett
Winner of only 2yo start, half sister to dual winners Portfolio and Warrant Holder
Lightning Polka 3yo chf Night of Thunder out of Light Music: Walker
Winning 2yo, half sister to Group3 winner Light Refrain
Point of Law 3yo bc by Frankel out of Portfolio: Gosden
Unraced first foal
Portcullis 3yo bc Frankel out of Castle Lady: Gosden.
Unraced half-brother to 3yo winner Crown Estate
Royal Flurry 3yo bc Kingman out of Desert Breeze: Balding
Unraced half-brother to Desert Hero (probably gelded)

As regards other older horses there is no news on Reaching High (a gelding and now a 5yo) who has not been seen since his abortive run for Willie Mullins in the Ascot Stakes last June. Mullins has the habit of keeping horses under wraps for long periods and then producing them.
Then there are a whole set of 3yos who have been in training but currently are not. There are no signs that they have been sold or have died. In alphabetical order they are: -
Avarona (in training with Beckett), Raced once as 2yo.
Evaluate (Balding). Unraced
Lorca’s Waltz (Haggis). Raced once as 3yo then taken out of training.
Queen’s Companion (Beckett). Raced twice as 2yo (placed once).
Tropical Sands (Walker). Unraced
And finally, King’s Trust (Gosden) who ran 3 times as a 2yo (winning once) but was then sent to the Sales where he was led out unsold (for 95,000gns). Where is he?

Is the bloke on the Sporting Life who writes about 2yos reading our threads?

Didn't realise that Glimpse of Lightning is actually Glimpseoflightning. This 2yo colt goes into training with the Gosdens.

Haggas gets his first 2yo with Amber Spyglass (first foal of Mellow Yellow, whom Haggas trained).

A first Royal winner of 2026 but it's a NH winner at Kempton. Fine Shot, a 6yo Jack Hobbs gelding, won a bumper on his second start. He comes from a family tracing back to an excellent mare called Tiberetta who was the dam of Spenish Steps, who won the Hennessy Gold Cup and was 3rd in both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and The Grand National. The owner-breeder Edward Courage left a daughter of Tiberetta to the Queen Mother in the '80s.

Snowden put up this gelding as horse to follow early last year. Let's hope he goes on to be a decent chaser,

3yo filly Queen's Companion returns to Beckett this February so he has three 3yo fillies in his stable.
King's Trust seems to have been retained and returned to the stable of J&T Gosden. They have two 3yo colts and one gelding plus a 4yo colt.
That leaves Avarona. Tropical Sands and Evaluate still outstanding.

No foals announced as having been born as yet.

Just when I was beginning to think Andrew Balding was beginning to be sidelined as a Royal trainer an unnamed filly by Kingman in the ownership of The King and Queen turns up in his 2yo listing. The filly was bred by Juddmonte and is from one of their best families. The dam is the Black Type filly Brunnera, who was trained by Hugo Palmer for Juddmonte. She is by Dubawi out of a Group 1 winning filly called Romantica (by Galileo), who is out of champion filly Banks Hill. This is the family of Dansili/Hasili and the source of so many Juddmonte good horses.
Hopefully she'll be a useful filly and worthy of becoming a Royal Stud broodmare.

Juddmonte went through a patch of supplying a few fillies to the late Queen. The best of them was Fiery Sunset, who amazingly was sold as an 11yo broodmare just as her son Circle of Fire started making a name for himself in Australia.

Another Juddmonte contribution to the Royal 2yo team. Beckett (who seems the No.1 Royal trainer now :especially with fillies) has an unraced Oasis Dream filly out of a Frankel mare, Vesela. This is her 2nd foal and she was a black type filly who won 2 smaller races. She is out of Arabesque so is a half-sister to both Camacho (by Danehill) and Showcasing (by Oasis Dream).

As with the Balding filly, hopefully a future broodmare for the Royal Stud.

First foals reports: -

f by Kingman out of Daphne
f by Blue Point out of Hard to Resist (first foal)

With the start of the turf season on Saturday I decided put up the Royal team as we know so far.

