Six Pedigree-Based Royal Ascot Observation

by | Jun 21, 2021

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American Pharaoh was one of the stallions with a top three finisher at Royal Ascot.

One of the most popular meetings of the year, Royal Ascot has it all from horse and human royalty to King Making races. Now that the dust has settled, I’ve sat down to make six observation about the 35 races run at Ascot last week.

1. The Queen

Though there were royals at the track every day of the meet, Royal Ascot doesn’t really feel as Royal without The Queen. There was excitement on and off the track Saturday when she arrived to watch her four horses run and nearly as much excitement when she almost had a race winner.

That “almost” winner was Chesham runner Reach For The Moon, who finished second to Point Lonsdale (talked about below). The Sea The Stars colt is a fifth generation homebred for the Queen, whose first from the line was G2 winner Expansive born in 1976.

Her 2020 Royal Ascot winner Tactical (Toronado) finished seventh in the next race with another Royal runner also finishing 11th in that same race. King’s Lynn (Cable Bay) helped to save the day, however, when finishing third by just ¾ of a length to  Rohaan (Mayson) in the Wokingham.

A major supporter of horse racing as an owner and breeder, all four horses she raced were from her breeding program with King’s Lynn a sixth generation homebred and  G3 Jersey S. 11th Light Refrain (Frankel) a third generation homebred. Of the four, only Tactical is the first generation bred by The Queen.

2. Sweepstake

Point Lonsdale (Australia), the horse who beat Reach For The Moon, was one of two top two finishers for Sweepstake (Acclamation) on the final day of Royal Ascot.

A multiple stakes winner in her own right, Sweepstake has produced five winners from her nine to race. Point Lonsdale (Australia) is by far her earliest winner with the next earliest his full brother Broome (Australia). That colt broke his maiden in August of his juvenile year after making his debut in July. In contrast, 2-year-old Point Lonsdale made a winning debut on June 2 and scored his second win 17 days later.

Broome, however, does at the moment have the better resume as a multiple group winner with two G1 placings as well. That 5-year-old finished second in the G2 Hardwicke S. two races after his little brother’s victory when closing well on Wonderful Tonight (Le Havre). Second by a nose in a G1 last out, Broome will likely join his brother in giving Sweepstake a big win this year.

3. The New Boys

There were only six juvenile races at Royal Ascot and freshman sires (those with first juveniles) saw their runners fill six of the 18 top three placings (33.33%).

Ardad (Kodiac) and Cotai Glory (Exceed And Excel) have been the top two Northern Hemisphere freshmen by winners basically all year and both had the most top three finishers at the meet of all in their class. They left Royal Ascot with two top three finishers each but Ardad came out on top with the G2 Norfolk winner – his first stakes winner as a stallion. It is also notable that his runner Perfect Power finished ahead of another Kodiac grandson in Go Bears Go, who is by Kodiac’s rising star second-crop sire Kodi Bear.

Cotai Glory came close to scoring a winner but just missed with both his runners finishing second to give him his first two stakes horses. Eldrickjones finished second to Berkshire Shadow (Dark Angel) by 1 ¼ lengths in the G2 Coventry and Dig Two finished second by 2 ¼ lengths to Chipotle (Havana Gold) in the Listed Windsor Castle.

Other freshmen who had top two finishers were Profitable (Invincible Spirit) with the G2 Queen Mary winner Quick Suzy and National Defense (Invincible Spirit) with G2 Queen Mary runner-up Twilight Gleaming.

4. Pivotal

Pivotal (Polar Falcon) was pensioned only a few months ago but he still proved to be pure gold at Royal Ascot.

One of the best broodmare sires in the world, he had three winners out of his daughters – the most of any stallion. To put the cherry on top, his daughters also produced a second place finisher and Pivotal sired his own second place finisher.

Pivotal’s placer as a sire came on the final day when Glen Shiel finished second in the G1 Diamond Jubilee, a length behind Dream Ahead’s Dream of Dreams. Seven-year-old Glen Shiel won a G1 over this track last October to give Pivotal the exacta in the G1 Qipco British Champions Sprint over the same distance as well.

His four stakes horses at the meet as a broodmare sire were led by Galileo’s G1 winner Love, who is bred on that exceptionally successful Galileo x Pivotal Cross. Kemari (Dubawi) gave him a G2 winner and to end the week, he had the exacta in Friday’s G3 Albany S. when Sandrine (Bobby’s Kitten) beat Hello You (Invincible Spirit) by 1 ½ lengths.

This follows up Pivotal having two stakes winners as a broodmare sire at Royal Ascot last year in G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde (Lethal Force) and G3 Jersey S. winner Molatham (Night of Thunder) and a third with G2 third Defoe (Dalakhani). That same year, his son Addeybb finished second in the G1 Prince of Wales’s.

5. The Rising Stars

                      American Pharoah

Looking at the results this week, the future is bright when it comes to promising second and third crop sires.

Of the 26 Royal Ascot races that allow two and three-year-olds to run, seven second crop sires had winners or placers with three seeing their horses get to the line first. It was an extra special victory for Bobby’s Kitten (Kitten’s Joy) when Sandrine crossed the line in the G3 Albany S. to give the stallion his first stakes winner overall. Awtaad (Cape Cross) also had a Royal Ascot winner with Create Belief in the Sandringham H., and Perotto won the Britannia S. (a handicap) for New Bay.

