Royal Stud 2022

Perfect Alibi, given an assertive ride at Newbury today, provides the Queen with her 10th winner of the year. There have been disappointments this year but she isin fact ahead of her score this time last year (that being a bumper year).
Perfect Alibi is the first foal (by Le Havre) out of a Duke of Marmalade mare called Daphne. She, in turn, is a daughter of a cantankerous filly called Daring Aim (by Daylami), who finally exerted herself to win her maiden when given a forceful ride by Kieran Fallon. She passed this 'mind of her own' onto most of her offspring but surprisingly not to Daphne, who may not have had the inherent ability of her dam but at least put her best foot forward. There's no 2yo, but she has a yearling colt by Dubawi and a filly foal by Night of Thunder. She may be a mare for the future.
What of Perfect Alibi? I think that was a hot maiden and this filly can go further both in quality of race and distance. She was a late entry for the Oaks but that expectation was either or both too much or too soon. She is entered in the Ribblesdale and I'm sure the Queen would like to have a runner in that race. I wonder if the Queens Vase over 2f further may play to her staying strengths.

 

Evaluation wins his fourth race of the year from 4 starts. Seems to be improving with racing and not the stuffy colt he appeared last year. His wins plus the win of Otago makes it 15 wins for the Royal Stud this year. Where to next? Could it be that Evaluation lines up at Royal Ascot in the Ascot Stakes or is the Northumberland Plate a more likely target?

The racing gaze now widens as at Royal Ascot the first important 2yo races take place. So far the Queen has had 3 of her 25 2yos entered. Two have run, and one, Garner has won. Last year it was Gosden who got all his 4 2yos out early (relatively early, all by the end of July). Gosden has again 4 2yos this year and has entered none of them so far. Haggas also has 4, but they look to be Autumn types. Balding also has 4 and he may have his out earlier. Constitution (a Churchill colt) is the unraced but entered 2yo and may run this week (Thursday: Newbury). Juryman ( by Recorder and a half-brother to Kings Lynn) should be the type to run relatively early. There must also be a strong chance that the filly Reminder (by Dubawi and a half-sister to Recorder) will run mid to late-Summer.

 

Three Royal runners today, which is relatively rare. More hope than certainty with the 2yo Constitution leading the way. He's out of a mare, Pack Together, who was sent to the December Sales but didn't make her reserve. She's had two poor foals to race so far, with a place being the best result. The mare wasn't a bad filly at all, winning FTO and later being listed placed. She comes from what was the Queen's best family and now the Queen has a filly foal out of Pack Together by Cable Bay. A good performance today from Consitution would provide some reassurance for the future of the family in the stud.
Later in the day Clear Day makes his seasonal debut. This Camelot gelding is a half-brother to this year's 2yo winner Garner. He's had some mentions on the gallops but at the same time is entered for the July Sales. He's the shortest priced of the 3 today.
The final runner is Improvise, who stopped almost to a walk on her seasonal debut in the Cheshire Oaks. She has a bit to prove today.

 

Constitution didn't run badly and should find a maiden somewhere. Three 2yos have run and all been placed (one winning) yet I'd be surprised if these are the best of her pack.
Clear Day, started favourite and ran a stinker, and should go to the Sales in July.

 

With the entries for the first 4 days of Royal Ascot published the Queen has 10 horses entered in 11 races. As expected Perfect Alibi got an entry for the Queens Vase as well as the Ribblesdale. Though Reach for the Moon is the hoped-for star of the week for Her Majesty I was pleased to see Ryan Moore engaged to ride her gelding, Just Fine, in the Duke of Edinburgh on Friday. Firm ground would suit.
Added to this Evaluation is entered for the Ascot Stakes on Tuesday.

 

Reach for the Moon was comprehensively beaten Not a lucky race for the Queen. She has had several placed horses in this race. An odd statistic is that none of them have ever raced again after the race.

 

A hugely disappointing Ascot. Saga was the high point.

Two runners today. At Newcastle Tack, Tactical's brother, goes for his maiden. Doesn't look the easiest of seasonal debuts.
At Newmarket the second-start 2yo Love Affairs is an outsider competes in a more open race. Ran very green FTO and the winner went on to be 2nd in the Queen Mary. I'm hoping for a more forward display this evening.

