Kingman receives top Cartier Award

The brilliant 3-year-old miler Kingman has been named the Cartier Horse of the Year for 2014, it was announced Tuesday.

Bred and owned by the Juddmonte Farms of Khalid Abdullah and trained by John Gosden, Kingman won 5 of 6 starts during his 2014 campaign. In his only loss he finished second in the English 2000 Guineas to Night of Thunder.

Kingman, by Invincible Spirit-Zenda, started his season with a win in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes. After his defeat in the 2000 Guineas he returned to win the St. James’s Palace against 3-year-olds at Royal Ascot and walloped older rivals in the Group 1 Sussex at Newmarket and the Group 1 Prix Jacqes Le Marois at Deauville on Aug. 17.

The Marois would turn out to be Kingman’s last hurrah. Scheduled to make his final start in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot, Kingman was found in early autumn to have a throat infection, which led to his retirement.

The racing public was left wanting more. Kingman, winning on ground from fast to slow, had an electrifying late turn of foot unmatched by any horse in Europe this year.

As Cartier Horse of the Year, Kingman was the obvious choice to win the Cartier as Europe’s top 3-year-old, while another Juddmonte homebred, Noble Mission, won the 2014 Cartier in the older-horse category, thanks in great part to his season-ending victory in the Group 1
QIPCO British Champion Stakes in October.

Taghrooda, whose owner and breeder, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, earned a Cartier Award of Merit this year, was named champion 3-year-old filly. Taghrooda scored a smashing win in the English Oaks, beat older male rivals in the Group 1 King George, and after a shocking defeat in the Yorkshire Oaks, rebounded with a fine third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe before being retired to become a broodmare.

Sole Power was named champion sprinter, Leading Light the champion stayer, Gleneagles champion 2-year-old, and Tiggy Wiggy champion 2-year-old filly.