A double for the King: his first. At Lingfield Blue Missile showed enough to let you believe she has a future. A Galileo filly out of a smart filly called Nathra, Hayley Turner only had to give her a few taps to ensure she came home readily. Later at Kempton Slipofthepen made his debut and though slightly fluffing the start, soon made up ground without any fuss. He travelled well but was still 6th or 7th coming into the straight. He was soon improving and at the cutaway put the race beyond the rest of the field. He was impressive to say the least. By Night of Thunder out of a Danehill Dancer mare called Free Verse, he should certainly stay 10f. Free Verse has been a bit of a disappointment. She produced a good colt in Frontispiece (born 2014), then nothing until the fairly average Bookmark won two races last year. There is no daughter of Free Verse, though just today they sold Slipofthepen's Australia half-sister, Yarralumla, for just 23,000gns (pity she wasn't sold a day later). Looks like the King has good one. Worth taking a look at this performance.
Wednesday saw 6 more fillies and mares go through the ring and earn a further £300,000. Most popular was Stimulate (Motivator), from the family of Shergar. She only ran twice but did win on her debut as a 3yo. Given Slipofthepen's win it was strange to see Fresh Fancy (by New Approach) and out of Monday's sale, Pure Fantasy (by Fastnet Rock) be sold (for 47,000gns), in addition to the already mentioned Yarralumla. This leaves the Free Verse branch of the family dependent upon a 2yo and yearling filly (once the sales are all over I'll look at the status of the families in the stud). They got a reasonable price for the mare Shimmering Light of 60,000gns. Perhaps the saddest sales were of that good filly Set to Music (winner of the Glatres Stakes and 2nd in the Park Hill) and her Iffraaj daughter Improvise (who was the Queen's last runner). They fetched 26,000 and 28,000gns respectively.
Well, they didn't leave the best until last. The final 4 fillies and mares made only 19,500gns in total.
Any stud of longevity sees its families wax, wane and often disappear. The Royal Stud is no exception with several families now history: they include the Avila family (family of the top filly Almeria and the useful Albany); the Open Warfare family (of the top filly Mulberry Harbour) and the Stroma family (family of Canisbay and Dunfermline). So, how has the recent sales of 20 or so fillies and mares affected the Royal Stud. At this point I’d say it hasn’t markedly weakened the stud, but it has changed a few things. So, I’ll go through the families and branches of families and discuss the changes. Gone One family no longer in the stud is that of Key Point. A Galileo half-sister to Kalanisi, she joined the Royal roster as a yearling in 2008 but was unraced. Despite being sent to a series of top sires her best effort was onetime flat winner Punctuation. She was sold last year and her last filly, the unraced 2yo Cape Point, was sold for a paltry 1,000gns. Doesn’t appear a great loss. Nearly Gone One mare I was surprised was sold was Fiery Sunset, again a Galileo filly out of a Juddmonte mare. She did win a maiden race over 12f and her first two foals won, the second of them getting Black Type in the USA. Her 3rd foal to race is Stoute’s 2yo winner Circle of Fire (by Almanzor), who appears promising. There is a yearling colt by Fastnet Rock and a filly foal by Time Test. It is the latter which keeps this family in the stud. Set to Music was another Aga Khan bred yearling to join the Royal roster. By Danehill Dancer out of a mare who traced back to Petite Etoile. She appeared moderate as a 2yo but improved considerably as a 3yo to win 4 races, before finishing 2nd in the Park Hill Stakes. As a 4yo she won the listed Warwick Oaks before going to stud. Her first 5 matings produced only 2 foals to race, though one of them, Eightsome Reel, did win races and in fact finished 4th at Royal Ascot in 2019. It was two years before she had another winner and that was Improvise. This December Set to Music and Improvise were sold. The life of this family hangs by a thread with the 2yo filly Keen Melody (by Le Havre) and a Galileo filly. If these two aren’t up to much then this family will be no loss. Shimmering Light was a Godolphin bred mare, who came into the Royal team in 2013. By Dubawi out of a mare from the family of Golden Fleece, she was again unraced. She has had 4 foals, 2 of which went into training. The