 

This time last year the Queen had a couple of 2yo winners and Reach the Moon had run twice. Slower this year but at last a higher profile juvenile appears. Next Thursday the Sea the Stars colt, Desert Hero, is entered to make his debut at Haydock. He's out of Desert Breeze, an unraced full-sister to Dartmouth (Dubawi). Trained by Haggas, this is his Royal 2yo colt entered in the 2023 Derby. Unlikely to mean anything, but Stoute and Gosden have the other two (Circle of Fire [by Almanzor] and Slipofthepen [by Night of Thunder]).

 

Tack this morn given an opening handicap mark of 75. His half-brother (Tactical) is on 104.

Interestingly, re Tactical, he's now been put in 2 very rich handicaps. One over 7f on King George Day and the other over a mile at Goodwood a few days later. Interesting to see which option(s) connections go with.

 

Desert Hero made a promising winning debut at Haydock in what was a properly run race. Ran green early on but given a particularly good (and strong hands and heels) ride by Marquand came through to win readily. A first foal, there's no yearling but a filly foal by Fastnet Rock. Valuable now.

A few experts viewed Tactical's run at Ascot as unlucky (and promising), and the problem was that he was drawn badly and hindered in running.

 

Earlier this year I wrote that I thought Stoute was slipping down the Royal roster. That was based on him having one 4yo, two 3yos and at that stage two 2yos. However it looks as this is not quite the case as in the last few weeks a few new Royal inmates arrived at Freemason Lodge.
They are:-
Marching Band, a Ribchester colt and half brother to the useful Light Music;
and Gentle Light, a Frankel daughter of Light Music and full-sister to Group winner Light Refrain.

These two go with the Derby entry Circle of Fire (Almanzor) and Theme Park (Lope de Vega colt), already at Freemason Lodge...

Marching Band and Gentle Light have pedigrees that suggest they could have 2yo careers.

 

Gosden ends the current saga (I should be on the radio with this sort of stuff) of Royal seconds with Dukedom giving him his first Royal winner of 2022. This gelding seemed to have chronic seconditis but yesterday showed some fight when finally winning (at Haydock). Perhaps he'll do better in the future. Whatever, I'm sure he's sales bound.
So the scores on the doors are:-
Gosden 1 win
Haggas 3 wins (Educator, Perfect Alibi and Desert Hero)
Bell 1 win (Spring is Sprung )
Charlton 3 wins ( Garner and Discretion x 2)
Stoute 1 win (Kiteflyer)
Balding 3 wins ( Kings Lynn, Distant Light and Duty Bound)
Hannon, Hughes and Cox yet to score.

What of Reach for the Moon? Where is Educator, who looked a colt of promise when winning in April but hasn't been entered since?

Lots of 2yos yet to run, with only 5 out so far (2 winners from 5 runners). Balding's Constitution should be the next if following up on his debut promise.

 

Having had the most promising 2yo winner so far, in Desert Hero, Haggas enters another 2yo debutant, Blue Missile, in Saturday's first race at Newmarket. She's a Galileo filly (there won't be too many more) out of Iffraaj mare Nathra, so a half-sister to Dukedom (Dubawi). So Nathra's been sent to the best so far: she has no yearling but a colt foal by Sea the Stars. Trained by Gosden, Nathra won 3 races including the Nell Gwynn. More importantant she was 2nd in the 2yo Fillies Mile, French 1000G and Sun Chariot, so a near top-class racefilly.
In form Haggas usually knows when his 2yos are ready. I'd be disappointed if she doesn't put up a promising debut performance: Marquand is already booked..
. .

 

Hughes has his first 2yo runner (he has two Royal 2yos) when Candle of Hope (by Cable Bay) makes her debut tomorrow. An intriguing name for this filly, as she along with her dam, Good Hope, is one of the few remaining members of the Feola family (that's Aureole, Highclere, Nashwan and Baeed: no don't forget Deep Impact). With little success in the Royal stables, this family has shrunk to just 2 broodmares (was going to be one but nobody would pay the price), Candle of Hope, a Saxon Warrior yearling filly, and Cable Bay and Sea the Moon filly foals.
Candle of Hope has a lot riding on her.

