‘It’s a Continuation of That Great Line’: Lead Artist Arrives at Banstead Manor Stud

[Wandering Eyes]

One of the concerns of the most recent breeding season was the relative dearth of stallions retired to stud, particularly in Britain, for 2025. That should not be a concern for the forthcoming year, with a number of retirements already announced and more likely to follow.

Leading the charge, appropriately, is Juddmonte's Lead Artist, who arrived at Banstead Manor Stud last week and is available for breeders to view during the October Sales. In a year in which Night Of Thunder has surged ahead of his own sire to head the stallion table in Britain and Ireland it is no bad time to be retiring another son of Dubawi, and particularly one who hails from a signature Juddmonte family. 

When Prince Khalid Abdullah made the decision to purchase Sookera (Roberto) from Robert Sangster, he could hardly have known then the significance it would have for his burgeoning Juddmonte empire. The champion juvenile filly in Britain in 1977, Sookera's legacy continues to grow almost half a century later, chiefly through her diminutive granddaughter Hasili (Kahyasi), who became a cornerstone for Juddmonte. Three of Hasili's sons – the full-brothers Dansili, Champs Elysees and Cacique – have stood at Banstead Manor Stud on the outskirts of Newmarket and, just as importantly, her daughters have continued to prove their worth within the Juddmonte broodmare band. 

To date, there are 53 Group 1 performers among Hasili's descendants, and it is her final foal Responsible (Oasis Dream) who features as the granddam of Lead Artist through her Group 2-winning daughter Obligate (Frankel). That Lead Artist's first two dams are by current members of the Juddmonte stallion roster is the icing on what amounts to an enticing cake when introducing a new Group 1 winner to the roster. Though Lead Artist's fee is as yet undecided, it is fair to say that he will stand at a level which will make him accessible for a wide sector of breeders. 

“I think he's probably going to be a very commercial horse,” said Juddmonte's general manager Simon Mockridge as Lead Artist was shown to members of the press on Monday morning. “He's going to sit in that 10-to-20,000 range.”

He continued, “For us, it's great to have him here. Purely and simply it's a continuation of that great line. We had so much success with Dansili and through [his son] Bated Breath even. It's just nice to have a [great] grandson back here. At one time we had the three brothers together, with Dansili, Champs Elysees and Cacique, and Cacique unfortunately probably could have been the best of the lot, but was sub-fertile.”

Sent into training with John and Thady Gosden, Lead Artist was unraced at two owing to a fissure fracture of his knee but he broke his maiden in convincing fashion on his second start at three during York's Dante meeting. By high summer he had won the G3 Glorious Stakes before finishing second to Kinross in the G2 Park Stakes and then landing the G3 Darley Stakes over nine furlongs at Newmarket. Over the winter he contested Bahrain's G2 International Trophy, in which he finished second to Frankel's son Spirit Dancer. 

Lead Artist's four runs this season have resulted in just one victory, but it was a good one: in the G1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in May, he had the Group 1 winners Rosallion, Notable Speech, Fallen Angel and Tamfana behind him when winning in the second-fastest time recorded for the mile contest. 

“He's got great balance,” Mockridge said. “The lovely thing about him is that has been all the way through from being a foal – he was quite a big foal when he was born, he was 132lbs, which is a good size. And he was always described, even then, with great balance, power, very strong, good head on him, and even all the way through his breaking career he was rated eight, so he was one of the top two or three of his cohort.”

He added, “He's a very relaxed horse, nice temperament, easy to work with. I hope that he's going to be popular and, as we can see today, he's a very easy horse to like, and he's physically very correct, walks well, very nice horse. I think he'll suit a lot of people.”

On a bright autumn morning with the sun bouncing off Lead Artist's dark bay coat, it is hard to disagree with Mockridge's assessment. As it's never too early to start thinking about next year's matings, if you find yourself with an hour to spare in Newmarket over the next fortnight, you can make up your own mind with a trip to Banstead Manor Stud.

 

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