Cover Image: Juddmonte Farms
The cheers which rang out around Ascot Racecourse on Saturday afternoon after the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth QIPCO S. were not solely because of the excitement of weight-for-age racing at its best, of the thrill of a proven champion fighting off the challenge of another great horse at the end of a titanic duel up the home straight.
They rang out not only because Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) has compiled an outstanding record and has earned herself a very special place in racegoers’ hearts, or because she is trained by one of Britain’s most esteemed trainers and ridden by the world’s most charismatic jockey.
Home-bred star, Enable (GB)
Beyond all that, the cheers came in part because of the affection and respect which Enable’s owner/breeder Prince Khalid Abdullah has earned over the past forty years, decades during which he has lit up the racing landscape with many great horses, invariably conducting himself impeccably, racing his stars in the very best sporting traditions and becoming a byword for fair play.
In an age when the concept of a horse becoming too valuable to race has reared its ugly head to the detriment of the sport, Prince Khalid Abdullah has not only raced some of the greatest horses of our time, but also kept them in training long enough for them to fulfil their potential and delight their fans.
In others’ hands, it is hard to see that Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) or Arrogate (USA) (Unbridled’s Song {USA}) would have remained in training as four-year-olds, or that Enable would still be in training at the age of five, bidding for an unprecedented third victory in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Arrogate | Image courtesy Asuncion Piñeyrua
The beginning
Prince Khalid Abdullah began racing horses in the late 1970s. Advised initially by the former Newmarket trainer Humphrey Cottrill, he bought four yearlings at Tattersalls’ Houghton Sale in Newmarket in 1977.
The following autumn he bought some more including the top lot, a colt by the 1975 Derby winner Grundy (GB) (Great Nephew {GB}) from the 1972 G1 July Cup heroine Parsimony (GB) (Parthia {GB}) for whom he gave 264,000 guineas, the highest price ever paid for a yearling in the British Isles up to that time. Named Sand Hawk (GB), the colt went into training with Jeremy Tree at Beckhampton Stables in Wiltshire. Sand Hawk proved disappointing, although he did win at Goodwood as a three-year-old; but a yearling whom Cottrill had bought for him for US$225,000 at the Keeneland July Sale made up for that.
That yearling, a dark bay colt by In Reality (USA), turned out to be Known Fact (USA), trained by Tree to win the G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket as a two-year-old in 1979 before taking the G1 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, the G2 Waterford Crystal Mile at Goodwood and the G2 Queen Elizabeth II S. at Ascot at three. That 2,000 Guineas victory, which came about on the disqualification of Nureyev (USA) (Northern Dancer {Can}), made Prince Khalid Abdullah the first Arab to own a British Classic winner.
Breeding stars
While many of racing’s wealthiest investors have continued to splash out fortunes at the yearling sales every autumn, it didn’t take Abdullah long to realise that the true joy came from breeding your own stars. As he later observed in a rare interview which he granted the Racing Post in 2010, “When I was at the sales, I realised that it would be easier to buy the horses and race them, but I got the feeling that this was not enough, that it would be more fun to do what people like the Aga Khan and Lord Howard de Walden did and build up your own families.”
Prince Khalid Abdullah | Image courtesy Juddmonte Farms
Thus Prince Khalid Abdullah (whose natural modesty and reticence led him to request that he appear on the race-cards merely as ‘Mr K. Abdullah’) soon set up his Juddmonte breeding operation and set about developing his families.
He established his first British stud when buying Cayton Park Stud at Wargrave-on-Thames in Berkshire, re-naming it Juddmonte Farm and installing Known Fact as his foundation stallion in 1982. He subsequently bought Banstead Manor Stud, near Newmarket (where he subsequently added other local properties including Side Hill Stud) and relocated Juddmonte’s stallion operation there; and he set up Juddmonte Farm in Kentucky. He also bought Ferrans Stud and New Abbey Stud in Ireland.
Buying fillies
Abdullah continued to buy a handful of yearling colts through the 1980s but he was at least as interested in buying fillies. He bought well-bred yearling fillies but also some older fillies with strong form. From Robert Sangster he bought Sookera (USA) (Roberto {USA}), Mofida (GB) (Right Tack {GB} and Monroe (USA) (Sir Ivor {USA}) who had proved their merit when trained by Dermot Weld, Barry Hills and Vincent O’Brien respectively.
Sookera became the grand-dam of Juddmonte’s greatest broodmare Hasili (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}). Mofida became the grand-dam of Zafonic (USA) (Gone West {USA}). Monroe became the dam of Xaar (USA) (Zafonic {USA}).
Group 1 winners Banks Hill, Heat Haze & Intercontinental with their dam Hasili (second from left) pictured at Banstead Manor in 2015. | Image courtesy Juddmonte Farms
While his Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroes of the 1980s, Rainbow Quest (USA) (Blushing Groom {Fr}) and Dancing Brave (USA) (Lyphard {USA}), had been bought as yearlings, his breeding programme was already in full in swing.
His champion miler Warning (GB) (Known Fact {USA}) was a home-bred, as were his 1990 Derby winner Quest For Fame (GB) (Rainbow Quest {USA}) and his 1993 Derby winner Commander In Chief (GB) (Dancing Brave {USA}).
Dancing Brave and Pat Eddery
Home-bred heroes
Notwithstanding that Juddmonte has been buying a handful of yearlings in the USA in recent years (most notably Arrogate) as well as some proven fillies, in the 20th century nearly all the horses whom Abdullah has raced have been home-breds, mostly from families which he has developed over several generations.
Frankel, the best horse he or anyone else has ever bred, is a third-generation Juddmonte home-bred; Enable is a fifth-generation Juddmonte home-bred; Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) is a third-generation Juddmonte home-bred; Workforce (GB) (King’s Best {USA}) is a third-generation Juddmonte home-bred; Oasis Dream (GB) (Green Desert {USA}) is a second-generation Juddmonte home-bred; Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) is a fourth-generation Juddmonte home-bred.
Frankel (GB) | Image courtesy Juddmonte Farms
While many/most of his best horses have several Juddmonte stallions close up in their pedigrees, his judicious use of ‘outside’ stallions pays rich dividends, as these great horses all testify. He also bred many high-class horses by Danehill, although he might have done so through gritted teeth as he bred and raced the great horse prior to selling him in advance of his stellar stud career!
The achievements of Prince Khalid Abdullah and Juddmonte as owner and breeder are mind-blowing, including owners’ championships in Great Britain (in 2003, 2010 and 2011) and France (2003) and Eclipse Awards in the USA as Leading Owner (in 1992, 2003, 2016 and 2017) and as Leading Breeder (in 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2009).
Juddmonte, however, is more than merely the sum of its many achievements. In short, it is a byword for thoroughbred excellence.
