The King & The Royal Stud 2024

The 2024 Flat Year kicks off for the King with his first runner at Kempton on Wednesday. The unraced 3yo colt Calculate makes his debut in an 8f maiden at the Sunbury track. He’s a Cracksman colt out of the unraced Al Kazeem mare Craftiness. Her first foal wasn’t up to much and the mare appears to have died after being covered by Galileo and Australia in 2021. Something must have been amiss. Balding is in fair form and Rob Hornby takes the ride and it would be good to see some promise from this colt.

Another year brings hope but uncertainty with it. Last year was disappointing after the previous two seasons. Every move of the King is construed one way or another. He doesn’t seem as sentimental as his mother but undoubtedly enjoyed some days at the races: especially the Royal Ascot victory of Desert Hero and the same horse’s run in the Leger.
So, what do we know? Well, he sold a fair few horses over the last 15 months but the total number of thoroughbred horses owned is larger today than it was in 2004. He still has in excess of 25 broodmares which looks a healthy number. The stallions used in 2023 to cover the Royal mares you could not really fault, so investment continues. A slight surprise was the sale of a yearling, which I’ve never seen. That could just be good sense.

One area of interest has to be what is coming through this year? The GBB website lists the Royal filly foals (not colts as this bonus is only given for fillies) born in Great Britain each year. For 2022 (this years 2yos) there were 11 fillies born: in fact all the Royal fillies for this year were born in GB and will carry that suffix. A few months after being born there is a first registration of the foal and payment, followed by a second registration 6-9 months later and a final registration later still. The story has been that every filly registered in the first round was then registered in the second and third rounds (unless they died) and then went into training. This year all 11 of the fillies were registered for the first two rounds but 4 of them have not been registered for the third round. Now why is that? All 4 of them may have died, but that is unlikely. It could also be that they will be registered soon (maybe they’d maxed out on the credit card) or it could be that they are being sold with the inference being that the purchaser can pay the final fee. We shall see.
The 2022 foals not registered are:-
Time Test out of Fiery Sunset (half sister to Circle of Fire: mare already sold);
Sea the Moon out of Good Hope (half sister to Candle of Hope: mare already sold);
Magna Grecia out of Shimmering Light (half sister to Treasure: mare already sold);
and Cable Bay out of Pack Together (half sister to Serried Ranks: mare already sold).
There’s a pattern there.

I usually use this website (GBB) to see new filly foalings and for names of these horses (The Queen was particularly good at not only naming her yearlings early but also giving them good names). Last year no 2yos were named as of 1st Jan 2023 but I can already see 5 have been named of the 7 fully registered fillies and 2 are already in training. They are:-
Purple Rainbow by Night of Thunder out of Daphne, with Haggas, and Royal Equerry by Kingman out of Memory, with Beckett.

As regards the 2yo colts you can only trace those that have been named. Of the 5 that have so far been named 2 have gone into training. They are:-
Dust Cover by Showcasing out of Dusty Dream (first foal: mare already sold) with Beckett and Camel Train by Dubawi out of Desert Flyer (first foal).
You can get the names off the Breeders Cup website and then find if they are in training off the BHA website. So there are 4 unnamed colts, who possibly are to be named or are to be sold. 2022 was a low foal year mainly because there were a few late foalings in 2021 and mares were rested or retired.. It looks like there are 19 2024 yearlings and 24 Royal mares covered and hopefully in foal ( some will have been barren etc.).

What has definitely happened has been a slimming down of the training roster. In 2022 there were 10 trainers. At the beginning of ’23 Cox, followed by Bell, Hannon and then by Charlton left the ranks. I saw no mention of this in the media, though they did mention the addition of Prescott and Beckett (though Beckett had trained for Charles, when POW). There must be a possibility that Hughes joins the 4-that-went as he was sent no 2yos last year and so currently has no horses registered with him. It would seem a little unfair on him, as even though the lesser sorts were sent to him he got races out of nearly all of them. More surprising would be the other trainer who appears short of Royal horses and that is Stoute. He has one 3yo owned by the King as he was only sent one 2yo last year. Prescott was sent two 2yo horses last year but both were gone by the end of the season. Will he be sent 2yos this year?
So that leaves the big four: Balding, Haggas, Gosden and Beckett. Balding has 4 3yos and Beckett has 3yos and 2yos. Both these trainers publish their strings but the other two take more seeking out.

