By Jack Werk
All of a sudden last week, on the same day in fact, Walmac Farm and Ashford Stud each announced news about a new stallion retiring to stud for 2010. What made the news fascinating for me was that both stallions were sons of Kingmambo!
Kingmambo is one of the top stallions in the world. By Mr. Prospector out of two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Miesque, He is the sire of 21 G1 winners, most of them on the turf and in Europe. In fact, 58 of his 69 unrestricted SWs are on the turf.
The progeny of Kingmambo appear to be emulating their sire in the breeding shed. Sons of Kingmambo have sired 16 G1 winners to date and his daughters have produced 11 G1 winners, 5 of them this year!
In a lot of ways, Kingmambo is a throwback to sires such as Blushing Groom, Riverman, Caro, Sharpen Up, etc., because he’s a European-raced miler whose main appeal has been in Europe. And what’s probably not that well known to breeders here is that Kingmambo has been a tremendous sire of classic winners in Europe. (Don’t forget that he won the French 2000 Guineas himself!). Take a look at this record: Henrythenavigator (English/Irish 2000 Guineas), Bluemamba (French 1000 Guineas), Divine Proportions (French 1000 Guineas and Oaks), Russian Rhythm (English 1000 Guineas), Virginia Waters (English 1000 Guineas), King’s Best (English 2000 Guineas), Light Shift (English Oaks), Rule of Law (English St. Leger), and Lemon Drop Kid (Belmont Stakes) — the only American classic winner of the group and therefore his only classic winner on dirt. Kingmambo has also had a classic winner in Japan in Japanese-bred King Kamehameha, who won the 2400m restricted Japanese Derby in record time of 2:23.3.
This is a huge classic record and it’s no wonder that Ashford and Walmac are so high on Thewayyouare (out of Maryinsky, by Sadler’s Wells) and Boboman (out of Slewvera, by Seattle Slew), respectively. These two sons of Kingmambo will be joined in 2010 by his globe-trotting son Archipenko (out of Bound, by Nijinsky), who enters stud at Lanwades in England. ALL three are G1 winners! (Click here to view 5-cross pedigrees of all three)
Last year, two other major sons of Kingmambo entered stud in the U.S. One of them was Ashford’s Henrythenavigator, who like Thewayyouare is out of a Sadler’s Wells mare. The other was Millennium Farm’s G1 winner Student Council (out of Class Kris, by Kris S.). (Click here to view their 5-cross pedigrees).
In addition to these sons of Kingmambo, a full brother to Kingmambo, Kitalpha, is at stud in Kentucky after relocating from Zimbabwe, and he’s proven to be very popular with breeders. (Click here to read a previous post about him). I also wrote a post earlier this year about Miesque’s last foal, Judpot, entering stud in South Africa. (Click here to read).
Kingmambo’s best son at stud so far is Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid (out of Charming Lassie, by Seattle Slew). He was good enough to win the G1 Futurity Stakes at 2, as well as the G1 Travers at 3 and the G1 Whitney at 4, so his dirt-racing credentials are as good as you can get. So, his ability to sire dirt runners (21 of his 39 unrestricted SWs are on the dirt) will probably endear breeders to the other, newer, sons of Kingmambo, even if they were primarily turf horses, like Thewayyouare, Henrythenavigator, and Boboman. By looking at Lemon Drop Kid’s pedigree, it’s also easy to see why some of the other Kingmambo’s have a chance to succeed: Lemon Drop Kid was out of a Seattle Slew mare (bred like Boboman) from the family of A.P. Indy (also by Seattle Slew)!
We’ve already seen how Miesque has worked with both Mr. Prospector AND A.P. Indy (her SW Mingun is by A.P. Indy), and we know that this is a great nick, too, so it makes sense to breed Seattle Slew-line mares to these sons of Kingmambo, but the real kicker is that because Lemon Drop Kid himself is from the family of Seattle Slew’s best son, A.P. Indy, this is a no-brainer combination!
Considering all of this, Ashford and Walmac have good reason for their high expectations for Theywayyouare and Boboman. Will breeders see it the same way? Based on the number of mares bred to Henrythenavigator (155), Kitalpha (130), and Student Council (107) in 2009, the answer should be a resounding YES!