The Juddmonte brand is today one of the most easily identifiable. That of course is a testament to the depth and consistency of Khalid Abdullah’s families, which makes it all the more remarkable to think how the foundations for such an empire were laid within a relatively short space of time.

Enable is the crowning achievement of the Fleet Girl family that joined the fold with the purchase of Ferrans Stud in Ireland from Dr Herbert Schnapka in 1982. Frankel, produced on a foal sharing agreement with Coolmore, hails from the John ‘Jock’ Hay Whitney stock bought on the advice of Jeremy Tree in 1983 as does the Peace family that is responsible for Byword, Proviso and Zambezi Sun. Then there is the remarkable success of Hasili, the dam of Dansili, Cacique, Champs Elysees, Heat Haze and Banks Hill whose granddam Sookera was purchased from Robert Sangster. Another matriarch, Slightly Dangerous, was acquired during her racing days and left behind the likes of Commander In Chief and Warning.

A number of other prolific families – too many to list here – have also been key in Juddmonte’s self sufficiency over the years, but it’s worth noting that plenty of them descend from accomplished American-bred mares. For instance, agent James Delahooke signed at $350,000 for Razyana, a His Majesty relation to Northern Dancer who would later produce Danehill. Rather more expensive was the Star Envoy mare Populi, who cost $2 million in 1983 but became the backbone to the family responsible for Group 1 winners Distant Music, African Rose and Native Trail. Image Of Reality was bought for $500,000 in 1987 not long before producing the future blue hen Toussaud (dam of Grade 1 winners Empire Maker, Chester House and Honest Lady) while the family belonging to the Cloudy Dawn mare Lost Virtue, purchased for $375,000 in 1986, has provided top-flight winners such as All At Sea, Passage Of Time and Timepiece; it is currently enjoying a purple patch courtesy of the stakes-winning fillies Time Lock and Topanga to go with the recent exciting juvenile winners Cosmic Year and Supermodel.

Few families have hit such a good vein of form in recent weeks, however, than that belonging to Queen Of Song, who features as the ancestress of Arc heroine Bluestocking alongside Merrily and Cathedral, the first two home in the Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket.

Queen Of Song, by His Majesty, was one of those hard-knocking American mares of another era, winning no fewer than 14 times, the highlight coming in the Grade 2 Shuvee Handicap at Belmont Park, and running placed on another 26 occasions for Cluade ‘Shug’ McGaughey. A sister to the Jersey Derby winner Cormorant, who later found fame as the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin, she was incidentally out of a half-sister to Kentucky Oaks heroine Bag Of Tunes, herself the source of Juddmonte’s family of Prophecy and Showcasing.

Queen Of Song was a ten-year-old when purchased by Juddmonte in 1989 for $700,000 in foal to Seattle Slew. At the time, the mare had a two-year-old Northern Dancer filly on the ground named Ladyago, who became a minor stakes winner and foaled several daughters capable of perpetuating the line to some degree.

However, the family currently owes its prominence to the Juddmonte-bred Aspiring Diva, a 1998-foaled daughter of Distant View.

Distant View was a top-flight miler who won the 1995 Sussex Stakes for Sir Henry Cecil. However, his conformation in front wouldn’t have been to everyone’s taste and despite being a Group 1-winning son of Mr Prospector, he never covered large books beyond a fee of $20,000 at Juddmonte’s arm in Kentucky. As is typical of Juddmonte though, he was well supported by the operation from the outset, who were rewarded immediately through the Group 1-winning colts Distant Music and Observatory.

Listed-placed in France for Criquette Head, Aspiring Diva was one of those Juddmonte-bred stakes performers by the sire. And she has gone on to leave a bigger mark at stud thanks to a productive partnership with Dansili that yielded the Matron Stakes winner Emulous and Listed scorers Daring Diva and First Sitting.

That in itself would be enough to make her an important part of the Juddmonte broodmare band but it is the subsequent achievements of her daughters that have made this family so fresh.