A lot will happen in the next three months before the turf season starts and I’ll be watching to see what happens.

 

Sure is. Were they sold with the foals?

 

No I don't think so. 3 of the mares were sold in 2022 and one in 2023 at the December Breeding Stock Sale .
There seems to be a pattern of getting-out of certain families.

 

It does look very much like that

 

For those of you interested in the produce of other mares or fillies you follow, here's the website:-

Check Eligibility - Foal or Racehorse - Breeders' Cup Horsemen Site (breederscup.com)

So put in 2022 and the name of a filly/mare and you get the short pedigree of any produce for that year with possibly a name (once named you get it).

From March onwards the produce of 2024 foals will start appearing.

 

An inauspicious start to 2024 with Calculate running green and beating only one home.

The Royal Stud is selling a Too Darn Hot filly out of Queen's Prize at the Tattersalls' February Sale. I expected a few more.

Another 2yo filly named, that makes 6 fillies. Altogether 11 2yos named so far.

 

Calculate reappears tomorrow at Southwell. Hopefully he'll have woken up a bit and do better, but looks to have no chance against the Haggas favourite.

Meanwhile his trainer Balding has taken Handcuffed (a Dark Angel sister to Tactical and Works of Art) and an unnamed Le Havre colt out of Light Music into training. That makes it six 2yos in training so far.

I can see there being something like 12 to 15 2yos in training this year. This is near half of what the Queen had in the last 10 years of her life. A key date for the 2yo fillies is the 28th February closing date for the Great British Bonus registration. 7 are so far registered, 5 aren't. If they are not to be registered then what is to happen to them?

 

Calculate ran a better race but his future looks to be either the July Sales or handicaps.

Slipofthepen is back in training with the Gosdens. Quite a few of the 2yo colts of last year are now geldings. Crown Estate (Gosden), Serried Ranks (Beckett), Trout Stream (as yet to go into training), Gilded Water (Haggas) and Candle Wax (Haggas) have all gone under the knife. Hopefully it will do them some good. Serried Ranks ran two impressive races last year and two absolute stinkers, which is often a sign their minds are on something else.

Stoute's only assigned 3yo, Reaching High (by Sea the Stars out of Estimate) is back in training after being taken out in October. He escaped an operation.
Disappointingly 2yo filly Purple Rainbow (Haggas) who entered training in mid-December has been taken out.

 

That seems a lot gelded. Presumably that's not what was in mind when they bred them. So what might their futures be? Handicaps, hurdling, sold off?

 

If they are not going to ever make stallions why keep them as entires? One argument I've heard is that geldings don't become over heavy. Another is that they don't have their minds on mating and are less to prone to being aggressive and getting injured.

Dick Hern's predecessor at West Ilsley was Jack Colling who trained for the Astors and Lord Durham, amongst others. He famously said 'give me a stable of geldings and I'll have the bookies crying for mercy'. He famously trained an Hyperion gelding called High Stakes to win 34 races for Lord Astor, still a record number on the flat in the UK. Though he won a lot of handicaps he won the Ormonde Stakes as a 4yo, the Great Yorkshire Stakes twice as a 6yo and 7yo, and was 2nd in the Hardwicke Stakes as a 7yo. He valued a gelding's soundness. Hern's best gelding was Boldboy ( though Grey of Falloden wasn't far behind) who at the end of his career held the record for most money won by a gelding. He was a maniac as a 2yo, yet broke his maiden on his first start as a gelding when winning the Greenham and beating the 2000G favourite. He went on to win 14 races, 13 of them Group races and three of them now Group 1s.

The hope must be that they improve through becoming more genuine on the gallops and the racecourse. Of the four mentioned I really felt Crown Estate would improve for being gelded. I've already mentioned Serried Ranks.

 

Never had to geld ours. Stallions are much better for show jumping, we've found. Maybe we are just lucky with our stallions, or it's because they are used to having mares around. I don't think gelding can improve a horse's ability; in fact maybe the opposite. But if they get too naughty to race, probably no other option. Shame really as stallions look much more impressive. Obviously, geldings have a much longer racing life than stallions; those that are earmarked as stallions are generally "wrapped in cotton wool" and put away at 3 or 4, not even fully matured. For that reason geldings can rack up more wins over a longer period and more likely to endear themselves to the general public

Back to my comment, I just didn't associate royalty with geldings

 

Reach for the Moon is comprehensively beaten on his hurdling debut at Sedgefield. He tired badly over the last half mile and finished a distant 4th.
Hope the training fees aren't too high.

