KINGMAN (Invincible Spirit) was a brilliant miler and is established as one of the leading sires in Europe. His Royal Ascot-winning juvenile Calyx is his first son with runners, and he made a splendid start at stud, his first crop of juveniles last year having three pattern winners and the Group 1-placed Eben Shaddad among them.
Classic winner and triple Group 1-star Persian King stands in France and has his first runners this year, while Palace Pier, one of his very best sons, has his first yearlings for sale this autumn. Godolphin spent 200,000gns to acquire his best colt foal at the sales last year, while three filly foals sold for €145,000 and 105,000gns twice.
Palace Pier was unbeaten at two, a dual Group 1-winning miler at three and added a trio of top-level races at four. His only defeats in a glittering 11-race career came in back-to-back editions of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, when he was third to The Revenant, finishing minus one shoe, and a neck runner-up to Baaeed 12 months later.
Palace Pier, a 600,000gns Tattersalls Book 1 graduate, ran twice at two, both over seven furlongs at Sandown, and he won them by a combined margin of over eight lengths.
He easily added a mile handicap at Newcastle in what was a topsy-turvy start to the Covid-delayed 2020 season, a fortnight before beating Pinatubo by a length in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot. Deauville was next, the ground was heavy, but as his sire did when running away with the Irish 2000 Guineas, Palace Pier handled the conditions and beat Alpine Star by three-quarters of a length in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. Circus Maximus was five lengths back in third, followed in by Persian King and Romanised.
Palace Pier was a runaway winner of the Group 2 bet365 Mile at Sandown first time out at four and then reeled off a Group 1 hat-trick before his second QEII attempt. He outclassed his rivals in the Lockinge Stakes, easily beating future Group 1 star Lady Bowthorpe by a length and a half and with a further five-and-a-half-length gap back to the third. A month later, he beat Lope Y Fernandez by the same winning margin in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot, and then he returned to Deauville.
The ground was good this time and the classic-winning three-year-old Poetic Flare made him fight, but he beat that younger star by a neck, with Breeders’ Cup Mile victor Order Of Australia almost two lengths behind in third, thereby making him a rare dual winner of the Prix Jacques Le Marois.
Palace Pier is out of Beach Frolic (Nayef), also dam of Group 3 winner Castle Way (Almanzor), and she is an unraced half-sister to the Group/Grade 1-placed Group 2 winners Bonfire (Manduro) and Joviality (Cape Cross).
Race record
PALACE PIER (GB), Bay 2017. Champion 3yr old colt in Europe in 2020. Champion older miler in Europe in 2021. Won nine races, £1,776,794, from 7 furlongs to 1 mile, at 2 to 4 years including, Lockinge Stakes, Newbury, Gr.1, Prix Jacques Le Marois, Deauville, Gr.1 (twice), Queen Anne Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, St James’s Palace Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Sandown Mile, Sandown Park, Gr.2, also placed second in Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, and third in Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1.
At stud
Retired to Stud in 2022. First crop are yearlings.
Information
Stands at: Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 9HE, England
Contact: Liam O’Rourke, Sam Bullard, Dawn Laidlaw, David Appleton, Conor Norris, Lucie Botti or Franziska Schaertlin Coffey
Telephone: +44 1638 730070
Email: hello@darleystallions.com
Web: www.darleystallions.com
Fee: £45,000