Emulous, of course, is the dam of the Arc heroine Bluestocking, who has done her bit to keep her sire Camelot in the limelight throughout the season. The Coolmore stallion heads into the twilight of the season with eight European stakes winners to his credit headed by Bluestocking and the Irish Derby hero Los Angeles, who ran such a game race when third behind Bluestocking in the Arc. Emulous’ younger Frankel half-sister War And Piece never made the track and left the Juddmonte fold when sold to Sir Robert Ogden in late 2017. The mare changed hands again last year for 190,000gns to Henry Lascelles as part of the Lady Ogden dispersal at Tattersalls and just under a year on looks extremely well bought given two of her first four foals, Firebird and Cathedral, have been stakes-placed this year. Cathedral, yet another smart one by Too Darn Hot, looks particularly exciting; one of the highlights of the Arqana May Breeze-Up Sale when sold for €800,000 to Amo Racing, she bolted up on debut for Ralph Beckett at Lingfield before finding only the battle-hardened Merrily too good in the Oh So Sharp Stakes.

Adding further lustre to the family is the fact that Merrily is out of Daring Diva’s Listed-winning daughter Caponata. The daughter of Selkirk is no longer part of the Juddmonte fold, having been sold for 110,000gns to Lynch Bages and Camas Park Stud through Freddy Tylicki in 2020. Juddmonte have two of her stakes-performing half-sisters in Brooch, a Group 2-winning winner daughter of Empire Maker, and Raymonda, a Group 3-placed daughter of Lonhro, making Caponata’s sale understandable, particularly in light of the fact that none of her first four foals had won at the time of her sale. In fact, Merrily, her seventh foal, is her first runner of any note.

As many breeders would attest though, it often pay to persevere with these types of families, especially when they have been developed by breeders so powerful as Juddmonte. Merrily, one of eight juvenile stakes winners so far this year for Coolmore’s No Nay Never, is proof of just that and along with Cathedral (not to mention Bluestocking should she stay in training), should add further depth to the Aspiring Diva family next season.

 

Kodiac thriving as damsire

The influence of the diminutive Rafha has come to spread far and wide, primarily through the achievements of her sire sons Invincible Spirit and Kodiac.

Both had to work their way up the ladder from a low enough level. Invincible Spirit, as a Group 1-winning sprinter by Green Desert, had the greater profile when he retired to stud in 2003 yet spent his first four seasons covering at the Irish National Stud an affordable €10,000. Kodiac, who retired to Tally-Ho Stud in the aftermath of Invincible Spirit’s quick start at stud, never won a stakes race – for all he ran to an official rating of 109 – and accordingly was even cheaper during his early seasons at around €4,000 to €5,000.

Both swiftly became a friend of the smaller breeder before justifying the receipt of better mares. And in a show of longevity, both were still going strong at their respective bases this season, Invincible Spirit at the age of 27 and Kodiac at the age of 23.

As time has gone on, the brothers have also forged reputations as effective sires of sires; Invincible Spirit’s influence remains in safe keeping through the likes of Kingman and I Am Invincible while sons of Kodiac such as Ardad, Kodi Bear and the emerging Hello Youmzain are well regarded.

If truth be told, however, Invincible Spirit was slow enough to get going as a broodmare sire. His first Group 1 winner in that department didn’t arrive until 2016 when Sound Freedom, by Duke Of Marmalade, won the Premio Lydia Tesio in Italy. They have trickled in around the world since then and there has been a new highlight this year in Notable Speech, the 2,000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes winner. Godolphin’s homebred son of Dubawi is one of six Group/Grade 1 winners out of an Invincible Spirit mare but among 56 stakes winners in all, so matters have improved somewhat in recent years, suggesting that the better books of mares that the stallion covered from 2008 onwards are playing their part.