 

He was beaten a long way out, the fact he faded so badly must suggest that he either doesn't like the ground, or his ability has long waned.


Not a great ten minutes for the Queen with Schematic looking very poor at Ludlow too.

 

Vet report says he finished lame

 

A first foal for the Royal Stud with a Kingman colt being born to the dual winning mare Mellow Yellow. This is her first foal and it's always good to see a maiden mare get in foal early and produce.
Just as last year the naming and placing of 2yos is taking place slowly. No new placements can be reported though two Haggas 2yos have already been taken back out of training: Purple Rainbow (a Night of Thunder daughter of Daphne) and Golden Handshake (a Zarak son of Star Value). In fact the latter went into and out of training on the same day: what happened there. I even thought his third 2yo, Camel Train, had either died or gone out of training but find that he has been renamed as The King's Falcon. Probably a better name as Camels tend to be slow, but this continual use of Kings and The King's in naming horses is becoming both tiresome and showing a lack of imagination (3 3yos are named King something and now there's this one). As I said before the late Queen only used Queen in a name once and that was justified as the horse was out of Daring Aim (the Queen's Prize being the annual trophy at the Bisley rifle shooting contest). Come on Camilla let's have some more thought going into these names.
So I dread to think that the foal just born will be called the King's Donovan.

As regards this in and out of training stuff I find it hard to believe that trainers of yore would have put up with this. They had their way of training 2yos and it was their way. Pretraining didn't exist then. Jack Colling (who incidentally, when he retired, was the winning most trainer of races won) said his favourite time of the year was June when the yearlings arrived. Unthinkable now.

Just for completeness one more 2yo has had her GBB fees paid. That's the Cable Bay filly out of Pack Together, who is at least a descendant of Feola. Her name is awaited.
The 2yo filly by Too Darn Hot out of Queen's Prize was sold for ONLY 7,000gns. They lost out on that one.

 

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, a feature of last year was the loss of Bell, Cox, Charlton and Hannon from the Royal training roster. No 2yos were sent to them last year. So far only 9 2yos have been assigned to trainers and it may be significant that Prescott who joined the roster last year has been sent none of them, nor have Hughes, Stoute or Gosden. The latter two have older horses and may well be sent some of the unassigned 2yos (see below).

What looks clear is that Haggas seems to have risen to the top of the roster. He looks to have 9 (and possibly 10) Royal horses in training this year. Of course, they are headed by Desert Hero, of whom much is expected this year. His best 3yo looks to be the filly Hard to Resist but she must improve about 10lb to get near Group class. Of his 2yos Aeolian is a half-sister to Desert Hero while Purple Rainbow is a half-sister to the useful filly Perfect Alibi, which he trained. The King’s Falcon is interesting as he’s by Dubawi out of a twice winning Shamardal mare whose dam was a champion 2yo filly.
Beckett had a fair first year as a Monarch’s trainer and ran 3 horses to win 3 races. He has an interesting 3yo filly in Treasure who won her only race as a 2yo. She is now owned solely by the Queen. Probably his most eyecatching 2yo is Tempting Fate who is a half-sister to Hard to Resist out of that good filly Magnetic Charm.
Balding has four 3yos including the useful Works of Art. He also has the last Royal foal out of Set to Music, a Galileo filly called Falsetto. So far his 2yos are a Dark Angel sister to Works of Art called Handcuffed and a Le Havre half-sister to Group winner Light Refrain.

