FOLLOWING careful consultation with the family, Juddmonte decided this week that Bluestocking (Camelot) should be retired to stud. In a stellar career, she never finished out of the first four in her 13 starts, and won three Group 1 races in 2024, culminating in her victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

While Juddmonte was announcing that Bluestocking “retires sound and healthy and will take up her next career at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud”, they also had the good news that their exciting three-year-old Kalpana (Study Of Man), will remain in training. Unraced at two, Kalpana was kept busy in 2024, running eight times, and she gave her sire a first Group 1 winner when she was successful in the British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes at Ascot.

A week earlier, it was a different story with Idiomatic (Curlin). Then the press release from Juddmonte was to convey a forced retirement. “Idiomatic was found to be lame this morning and an issue, that should heal readily, was identified in her left knee. Unfortunately, it will rule her out of running in the Breeders’ Cup and it has been decided to retire her to stud.

“Idiomatic was a model of consistency who elevated herself to Grade 1 level and stayed there for two exciting campaigns. Her power, ability and honesty were exciting characteristics. This is the first time she has been sidelined, which is a tribute to her soundness.”

Douglas Erskine Crum, Juddmonte’s chief executive, said this week: “It is not often that Juddmonte has had three outstanding fillies and mares at the same time and, as the season draws to a close, we have had some important decisions to make. Idiomatic retired last week after a minor injury kept her from attempting a repeat of her win in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She won five Grade 1 races and was the leading filly and mare in the USA for the past two years.

Broodmare band

“Bluestocking has been the leading four-year-old filly in Europe this year and the two together bring further outstanding quality to our broodmare band, both in the UK and the US. Kalpana will continue to race for us next year and is clearly an exciting prospect.”

Barry Mahon, Juddmonte’s racing manager in Europe, added: “Bluestocking has given us so much enjoyment over the last three seasons, and we thank Ralph Beckett and his team at Kimpton Down Stables who have done such an excellent job with her”. Mating plans for Idiomatic and Bluestocking will be decided at a later date.

What an outstanding end Bluestocking had to her career with success in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Winner of her sole outing at two, she was winless in six runs at three, though she was only beaten a neck in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes (won by Kalpana this year), and half a length in the Juddmonte-sponsored Group 1 Irish Oaks.

Bluestocking started this year with a Group 2 York win, beat Emily Upjohn in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, and was runner-up in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. She got back to winning ways with victory over Aventure and Emily Upjohn when taking the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, was then supplemented for the Arc, and hey presto.

Matron Stakes

Bluestocking is the best of four winning offspring among the first six foals for her dam Emulous (Dansili). That mare, with Dermot Weld, won seven times, winning and being placed in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.

Surely there will be more success for Emulous, as her young stock include the two-year-old gelding Dissident (Frankel), a yearling filly by Kingman (Invincible Spirit), and a filly foal by Frankel (Galileo).

Two more pieces of blacktype were added to the immediate family this year. The Paddy Twomey-trained Firebird (Lope De Vega) was beaten a head in the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes at Naas, and she is one of four winners out of War And Peace (Frankel), an unraced half-sister to Bluestocking. Another of those winners was Cathedral (Too Darn Hot), an €800,000 breezer this year who won on her debut and was runner-up to her relation Merrily (see below) in a Group 3 at Newmarket.

Emulous is 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).

The last-named mare’s 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 by Juddmonte in 1989, carrying a stakes-placed, three-time winner, and what a family dynasty she has established.

Outstanding sire

Aspiring Diva had three stakes winners, all sired by Juddmonte’s outstanding sire Dansili (Danehill). Emulous’ younger sibling First Sitting (Dansili) was a Group 3 winner at Deauville, but their older sister Daring Diva (Dansili) has made an impact at stud.

That French stakes-winner is the dam of dual listed winner Caponata (Selkirk) who was runner-up in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes. Caponata is the dam of this year’s Group 3-wining juvenile, Merrily (No Nay Never).

Caponata did not quite match the achievements of her sibling Brooch (Empire Maker), winner of four of her eight starts for Khalid Abdullah. She progressed all the way to a 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), winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

Idiomatic was one of three Grade 1 winners for her sire Curlin (Smart Strike) at last year’s Breeders’ Cup. The Juddmonte Farms’ homebred looked to be primed for a repeat after she won the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Arc weekend for the second time. She heads to stud having won 12 times, and she started 2024 with a win in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes. Five of her wins were in Grade 1 races.

Lockdown

Idiomatic is out of the First Defence (Unbridled’s Song) stakes winner Lockdown, and she was placed in a pair of Grade 1 races, notably the Kentucky Oaks. Lockdown is from a famous Juddmonte family, and she is a full-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner and champion older mare, Close Hatches (First Defence). Five of that mare’s nine wins were at Grade 1 level, and she was runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the race won by Idiomatic.

Close Hatches has been very much in the news this year. Her daughter Scylla (Tapit) is a Grade 2 winner, and has been runner-up twice in Grade 1 contests. Scylla is a full-sister to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes winner Tacitus (Tapit) who is now standing at Taylor Made, and he was placed in 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, 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, who 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 first runners this year in Japan, and include a stakes winner.