 

An impressive winning debut from Candle of Hope. She was easy to back early in the day but had support to 15/2.
49 years ago, on the first day of the July meeting a bay Queens Hussar filly made her debut but was clearly outpointed when 2nd to a once raced Reform filly called Polygamy. The QH filly was Highclere, and she met Polygamy on 2 other occasions and finished on top both times. The third of their meetings was the 1974 1000G and Highclere got home by a head. They then both went on to win their next races, the Oaks and the Prix de Diane.
Polygamy was a failure at stud but Highclere, while never getting a filly of her own class, produced Height of Fashion (the dam of Nashwan and ancestor to many outstanding horses) and Burghclere (the granddam of Deep Impaxt).
Candle of Hope has Highclere as her 4th dam. It is unlikely that she'll be another Highclere or indeed Height of Fashion, but she's now an important filly and could be fairly useful. This is the oldest family in The Royal Stud.

 

Tactical given a Group 2 declaration at Ascot tomorrow then (Summer Mile). Was this made in the hope that the race would cut up badly?!? Does have quite a bit to do on official figures but will be fascinating to see how he gets on. The excellent David Probbert booked.

 

You often see on racecards, especially for 2yo races, the initials GBB. These stand for Great British Bonus, and bonus amounts are given in these races. In order to win them you have to register your filly foal and pay a fee. You can either register them for 100% or 50%, and pay the appropriate fee.
Now I've wondered the significance of the 50% or 100% nomination. Does it mean you think the 100% horse is the better horse, so you pay a bigger nomination fee? I'm prompted to write this bit after the victory of Candle of Hope as she is a 100% registration..

So here are the Royal 100% nominations:-
Calmly (Gosden)
Candle of Hope (Hughes)
Cape Point (as yet unallocated)
Clear Thinking (Haggas)
Gentle Light (Stoute)
Quiet Life (Cox)
Reminder (Balding)
Silver Pageant (Bell)
Value Added (Hughes) .

Blue Missile is a 50% filly by the way.

I may return to this later in the season.

As regards Candle of Hope, I thought she looked a tall well-made (if plain) filly. Though she did her job she looked green and can learn a lot from that. I am reminded of Height of Fashion's debut. She was set to make her debut in the Acomb Stakes at the York Ebor Meeting. Carson had been injured the previous day, so Lester Piggott was engaged to ride her. In the paddock Piggott looked quizzically at her but Hern just said 'I know what you're thinking, she looks awkward, but she goes'. Height of Fashion strolled home. Wouldn't it be good if Candle of Hope had some of her ability?

 

Time for the chop surely.

 

Golden Stream was very much the Royal mare of 2021. Not only did she have the 6 wins from her two Sea the Stars sons, Chalk Stream and Reach for the Moon, she also had her daughter Thames Pageant (Dansili) produce the Brreeder's Cup turf winner, Twilight Gleaming. The only problem with this story was that there was no daughter of Golden Stream in the stud as Thames Pageant was sold as a 3yo (for 42,000gns) and her other filly Tidal Stream (Redoutes Choice) had also been sold as an unraced 3yo (embarrassingly to the Highclere Stud).
The consolation was that Golden Stream produced a Dubawi filly in 2020. However something must have gone wrong as she was never named. It is most likely she died as a yearling.
So the news that a Sea the Moon filly has been born to this mare is welcome indeed. Of course she has to see it through to the end of 2025 in order to enter the stud.

 

Another all the way win for Perfect Alibi at Newbury. Outclassed at Royal Ascot in the Queens Vase, she does look capable of getting some Black Type.

Today's declarations for next Thursday include two entries for Stoute's Royal Derby (2023) entry colt, Circle of Fire. An Almanzor colt out of a Galileo mare called Fiery Sunset. This mare found her way into The Royal Stud, courtesy of Juddmonte. She comes from the family of El Gran Senor, was trained by Bell for The Queen and she did win a 12f maiden. Circle of Fire is her fourth live foal and will be her 3rd to race. The other 2 both won but did not set the world alight and were sold at the end of their 3yo careers. It looks as if Moore will take the mount if he runs at Sandown (otherwise it's Doncaster)..