Haggas
One 4yo
Four 3yos
One possible other 3yo (Transitory colt by Le Havre out of Momentary)
Four assigned 2yos
Aeolian filly by Fastnet Rock out of Desert Breeze
Golden Handshake colt by Zarak out of Star Value
Purple Rainbow filly by Night of Thunder out of Daphne
The King’s Falcon colt by Dubawi out of Desert Flyer

Beckett
Three 3yos (one unraced)
One possible 3yo (Royal Command filly by Kingman out of Enticement)
Three assigned 2yos
Dust Cover colt by Showcasing out of Dusty Dream
Royal Equerry filly by Kingman out of Memory
Tempting Fate filly by Wootton Bassett out of Magnetic Charm

Balding
Four 3yos (two unraced)
Two 2yos
Bouquet de Paris colt by Le Havre out of Light Music
Handcuffed filly by Dark Angel out of Make Fast

Gosden
One 4yo
Three 3yos (one unraced)

Stoute
One 3yo

Other 3yo (unassigned and unraced)
Trout Stream gelding by Siyouni out of Golden Stream

Unassigned, probable 2yos
Unnamed colt by Sea the Stars out Nathra
Unnamed filly by Cable Bay out of Pack Together
Unnamed colt by Land Force out of Medley
Value for Money colt by Lope de Vega out of Estimate
Gilded Flow filly by Sea the Moon out of Golden Stream
Warrant Holder colt by Frankel out of Diploma

Unassigned, possible 2yos
Unnamed filly by Sea the Moon out of Good Hope
Unnamed colt by Night of Thunder out of Momentary
Unnamed colt by Ulysses out of Pure Fantasy
Unnamed filly by Time Test out of Fiery Sunset
Unnamed filly by Magna Grecia out of Shimmering Light
Unnamed colt by Recorder out of Sequence

Gosden has the 4yo Slipofthepen, who disappeared from our screens in May last year. Two of his 3yos have been gelded while the other two are maiden colts, being High Order (by Frankel) and The King’s General (by Dubawi). Hopefully both will do a lot better this year.
Stoute has one 3yo, the colt Reaching High. Out of Estimate he hopefully will improve once put over 12f+.

According to my records that makes 27 horses currently in training. That could rise to 30 if the two 3yos that keep being taken out of training finally stay with their assigned trainers and if Trout Stream is finally assigned. I’m sure there will certainly be the 3 named 2yos going into training and likely that the 3 unnamed ‘probables’ will make it to a trainer. So that would be 36, which could possibly rise up to 42 if all the possibles join them.

If they are not to race these horses what are they going to do with them? If they are to be sold why weren’t they already sold? I’ll keep you posted.

 

Four foals (3 colts and a filly) reported as being born this year. I reckon about another 15 to possibly foal.

Crown Estate, a well-bred son of Dubawi out of a mare called Castle Lady, who won the French 1000G for Godolphin, makes his seasonal debut in a Newcastle maiden tomorrow. He ran 3 times as a 2yo and was disappointing. Now gelded, it is to be hoped he's a bit more resolute in his running this season. Trained by Gosden, Kieran Shoemark takes the ride.

 

A first Royal winner of the year as Crown Estate coasts home by 4+ lengths. Bounced out in front, he had an easy lead until ridden seriously 2f out as the favourite began his challenge. Went away from the field in the final furlong and looked useful, beating the favourite by 5+ lengths. Was backed into 5/4 after being 7/4 earlier in the day. The gelding may have sorted him out, though it was reported that he'd also had a wind operation.

So Castle Lady's first foal is a winner. She has no 2yo but has a yearling colt by Frankel and was covered by Kingman last year. You'd imagine Crown Estate's future is in handicapping. Before this race he had an OR of 79, you'd imagine that could go up to the mid to late 80s.

 

First turf runner in the Royal colours as an unraced 3yo filly, Anglepoise, is declared to run in Sunday's 7f maiden. She's by Australian sire Zoustar out of a Sadler's Wells mare called Hypoteneuse (full sister to Oaks 2nd Flight of Fancy and to the dam of Reach for the Moon, Golden Stream). Mare started well with a decent handicapper called Maths Prize and then a good 3yo/4yo colt called Sextant, but since then very little. This is her last foal.
At the moment no-one declared as jockey. I'd think Rossa may have a chance. I'd recommend a watching brief.

Crown Estate got an OR of 84, which looks friendly to me.

 

Missing my tracker at the moment and missed the entry of Rainbow's Edge, another unraced 3yo filly in tomorrow's 8f maiden at Newcastle. By Night of Thunder she's half-sister to 5 previous winners, including Recorder (Acomb Stks winner) and Call to Mind (Group 2 winner). Trained by Gosden, Havlin has the ride in what looks a competitive maiden.
Good to see these unraced horses getting out entered, though Anglepoise has been withdrawn from Sunday's race.