first died before running, the second, Loch Glass, was sold as an unraced 2yo this December. Shimmering Light was sold at the same sale, so her family is in a similar position to Set to Music’s, with a yearling filly (by Mastercraftsman) and a filly foal (by Magna Grecia). The dominant family in the Royal Stud is the family of Amicable. She was purchased in the early ‘60s. Today all her members trace back to a mare called Trying for Gold. In addition most of them trace back to her daughter Phantom Gold. However until this year there were a couple of mares, Free Verse and Pure Fantasy who were not out of Phantom Gold but were daughters of her full-sister Fictitious. As mentioned in an earlier post it looks very much as if Free Verse will have no more foals (she may have died). Her last daughter, Yarralumla, was sold at the December Sales, as was Free Verse’s half-sister Pure Fantasy (the dam of Pied Piper) and her daughter Fresh Fancy. So there is no mare from the Fictitious branch in the stud at the moment and this branch’s survival is dependent upon Barrier (an Australia 2yo) and Le Havre yearling filly. It is ironic that this branch appears to have produced its best 2yo in Slipofthepen. Another branch that could do with a decent filly is the sub-branch of Oaks 2nd Flight of Fancy. Her only descendant in the stud is Momentary, whose 6 foals to race have produced 5 winners. That included the above average Wink of an Eye (by Dubawi), who won 4 races. His full-sister, Discretion, was sold for a meagre 18,000gns. There are no yearling or foal fillies. Others Despite the sale of Distant Light, this family is in robust health as she is represented by her half-sister, dam and granddam. The same can’t be said for the extraordinary Feola family (latest star Baeed). Having failed to sell the mare Pack Together last year, they sold her this year. There is only one mare of the Feola family in the Royal Stud, and that is Good Hope. Fortunately this mare has the 2yo filly Candle of Hope, a yearling filly by Saxon Warrior and a filly foal by Sea the Moon. One bonus of last year’s mis-sell of Pack Together is that they have a Cable Bay filly foal. The family should survive.
Just when you think it's all over (for the year), Gosden runs a second 2yo (his first went in 2 weeks ago). The filly Calmly (Dubawi out of Shama) is set to start in a Kempton maiden this Friday. Shama traces back to Shergar's dam and won one race as a 3yo. She was a huge filly and as broodmares one can have problems with the stock from 17hand+ horses. Calmly is her 4th foal and two of them have won. Don't hold your breath though, this 2yo maiden is over 11f, so she's unlikely to be speedy. This is the first time I've seen an 11f race for 2yos. Until fairly recently there used to be only one 10f race and that was the Zetland Stakes. Now there are stacks of 10f races for 2yos, but 11f is new. There are now 9 Royal owned 2yos that are unraced. That's a big number and to me a worrying sign.
Ralph Becket joins the fully blown Royal roster of trainers. He has two of the King's yearlings in his list of horses in training. Of course he has trained for the PoW and Camilla for years, but is now a trainer for the King. I make that 9 (there always used to be 2 or 3). Will anyone drop off the table in the new regime? Calmly proved slower than a lot of the others on her debut. She was left at the start, so that didn't help. Surely that's it now and it's 25 winners for the year. Not bad, but not as good as last year.
My last words for this year:- The Royal yearlings are as yet unnamed: this is very late grrrrrr.. It doesn't look as if there will be any older (4yo+) colts next year. Likely that Kings Lynn will be the King's oldest gelding as a 6yo. The surprises (or maybe not) were that Reach for the Moon, Saga and Educator were all gelded in October/November: probably the right decision. Saga for the Lincoln? This year's Return of Mares throws no light on how committed to Racing the King is. At the moment it looks as if there are 23 mares due to foal. Favoured sires seem to be Dubawi followed by Frankel, Night of Thunder, Camelot and Kingman. What is confusing is that 6 mares either died, were not covered or were covered in the USA or Germany. A surprise (given the run of Slipofthepen) is that the mare Free Verse has been sold. Finally, Ladbrokes have Slipofthepen as 5th favourite for the 2023 Derby. Postscript for Sir Barney: Tactical was (at last) gelded. Watch this space.
