By Sid Fernando
Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms has a racing and breeding presence on both sides of the Atlantic and an embarrassment of riches in its barns at the moment. Scratching the surface, Abdullah is represented in North America this year by the Gll winner Tacitus (Tapit), a leading 3-year-old colt and a potentially valuable stud prospect, and at stud by Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song), a world-class performer who earned $17,422,600. Arrogate’s first crop arrived in the spring and will be highly anticipated on the track in a few years. Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) is the best racehorse in Europe, and Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) is the best young stallion over there and perhaps the third-best European sire overall behind Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millenium {GB}). Juddmonte, however, has another young stud on the rise – Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) – and he’s putting on a show with his oldest crop just three. It’s conceivable that he could rival his high-octane barn-mate in the coming years, and he is already outperforming Frankel by black-type winners this year in a strict comparison of their respective 3-year-olds (foals of 2016).
Abdullah has raced too many high-class runners to name here, but suffice to say the three best racehorses to fly his iconic colors are Frankel, Dancing Brave (Lyphard), and Enable. That Arrogate takes a back seat to them only highlights the class and heft of the Juddmonte operation. Kingman wasn’t too far from the top rungs, either. If not for a shocking loss to 40-1 Night of Thunder (Ire) (Dubawi) in the last few strides of the G1 2000 Guineas as the 6/4 favorite, Kingman would have been undefeated in his eight starts. He was a miler of the highest order and put up some sensational performances in 2014.
Trained, like Enable, by John Gosden, Kingman won four successive Group 1 races after the Guineas loss: the Irish 2000 Guineas, by five lengths; the St. James’s Palace by two-and-a-quarter lengths, from Night of Thunder; the Sussex Stakes; and the Prix Jacques le Marois. All were at a mile. The Gl Breeders’ Cup Mile at the end of the year was seemingly at his mercy, but a late-season throat infection ended his career.
Kingman entered stud at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor in Newmarket in 2015 as the highest-rated horse of 2014 on Timeform (134), at a fee of £55,000. Frankel, in contrast, had started off as an all-time great at £125,000 in 2013, so a comparison between the two isn’t exactly fair one to the Invincible Spirit horse, but it does amplify his accomplishments that much more, especially when comparing his foals of 2016 to Frankel’s.
Kingman and Frankel
One indicator of a young stallion’s potential merit is a first-crop Classic winner. Frankel’s came in Japan, when Soul Stirring (Jpn) won the Group 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) in 2017. He has since added a European Classic winner, Anapurna (GB), in the G1 Epsom Oaks this year, from his third crop.
Kingman got his first-crop Classic winner in Europe this spring when Persian King (Ire) won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas).
Both stallions, then, have one Classic winner apiece, the only Group 1 winners for them to date from their foals of 2016, but Kingman is represented by 11 black-type winners (9.91%) from a crop of 111 named 3-year-olds, according to TDN’s Crop Year report (Northern Hemisphere only). Of those, five (4.5%) are group or graded winners. Those are outstanding numbers in early August, with plenty of racing remaining for this crop this year and next as 4-year-olds.
In comparison, Frankel has six black-type winners (7.23%) from 83 named 3-year-olds, five (6.02%) of which are group or graded winners. His numbers, too, will rise, but Kingman is outpacing him so far in black-type output for this crop.
Though I’m comparing Kingman’s first crop to Frankel’s third crop – and first crops, as noted here before, are typically better than third crops for horses in similar price ranges – keep in mind that Frankel’s third-crop stud fee was more than twice that of Kingman’s. This year Frankel stood for £175,000 to Kingman’s £75,000. For the record, Frankel’s rise in stud fee to £175,000 from £125,000 in 2018 was a result of his phenomenal first crop, foals of 2014. This crop, now five, contained 23 black type winners (19.01%) from 121 named foals, including five Group 1 winners. That’s about as good as it gets these days.
Frankel and Kingman have four-and-a-half months to settle this duel for the year, and the numbers will improve as their foals of 2016 continue to race next year, but Kingman’s performance against the gold standard that is Frankel – he’s the sire of 45 black-type winners, 34 group or graded winners, and eight Group 1 winners through three crops (not including 2-year-olds of 2019) so far – indicates that he’s something special as well. And he has some live runners with entries in upcoming Group 1 races, led by the Roger Charlton-trained Abdullah homebred Headman (GB), a winner of three of five starts, including the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam, in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on September 14; and the Gosden-trained and Lady Bamford-owned King of Comedy (Ire), also a winner of three of five starts and a neck second last out in the St. James’s Palace, in the August 21 Juddmonte International Stakes at York.
Kingman’s Pedigree
Kingman’s sire was a top sprinter who has a reputation for siring high-level sprinters and milers. Altogether, Invincible Spirit is the sire of 124 black-type winners, including 18 Group 1 winners worldwide in both hemispheres, and his stallion sons include the Australian sire sensation I Am Invincible (AUS); Lawman (FR), a rare Classic winner at 10-and-a-half furlongs (G1 Prix du Jockey-Club); and the promising Cable Bay (Ire). Invincible Spirit stands for £120,000 at the Irish National Stud. His sire was the European-raced Danzig sprinter Green Desert, who also got the high-class stallions Cape Cross (Ire) and Oasis Dream (GB) – a Juddmonte-bred G1-winning sprinter who’s closely related to Kingman and has been an excellent sire for the farm.
Notably, this predominantly speed-oriented line has drifted more than occasionally to European middle-distance stamina when bred for it, particularly through Cape Cross, a miler, and sometimes through Oasis Dream. Cape Cross, for example, got two dual G1 Epsom Derby and G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winners in Sea the Stars (Ire) and Golden Horn (GB), while Oasis Dream got G1 Prix Vermeille winner Midday and G2 Italian Oaks winner Folega among a cluster of sprinters and milers. Sea the Stars, Galileo’s half-brother, is firmly established at stud as a top-level sire of 12-furlong-plus runners and has differentiated himself completely from the speedier representatives of this line.
Kingman is also showing signs that he can get runners that stay farther than a mile. Persian King was second in the 10½-furlong Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby); Headman won the Prix Eugene Adam at 10 furlongs; Nausha (GB) won the G3 Musidora Stakes at 10-and-a-half furlongs; and Sangarius (GB), an Abdullah homebred, won the G3 Hampton Court Stakes at 10 furlongs from Fox Chairman (Ire), another Kingman who subsequently won a Listed race over the same trip.
Though a miler, Kingman’s female family has some stamina deep within it to explain some of his success at stud with 10-furlong horses. On the surface, it’s about speed: His dam Zenda (GB), a daughter of the Gone West sprinter Zamindar, was a Classic winner at a mile in France where she won the G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas). However, Kingman’s second dam, Hope (Ire), was by Dancing Brave, a devastating Arc winner. Hope’s full sister Wemyss Bight (GB) won the G1 Irish Oaks.
Hope produced the sprinter Oasis Dream, who, as mentioned earlier, got some middle-distance horses at stud. The next dam, Bahamian (Ire), by Epsom Derby winner Mill Reef, won a listed race over 12 furlongs and was disqualified from first in the 15-furlong G2 Prix de l’Esperance.
Bahamian’s daughters, Hope aside, have produced quite a few 10-furlong-and-up runners. Wemyss Bight foaled the 10-furlong Gl Arlington Million winner Beat Hollow (GB), and Coraline (GB) got 20-furlong G1 Prix du Cadran winner Reefscape (GB) and 15½-furlong G2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier winner Coastal Path (GB).