Godolphin, Juddmonte take potential future sires to Royal Ascot
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Godolphin and Juddmonte, two of the world’s foremost breeding operations, are fresh off major performances by leading runners – and potential future stallions – at the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. They now move on to another of the world’s great fixtures, this week’s renowned Royal Ascot meeting, with runners by their respective internationally leading sires on tap.
At Belmont, Godolphin notched a Grade 1 double with its U.S.-based homebreds. Kentucky Oaks heroine Pretty Mischievous added the Acorn Stakes to her resume; 24 hours later, the popular Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody’s Wish won his fourth consecutive Grade 1 race in dominating the Metropolitan Handicap, long considered a stallion-making race. Cody’s Wish, a son of emerging sire-of-sires Curlin, is intended to eventually stand for the Godolphin operation under its Darley stallions banner in Kentucky.
“It's such an iconic race,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s American director of bloodstock. “We've had such a super weekend, with Pretty Mischievous winning [as well].”
Godolphin also had a European shipper win on the weekend, as Siskany took the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup Invitational.
Meanwhile, Juddmonte colorbearer Elite Power, whom the operation purchased as a yearling, won his seventh straight race in the Grade 2 True North at Belmont. That streak includes the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, a victory that made him the Eclipse Award divisional champion.
“We have had a lot of nice horses over the years,” Garrett O’Rourke, Juddmonte’s American general manager, said. “The oddity of this guy is that dirt sprinting isn't anything we've ever really geared our program for. Obviously, we purchased this guy, and it's really nice that for the first time we're winning races that we hadn't before. These are races that we'd never even competed in before. This is very satisfying.”
Elite Power, also by Curlin, could eventually stand for Juddmonte, which has debuted U.S. stallions sparingly and with the commercial marketplace in mind in recent years. One of those rare stallion barn residents was the late Arrogate, who, from just three crops sired before his death in 2020, has already produced Grade 1 winners including recent Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo, and 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath.
“What did they say about Arrogate when he won [the Travers]? ‘Arrogate steals the show,’ ” said Bob Baffert, who trained Arrogate for Juddmonte, saluting the late stallion after his National Treasure was defeated by Arcangelo in the Belmont.
Godolphin and Juddmonte’s prominent European-based stallions will be on prime display as the operations’ respective colors fly at Royal Ascot. On the opening Tuesday of the meet, Godolphin is expected to start two-time Breeders’ Cup winner Modern Games and fellow champion Native Trail in the Group 1 Queen Anne. Juddmonte’s English 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean is expected to run in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace.
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Looking at Group 1 races, alone, for the rest of the week, Godolphin has among its early entries Adayar in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on June 21; champion Yibir in the Gold Cup on June 22; Noble Style in the Commonwealth Cup on June 23; Mawj in the Coronation Stakes on June 23; and Al Suhail in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on June 24.
Juddmonte has a smattering of entrants across the other coveted group stakes races during the five-day meeting, but its greatest influence could come from its stallion roster. Unbeaten two-time European Horse of the Year Frankel stands alongside fellow Horse of the Year Kingman at Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket. Both have been wildly successful internationally.
“It is a golden era for Juddmonte stallions, and that is not lost on us,” Shane Horan, Juddmonte’s stallion nominations manager, told the Thoroughbred Daily News Australia.
Juddmonte homebred Chaldean is by Frankel, while Godolphin and other international operations have also supported these stallions. Adayar is by Frankel, while Noble Style is by Kingman.
Meanwhile, the current kingpin for Godolphin’s international bloodstock wing is Dubawi, who stands at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket. Dubawi, who had five winners at last year’s Royal Ascot meet, is the sire of Modern Games, Yibir, and Al Suhail, as well as other entrants this year.
Dubawi, internationally, has also won six Breeders’ Cup races, and sired a pair of winners at the recent Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, with In Italian taking the Grade 1 Just a Game, in addition to Siskany winning for Godolphin.
"He's just unbelievable," Liam O'Rourke, director of studs for Darley Europe, said of Dubawi while on hand at Belmont. "The horse of a lifetime. We will probably never have another one like him. He's been quite extraordinary."
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