WHAT a splendid day, yet again, for the Juddmonte team.
On Saturday, a few hours after their homebred Bluestocking (Camelot) added the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh to an earlier win this year in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York, another four-year-old homebred Scylla (Tapit) took the honours in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Both fillies are bred in the purple, and Bluestocking in particular was deserving of getting a victory at the highest level. Last year she finished half a length behind Savethelastdance in the Juddmonte-sponsored Group 1 Irish Oaks, and on her final run of the season was denied by a neck in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies/Mares Stakes at Ascot. Her earnings from three victories in just nine outings already top half a million pounds, and what an addition she will be to the broodmare ranks at their Banstead Manor Stud in due course.
Bluestocking is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society in England, led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu. The term now more broadly applies to women who show interest in literary or intellectual matters. Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes. The word later developed negative implications and is now often used in a derogatory manner. This is not the case with the filly of the same name.
Bluestocking is the best of four winning offspring to date for Emulous (Dansili) who won and was placed in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. Surely there will be more to come, given that her youngest stock are made up of this year’s winner, the three-year-old Qirat (Showcasing), the two-year-old Dissident (Frankel), a yearling filly by Kingman (Invincible Spirit) and a filly foal by Frankel (Galileo). Emulous won seven times in all, half of all her starts, and raced until she was five. She was trained by Dermot Weld.
Emulous was the best produce from the French stakes-placed winner Aspiring Diva (Distant View), and that mare was among five stakes performers produced by the 14-time US winner Queen Of Song (His Majesty). Her biggest win was gained in the Grade 2 Shuvee Handicap, two years before it was upgraded to Grade 1 status. Queen Of Song was purchased for $700,000 as a broodmare by Juddmonte in 1989, carrying the stakes-placed, three-time winner Wise Words (Seattle Slew).
Female side
As Camelot is reviewed in the article on Los Angeles, I will focus on the female sire of Bluestocking’s pedigree.
Emulous is one of three stakes winners out of Aspiring Diva, all sired by Juddmonte’s outstanding sire Dansili (Danehill). Her younger sibling First Sitting (Dansili) was a Group 3 winner at Deauville and twice successful in listed races in Britain. However, their older sister Daring Diva (Dansili) has made an impact at stud.
That French stakes-winner is the dam of the Gowran Park and Naas listed winner Caponata (Selkirk) who was runner-up in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes. As talented as she was, she could not match the achievements of Brooch (Empire Maker). Racegoers in Ireland will remember Brooch who won four of her eight starts for Khalid Abdullah when trained by Dermot Weld. She progressed from a debut win at Gowran Park to a listed success in Killarney, a Group 3 win back in Gowran, and then Group 2 success in the Lanwades Stud Ridgewood Pearl Stakes at the Curragh.
Brooch has since gone on to even greater heights at stud, being responsible for Juddmonte’s Mandaloun (into Mischief), who has just completed his second season at stud in Kentucky. He earned over $2 million on the racetrack, and hails from one of the great families of the English and American stud books. In 12 generations, only one female in his direct line did not produce a blacktype performer.
Kentucky Derby
Mandaloun was undefeated in two starts as a juvenile. He won over six furlongs at Keeneland before stepping up to seven furlongs and winning at Churchill Downs. At three he opened his stakes account at the second time of asking, winning the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds and putting himself firmly in the classic picture. While he contested the 10-furlong Grade 1 Kentucky Derby as a longshot, he came within half a length of landing the prize, going down to Medina Spirit. However, the ‘winner’ was subsequently disqualified due to doping irregularities.
Mandaloun skipped the other legs of the Triple Crown, reappearing in the Listed Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park which he won. He then faced Grade 1 company again in the nine-furlong Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park, and finished head-to-head with Hot Rod Charlie, who was stood down due to causing interference, the race going to Mandaloun.
The colt then had to miss the rest of his sophomore season, but he came back in January of last year and outran Midnight Bourbon to land the Grade 3 Louisiana Stakes at Fair Grounds. After the announcement that he was heading to stud, his trainer Brad Cox said: “This horse is the entire package; I don’t know that I have seen a better-looking son of Into Mischief. We knew we had something special right out of the box. He had an exceptional turn of foot, yet could carry his speed around two turns”.
A first winner of the Kentucky Derby for the Juddmonte organisation, Mandaloun also drew praise from Garrett O’Rourke, general manager of Juddmonte USA. “Mandaloun is a true Juddmonte stallion. He is a gorgeous horse who should offer breeders exceptional value when the time comes to sell their yearlings. We plan to support him in the same manner we did with the likes of Empire Maker and Arrogate.”
Breeders who used the sire at $25,000 last year and $20,000 this season may well have bagged a bargain.
Scylla stars
Perhaps this column will be writing in more detail later in the year about Scylla, and here is a filly who will now have a Grade 1 success as a focus. She was unraced at two, twice successful on her only starts at three, and this year has won three of her five outings, being placed otherwise. She also won a Grade 3 at Churchill Downs and had amassed winnings of more than $720,000.
Scylla is a full-sister to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes winner Tacitus (Tapit) who is now standing at Taylor Made, and who was placed in both the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes (second) and Grade 1 Kentucky Derby (third). Their three-year-old full-brother Batten Down (Tapit) won the Grade 3 Ohio Derby on his latest start, a week before Scylla bagged her Grade 2.
They are all out of the champion older mare in the USA a decade ago, Close Hatches (First Defence). Five of her nine victories in 14 starts were at Grade 1 level – the Mother Goose Stakes, Cotillion Stakes, Personal Ensign Stakes, Ogden Phipps Stakes and Apple Blossom Handicap. She is actually out of a winning half-sister to Siskin’s dam, Bord Flown (Oasis Dream). The Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner Siskin (First Defence) has his first runners this year.
Close Hatches’ stakes-winning full-sister Lockdown (First Defence) bred another to be given the same accolade in 2023, that of champion older mare, and she is Idiomatic (Curlin). That five-year-old is still in training and her 10 wins in 14 outings include four Grade 1s, notably the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.