Al Kazeem to retire to Royal Studs for 2014

Al Kazeem, a three-time Group 1 winner this season, will begin his stud career in 2014 at Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Studs in Sandringham, England.

The 5-year-old Dubawi horse, who races as a homebred for John Deer, is the first stallion acquired by Royal Studs since the syndication of Epsom Derby winner Motivator in 2005. Motivator has since relocated to France, leaving Al Kazeem to stand alongside Royal Applause in England.

"The Queen is thrilled to have acquired such an important, high-class stallion for the Royal Studs," the Queen's bloodstock and racing adviser John Warren told Racing Post. "Al Kazeem is an outstanding individual and being by Dubawi out of a Darshaan mare he should be an extremely appealing prospect to breeders."

Al Kazeem, trained by Roger Charlton, has won half of his 14 starts, earning $1,559,368. A Group 2 winner last season, he has blossomed this year at age 5, defeating dual classic winner Camelot in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and also winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Coral Eclipse Stakes. He also finished second in the Irish Champion Stakes and third in the Juddmonte International, both Group 1 events. He is pointing to next month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

"He's an exceptionally easy horse to train and is very uncomplicated,” Charlton said. “He is the most fabulous looker and has always been an extremely tough racehorse. In short he's everything you'd want in a horse - he's the best I've trained."

Al Kazeem is the only stakes winner out of the Darshaan mare Kazeem. Second dam Kanz was a Group 3 winner and finished second in the Yorkshire Oaks.