Kodi Bear is proving to be a sire to watch with his first crop juveniles training on at three and his second crop looking good in this year’s 2-year-old races. This year’s Royal Ascot saw him sire a second and a third place finisher with one from each crop. Measure Of Magic gave him his second G1 placing when third in the G1 Commonwealth Cup for three-year-olds and second crop runner Go Bears Go was only a nose away from becoming a G2 winner in the Norfolk. Interestingly, Go Bears Go is one of only three stakes performing colts/geldings for the stallion – five of his eight stakes performers are fillies.

Other second crop sires to sire placers were Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) with G2 Coventry S. third Saeiqa and Vadamos (Monsun) with Sandringham S. third Messidor.

Eight third crop sires had top three finishers with top sire Night of Thunder (Dubawi) leading the charge. A young stallion who continuously hits it out of the ballpark, that third crop stallion’s runners were led by two winners with a third place finisher and fourth place finisher as well. Both of his winners came in handicaps with Highfield Princess the winner of the Buckingham Palace and Lola Showgirl of the Kensington Palace. Both are out of Danehill-lined mares – Highfield Princess out of a Danehill daughter and Lola Showgirl out of his granddaughter.

In three years of having Royal Ascot runners, Night of Thunder has had seven finish in the top three. Garswood (Dutch Art) was another to have a Royal Ascot winner with Significantly winning the Palace of Holyroodhouse by a head over fellow third-crop sire Shalaa’s (Invincible Spirit) Boomshalaa. Gleneagles’ (Galileo) G2 Ribblesdale winner is talked about further in depth below and was his fourth winner overall at the Royal meeting.

Other third crop sires with top three finishers were Cable Bay (Invincible Spirit) with a second and a third place finisher, Muhaarar (Oasis Dream) with a second place finisher, and American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) with a third place finisher.

Cable Bay’s second place finish came via his runner being disqualified to second in the G1 Commonwealth Cup and his third place finish came with G2 winner Liberty Beach in the G1 King’s Stand. Muhaarar’s second came in the G2 Ribblesdale where American Pharaoh’s placer finished third.

6. Feeling the Influence

On the other end of the spectrum from the young guns are the established stallions whose influence on Royal Ascot was felt in multiple ways.

As mentioned earlier, Pivotal sired a winner and was the broodmare sire of multiple winners but he also had a small sire-of-sire moments as well. One of Pivotal’s most successful sons, Kyllachy has sired multiple Royal Ascot winners over the years and in 2021 was broodmare sire of two placers at the meet (and is the broodmare sire of the Garswood talked about above). The stallion had the second and third place finishers in the Wokingham with Fresh (Bated Breath) beating King’s Lynn (Cable Bay) by half a length.

On the surface, Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) had a quiet year at Royal Ascot. He only had one winner as a sire (Love in the G1 Prince of Wale’s) and one as a broodmare sire (Zoffany’s Foxes Tales in the Golden Gates H.) but looks can be deceiving.

The stallion also had two second place finishers as a broodmare sire and three third place finishers in that category as well with G1 St James’s Palace third Battleground leading that group. He also had two second place finishers and one third place finisher as a sire.

One of Galileo’s biggest strengths in recent years is as a sire-of-sires and 20 top three finishers (28.57% of all Royal Ascot placers) by Galileo and stallions from his sireline show just how much influence he has. Ten of those top three finishers were winners (9.52%) with the Galileo group led by Frankel, who had three winners and three other top three finishers (30% of all Galileo top three placings).

In all, 10 different stallions by Galileo and sons had top three finishers. It’s also worth noting that multiple Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) lined stallions outside of that group had winners and placers as well with Sadler’s Wells the broodmare sire of a winner and of two runners-up.

Another ticking all the boxes at the meet was Invincible Spirit (Green Desert).

Invincible Spirit had three second place finishers as a sire, led by G1 King’s Stand second Arecibo, and a third place finisher as a broodmare sire. But this meet was all about showing how strong he is as a sire-of-sires.

Four of the 35 winners at Royal Ascot (11.43%) were by Invincible Spirit sons, led by Mayson’s G1 King’s Stand winner Oxted with that stallion having two winners at the meet overall. Invincible Spirit sons also had four second place finishers and one third place finisher for 12 top three finishes (11.43% of all Royal Ascot placers) for Invincible Spirit and his sons.

Invincible Spirit saw six different sons have a top three placer with Kingman and Cable Bay joining Mayson as those with multiple performers.

Rounding out this group of stallions who have daughters and sons representing him is Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

Dubawi had five top three placers at Royal Ascot as a sire, led by G2 Queen’s Vase winner Kemari and G3 Jersey winner Creative Force. He also saw his daughter produce Royal Hunt Cup winner Real World. But just like the other two, stallions from his sireline were where he was best represented.

As talked about above, his son Night of Thunder sired two winners and New Bay sired one as well. Dubawi was the only stallion from the line to sire a second place finisher but he was also joined by two sons among stallions with third place runners. In addition to Night of Thunder’s third place finisher, the late Poet’s Voice had Zabeel Champion (out of a Galileo mare to be bred on the same cross as Night of Thunder) finish third in the Duke of Edinburgh.

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