Mandaloun keeps Khalid Abdullah's flame alive with Risen Star victory

The Thoroughbred world was rocked in early January with the news of the death of Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the founder and principal of the internationally renowned Juddmonte Farms. But Juddmonte has continued on from strength to strength, with a homebred squarely on the Kentucky Derby trail in the U.S. and one of its most anticipated breedings of the season, which Prince Khalid planned before his death, taking place over the weekend.

Mandaloun won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, successfully stretching out to 1 1/8 miles after finishing third in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes the prior month. The Risen Star, the final local stepping-stone toward the Louisiana Derby, was the first Kentucky Derby prep race offering 50 points to its winner.

“[The Louisiana Derby] is definitely going to be in play,” trainer Brad Cox said. “We will talk it over with [Juddmonte U.S. manager] Garrett O’Rourke and the Juddmonte team and come up with a game plan. I’m very proud of the colt . . . [The distance] is a big ask at any time for a Thoroughbred, and then to do it in February of your 3-year-old year. Garrett has made the comment several times that he thinks he’s a mile-and-a-quarter-horse and he trains like one. He’s got enough speed to be close, and he stays on. He’s got the physical make-up of a mile-and-a-quarter horse, so we’re optimistic he’ll get better with more ground.”

Mandaloun, by Into Mischief, is out of Juddmonte’s Group 2 winner Brooch, by its homebred Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker. Brooch has a yearling full brother to Mandaloun in Juddmonte’s pipeline, and was bred to War Front for this season.

Prince Khalid made Juddmonte’s 2021 breeding plans for his international broodmare band prior to his death at age 83, and the most anticipated of those took place over the weekend. Two-time Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Enable was covered by fellow European Horse of the Year Kingman at Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket, England, on Valentine’s Day, one day after Mandaloun’s victory. It will be several weeks before Enable, who was retired to broodmare duty this year, can be pronounced in foal.

But Enable’s first foal will, eventually, race for Prince Khalid’s family, with his sons and grandsons taking an interest in the business and stating in January intentions to continue Juddmonte’s operations.

“The news is there will be no change,” Juddmonte CEO Douglas Erskine Crum told the Racing Post. “Juddmonte will continue. There is a commitment from the family and from all the management and staff. It’s onwards and upwards.”