Warrant Holder 4yo bg Frankel out of Diploma: Gosden
Now gelded, won two all weather races as 3yo, OR of 100.
Avarona 3yo bf Camelot out of Daphne: Beckett
Once raced half sister to black type winner out of Listed winner.
Food for Thought 3yo bf Dubawi out of Thought Process: Beckett
Twice raced maiden, first foal, dam half-sister to useful Rainbow’s Edge
Golden Orbit 3yo bf by Sea the Stars out of Diploma: Beckett
Winner of only 2yo start, half sister to dual winners Portfolio and Warrant Holder
King’s Trust 3yo bg Kingman out of Award Scheme: Gosden
First foal, 3 runs one win. Unsold at Horses in Training Sale (95,000gns), OR of 83.
Lightning Polka 3yo chf Night of Thunder out of Light Music: Walker
Winning 2yo, half-sister to Group3 winner Light Refrain. OR of 83.
Point of Law 3yo bc by Frankel out of Portfolio: Gosden
Unraced first foal
Portcullis 3yo bc Frankel out of Castle Lady: Gosden.
Unraced half-brother to 3yo winner Crown Estate
Queen’s Companion 3yo bf Dubawi out of Magnetic Charm: Beckett
Twice raced 2yo (once placed), daughter of listed winner.
Royal Flurry 3yo bg Kingman out of Desert Breeze: Balding
Unraced 2yo. Half-brother to Desert Hero and Aeolian
Tropical Sands 3yo bf Too Darn Hot out of Shama: Walker
Unraced 2yo, last foal of sold mare
Amber Spyglass 2yo bc Kingman out of Mellow Yellow: Haggas
First foal of dual winning Jeremy mare.
Glimpseoflightning 2yo bc Night of Thunder out of Nathra: Gosden
Half-brother to two moderate winners
King's Prize 2yo bf Too Darn Hot out of Award Scheme: Beckett
2nd foal, half sister to King’s Trust
La Torre 2yo bf Lope de Vega out of Magnetic Charm: Beckett
3rd foal of Listed winner, half-sister to Hard to Resist
Lancaster Tower 2yo bc Kingman out of Castle Lady: Gosden
Half-brother to Crown Estate
Lord in Waiting 2yo bc Kingman out of Companionship: Gosden
2nd foal, half sister to moderate Brotherhood of Man
Persian Touch bf Zarak out of Light Refrain: Walker
First foal of Group 3 winning mare
Unnamed 2yo bf Kingman out of Brunnera :Balding
First foal of Juddmonte mare, family of Hasili
Unnamed 2yo bf Oasis Dream out of Vesela: Beckett
2nd foal of Juddmonte mare, family of Showcasing

Uncertain: -
5yo
Reaching High 5yo bg by Sea the Stars out of Estimate
With Mullins in 2025 and may still be there
3yos
Evaluate colt by Sea the Stars out of Estimate
Was in training with Balding in 2025, unraced.
Lorca’s Waltz colt by Lope de Vega out of Sweet Idea
In training with Haggas, then withdrawn from training and gelded 4 weeks ago.

Not assigned:-
2yos
Rough Guess chc by Siyouni out of Estimate
Romantic Melody colt by Baaeed out of Light Music
Golden Reflection chc by Sea the Moon out of Golden Stream
Coup de Foudre bc by Night of Thunder out of Enticement
Top Scholar bc by Frankel out of Diploma
Laurel Crown colt by Dubawi out of Daphne

Currently there are ten 3yos and nine 2yos, with one older horse Warrant Holder. There is likely to be one other older horse with Reaching High (as noted above). There is also a possibility of there being two further 3yos. It will be a real surprise if there are not 4-5 of the currently unassigned 2yos that go into training this year.

The 2yo filly situation looked worrying (as a few Royal mares will be retiring soon) but this changed when two Juddmonte fillies (as yet unnamed) went into training with the Royal trainers. So, at the moment there are more fillies than colts in training.

The hopes for 2026 must (1) be that Warrant Holder is more robust this year and lives up to his early 3yo season form (he beat Rahiebb on his second start), (2) that one of Beckett’s 3yo fillies gets to Group Class: Golden Orbit is probably the leading hope. It would also be encouraging to see one or two of the unraced 3yos coming through strongly. There may be indications soon for some of the 2yos. Last year Beckett put up Golden Orbit as one to follow. More on the 2yos later.

Two more foals reported.

colt by August Rodin out of Mellow Yellow
colt by Churchill out of Portfolio

One of Gosdens' unraced 3yos gets an entry. Point of Law, a Frankel colt out of Portfolio (by Deep Impact out of Diploma), is a first foal of a filly who won twice as a 3yo and was listed placed. Point of Law is closely bred to Warrant Holder, who's by Frankel out of Diploma.
He runs in an 8f maiden at Chelmsford on Thursday and Havlin gets the mount. First foals are always interesting.

Another foal reported: -
Colt by Starspangledbanner out of Blue Missile

Starspangledbanner initially had fertility problems. He may still have them but a compromise has been reached where he only covers two mares per day: should be a rule.

The closure of Chemsford means Point of Law is redirected to Saturday's Yarmouth meeting. It looks a tough race for the newcomer.

Gosden's other unraced 3yo Portcullis is entered at Southwell next week. Like PoL he's by Frankel and out of Castle Lady and her second living foal. The first foal was the dual winning Crown Estate (by Dubawi).

But is also entered for the Wood Ditton, a race the Gosdens favour. Ryan Moore is already chalked up as the pilot.

Yes ran green but still got to within a (rapidly closing) half length of Del Maro, the odds on favourite. As Del Maro's last outing was a 3+lengths 3rd to Pierre Bonnard in the Zetland then the form looks solid. Point of Law was backed into 11/2 2nd favourite late on, having been 4th favourite most of the time.
Very encouraging: where next?