Royal Ascot’s Broad Spread Of Stallion Success

[Wandering Eyes]

There were numerous moments to savour at Royal Ascot this year in terms of stallion achievements. The great Galileo consolidated his position atop the overall leader board adding a seventh Group 1 winner in the form of Circus Maximus, who dropped back in distance to take the St James’s Palace S. in what has so far looked like an indecisive 3-year-old miling division. In fact, the top-rated 3-year-old this year according to Timeform is the Kingman colt King Of Comedy (126) who finished an unlucky second to Circus Maximus and whom the Timeform organisation expect to be very competitive in the G1 Sussex S. Galileo also sired his 23^rd individual Royal Ascot stakes winner when Japan took the G2 King Edward VII S. in impressive style and could yet emerge as the leader among his generation among the stayers. He was also represented by Hermosa, Waldgeist and Magical, all of whom were placed in Group 1 company.

Galileo’s Royal Ascot Group 1 winners are an impressive bunch, featuring dual Gold Cup winner Order Of St George, three winners of the St James’s Palace in Frankel, Gleneagles and Circus Maximus, Coronation S. heroines Lush Lashes and Winter, plus Prince Of Wales’s S. winner Highland Reel and Queen Anne scorer Frankel. Even his juveniles are forward enough to be competitive. His daughter Cuis Ghaire won the six-furlong G3 Albany S., while two runnings of the Listed Chesham S. fell to his offspring when Maybe (2011) and Churchill (2016) took the seven-furlong juvenile feature.

The outright winning sire at Royal Ascot in 2019 by number of stakes winners was Galileo’s younger half-brother Sea The Stars. Not only did his Stradivarius follow up in the Gold Cup, his top-class son Crystal Ocean finally earned Group 1-winning status in the Prince of Wales S., something that his level of form (Timeform 129) had promised to do for some time. His other stakes winner was Star Catcher who took the G2 Ribblesdale S. for fillies. Two more sires matched Galileo’s two stakes winners, perhaps the more surprising of the two being Bated Breath. This son of Dansili was responsible for G3 Albany heroine Daahyeh and Space Traveller, who took the G3 seven-furlong Jersey S. Given that Bated Breath stands for a comparatively modest £10,000 and has sired eight stakes winners (3%), two major winners at the Royal Meeting was a resounding success for the Juddmonte sire. He’s building of his own sire’s proud record at the Royal meeting – Dansili’s tally of 10 stakes winners is second only to Galileo and Sadler’s Wells at present. It’s the same number as his brilliant grandsire Danzig and one more than his sire Danehill.

Shamardal’s outstanding season – he has more European stakes winners than any other sire – continued through Ascot and he produced three winners, two at stakes level. And what an exciting pair they are. Blue Point earned an increase in his Timeform rating to 131 following his rare double in the top five- and six-furlong races of the meeting. The King’s Stand-Diamond Jubilee double has not been completed since Choisir in 2003. Blue Point is the only horse ever to win three G1 sprints at Royal Ascot. Moreover, one wonders what he has to do to earn the 133 rating assigned to arch rival Battaash this year, a horse he has beaten in all three races they’ve met. We now know that he won’t have that opportunity as the top class 5-year-old has been retired and will take up stud duties at Darley next spring. Shamardal’s visually most impressive winner of the week was juvenile Pinatubo, who lowered the 2-year-old course record when winning the Chesham by more than three lengths. The performance was rated the best by a 2-year-old in 2019 by Timeform who awarded the winner a rating of 112p. The Godolphin colt looks to have a bright future in the upcoming juvenile group races.

Among the sires with one stakes winner at the Royal meeting, there were a number of firsts, most notably for Coolmore’s Gleneagles, who was responsible for Windsor Castle S. hero Southern Hills and for good measure he also sired Chesham third Highland Chief. Slade Power’s second-crop daughter Raffle Prize provided him with his first-ever group winner when winning the G2 Queen Mary S.. Meanwhile the aforementioned Choisir made his presence felt at Royal Ascot yet again, this time through his sire son Olympic Glory, who enjoyed his first-ever group success when his talented daughter Watch Me landed the G1 Coronation S. from hot favourite Hermosa. No Nay Never’s G2 Coventry success with ultra-smart 2-year-old Arizona, was also his first Royal Ascot success as a sire. Farhh’s Move Swiftly – winner of the G2 Duke of Cambridge – was his first winner at that level in Britain and she is one of six stakes winners (at a remarkable rate of 18.8 % to runners) from the Darley sire’s small first crop.

Cheveley Park Stud’s Pivotal was the leading broodmare sire of the meeting. His three stakes winners – Advertise, Defoe and Raffle Prize – just pipped Galileo’s two. And although his total of four Royal Ascot stakes winners so far is a long way short of the standard set by Sadler’s Wells (19), it’s quite possible that Pivotal could get there one day.

Leading Sires of BTWs At Royal Ascot

Name	YOB	Sire	BTW
GALILEO	1998	Sadler’s Wells	23
SADLER’S WELLS	1981	Northern Dancer	12
DANSILI	1996	Danehill	10
DANZIG	1977	Northern Dancer	10
DANEHILL	1986	Danzig	9
DANEHILL DANCER	1993	Danehill	9
DUBAWI	2002	Dubai Millennium	9
GREEN DESERT	1983	Danzig	9
OASIS DREAM	2000	Green Desert	9
SHIRLEY HEIGHTS	1975	Mill Reef	8
MONTJEU	1996	Sadler’s Wells	7
RIVERMAN	1969	Never Bend	6
SCAT DADDY	2004	Johannesburg	6

 

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