With the 2yos, as yet, mostly unnamed it’s pointless to discuss them. Instead, I thought I’d look at the breeding bloodstock of the Royal Studs. Most fillies that are going to stud retire at the end of their 3yo career. They are then covered in the Spring of the next year, with hopefully a foal the next year. Two years later the foal is a 2yo and may start racing. So the produce of a maiden mare first hits the racecourse in the 7th year of the dam’s life. That first produce to race may have a yearling and a foal (brother or sister) following her. A big investment without anything much to go on.
If a broodmare has a healthy life she could conceivably produce foals up until her early twenties. 20 is a good age for a broodmare as some will not reach that age.
Royal Bloodstock
Here I’ll look at the broodmares, plus fillies in training and yearlings/foals, and I’ll look at them oldest first (and then their families).
There are two 18yo mares. The first is Medley (root mare: Marl) and was bred by the Royal Stud. As stated elsewhere, she started well but has had only 3 winning foals. She has an Elusive Quality filly called Light Music (now a 10yo) who looked a useful 2yo but didn’t win as a 3yo. She in turn had a very useful Frankel filly, Light Refrain (5yo) who is now in the stud. Light Music also has an unraced 3yo, Gentle Light, who’s a full-sister to Light Refrain. This family has a healthy pipeline, though Medley was one of the mares for whom there was no recorded mating in 2022..
The other 18yo mare is Hypoteneuse (by Sadler’s Wells) and she hails from the most prolific family in the Royal Stud this century. The family traces back to the rootmare Amicable. Hypoteneuse has produced two useful colts in Math’s Prize and Sextant but has no daughter in the Royal Stud though she does have a Zoustar unnamed 2yo. Hypoteneuse is a full-sister to Oaks 2nd Flight of Fancy: indeed at one time there were 4 full-sisters in the stud out of the Machiavellian mare, Phantom Gold. In fact the 17yo mare Golden Stream (dam of Chalk Stream and Reach for the Moon) is now the remaining full-sister in the Stud. She similarly has no daughter in the stud but does have a yearling filly by Sea the Moon.
There are other branches of the Amicable family. The oldest representative is Momentary (13yo by Nayef) whose granddam was Flight of Fancy. She has had 6 foals, to race, and 5 have won (the best of whom was probably Wink of an Eye). She too has no daughter in the stud, nor any young fillies and worryingly she was not covered in 2022. It is to be hoped there is nothing amiss and that a direct relative of Flight of Fancy is one day produced.
Another branch comes through a now deceased mare called Daring Aim, who was a Darshaan half sister to Flight of Fancy. She was a good mare, though her produce were often, like her, temperamental. She has 12yo Dansili mare in the Stud called Queen’s Prize. She has had 5 foals to race and 4 of them have won. She has a Too Darn Hot yearling filly but has already produced a better filly than herself in Award Scheme (6yo by Siyouni) who joined her dam in the Stud, though she is yet to produce a live foal. This branch doesn’t end there as Daphne (by Duke of Marmalade and now a 10yo) has got off to a great start with the still in-training Perfect Alibi, who hopefully will join her dam in the Stud. Daphne also has a Night of Thunder yearling filly. This is a very strong branch of the Amicable family.
Two other branches are not in such good fettle. The first is represented bloodstock-wise by the unraced 3yo filly Silver Pageant, who is out of an Oasis Dream half-sister of Phantom Gold called Siver Mirage (now deceased). Silver Pageant was all set to be sold at the February Sales, but withdrawn. We will have to see what becomes of her. The final branch is represented by 3yo filly Barrier and an unnamed 2yo filly by Le Havre. These two are daughters of the now sold Pure Fantasy (by Fastnet Rock) out of a full-sister to Phantom Gold. Hopefully one of them will keep this interesting branch alive of this strong and improving family.
Enticement is a 17yo mare, who is one of the rarely bought horses by a monarch. She was a useful racefilly and won two Listed races and did start favourite for the 2009 Musidora (though clearly put in her place by the eventual Oaks winner). She has been ‘in and out’ as a broodmare producing the useful Diploma (by Dubawi now 10yo) but little else of note. She has an unnamed 2yo filly by Kingman. In turn Diploma has a Deep Impact daughter in the stud called Portfolio (by Deep Impact now 5yo), who was an above average filly. This family needs to prove itself worthy of all its high profile matings. It is worth pointing out that Secret Haunt, an unraced full-sister to Diploma, is a maiden mare in foal to Frankel and owned by Juddmonte.
Star Value (by Danehill Dancer) is a 15yo mare who has little to show for her 11 years in the Royal Stud. She is very well bred being out of a Prix de Diane winner but was unraced. She did not have a winner until 2022 (Kiteflyer). She has the 3yo filly Value Added in training and has an unnamed Almanzor 2yo filly. She was one of the broodmares who wasn’t covered in 2022.
The same age is Humdrum and this introduces us to the family of rootmare Lyrical. There have been some good but not great horses from this family. Humdrum is by Dr Fong out of an Alzao mare called Spinning Top. As a racefilly she won 3 races and she started her stud career well with her first 5 foals being winners. She’s trailed of a little since then and has no daughter in the stud. In fact she was one of the mares for which there is no record of a covering in 2022. She does have a half-sister called Kinematic (11yo) who is surprisingly by the sprinter-bred sire Kyllachy. Her first foal was the G2 winner Kings Lynn. Her 2nd and 3rd foals also won, with the second picking up a G3 race in Italy after being foaled. There is an unnamed 2yo full-sister to Kings Lynn this year. An interesting family that unlike most of the Royal families shows precocious speed.
Also the same age is Memory (by Danehill Dancer: at one time there were 6 Danehill Dancer broodmares in the Royal Stud!). Memory was an excellent 2yo but did not train on or inded showed no interest in racing as a 3yo. At the end of her career Memory was purchased by the Queen. Her first foal was Recorder, who looked a real prospect asa 2yo but was injured and did not run again. Her 2nd foal was the very useful Call to Mind who won the G2 Belmont Cup, but died soon after. In fact her 4 first foal all won. At the moment she may have a 5yo daughter in the stud because an unraced daughter, Thought Process (by Galileo), wasn’t sold as far as I could discern. Then there is a raft of fillies: Reminder (3yo by Dubawi), a2yo filly by Night of Thunder and a yearling filly by Kingman. No concerns with this family staying in the stud.
to be continued