Better-bred mares will also undoubtedly aid Kodiac’s upward momentum as a broodmare sire. It was in his ninth season at stud, in 2015, that his fee hit €25,000 and it wasn’t until two years later that he commanded €50,000. The fillies from those crops are just starting to come through now at stud but he’s turning into a fair broodmare sire nevertheless – that is if this season is anything to go by.

The son of Danehill currently lies in eighth on the European broodmare sires’ list. Of those eight names, only four are still in service, among them Invincible Spirit in fifth.

Kodiac’s daughters have so far produced seven stakes winners this year, admittedly the lowest figure within the top 12, but they are a weighty collection that include star miler Charyn, admirable Group 1 sprinter Believing, the highly regarded Mill Reef Stakes winner Powerful Glory and Group 1-placed American Sonja.

Charyn was bred by Guy O’Callaghan’s Grangemore Stud out of the fast Futoon. Remarkably, the mare was once sold for 3,000gns, when bought by Kevin Ryan as a placed two-year-old in 2015. Ryan already trained the filly and evidently knew what he had, as when she reappeared in different ownership she proceeded to win a pair of races and run Listed-placed. At the end of her career, she was sold to O’Callaghan, who sent her to Dark Angel at his father’s Yeomanstown Stud; the Mill Reef Stakes winner Wings Of War was her first foal and Charyn, whose wins this year for Nurlan Bizakov include the Queen Anne Stakes and Prix Jacques les Marois, is her second. The mare’s progeny have understandably been in demand off the back of that fast start, with her fourth foal, a filly by Dark Angel, realising 2,900,000gns to Godolphin at last month’s Tattersalls October Sale.

Futoon is from a fast family that previously threw another Mill Reef Stakes winner in Galeota as well as the quick siblings Burnt Sugar and Brown Sugar, winners of the Molecomb and Sirenia Stakes. However, Futoon was bred when Kodiac was advertised for €7,500 and is by far the best performer out of her dam Vermilliann.

Misfortunate, the dam of Believing, hails from the same 2012 crop as Futoon. An accident as a young horse prevented her from making the track – hence her name – but she was a half-sister to Group 3 winner Miss Sally and afforded a chance with Mehmas, another Tally-Ho stalwart, produced Believing, whose 24-race career to date includes a win in this year’s Sapphire Stakes and Group 1 placings in the Prix de l’Abbaye, Flying Five and Nunthorpe Stakes.

The Mehmas – Kodiac cross was always going to be well tried given both stand at Tally-Ho and indeed the likes of Diego Ventura, a recent second in the Tattersalls Stakes, and the well-regarded juvenile West Arce are among the 12 winners already bred on the cross.

Similarly Kodiac mares have also been afforded their share of opportunity with Tally-Ho’s Cotai Glory, another horse who has made his name from an affordable level. Cotai Glory’s first major performer was The Platinum Queen, the Tally-Ho-bred winner of the 2022 Prix de l’Abbaye as a two-year-old. Her dam Thrilled was also bred by Tally-Ho and having been sold as a yearling for 460,000gns, was bought back for just €15,000 as a three-year-old. The Platinum Queen was her second foal and is followed by this season’s smart two-year-old Seagulls Eleven.

Fast forward two years and Cotai Glory’s leading performer this season, the unbeaten Mill Reef Stakes winner Powerful Glory, is another out of a Kodiac mare. His dam Wouldnitbelovely ran twice at two and there isn’t black-type until the third dam but it’s the good Tally-Ho family of Geht Schnell further back and between them Cotai Glory and Kodiac have evidently gelled to bring this branch of the family back to life.

The Celebration Mile winner Poet Master, Abernant Stakes winner Washington Heights and Renaissance Stakes winner My Mate Alfie, successful in each of his last three starts for Ger Lyons, have been others this year to advertise Kodiac’s merits as a broodmare sire. The bulk of those better-bred daughters are still to come through as producers, so it must be short odds that his influence in this department will only strengthen.