As he readies to race for a first prize of almost £7.5 million in today’s Group 1 Saudi Cup, the organisers can now claim to have the 2021 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner among the international field assembled.

This week it was announced that the first past the post, the ill-fated Medina Spirit, was disqualified, and Juddmonte’s Mandaloun is now officially the winner of the race for the roses. The classic was run four months after the death of Khalid Abdullah, and it is such a pity that his homebred, a first winner of the Kentucky Derby for the Juddmonte organisation, was to be awarded the prize after much controversy.

Mandaloun is a son of Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday), a Grade 1 winner at two who has gone on to become a leading sire in the USA, and this year he will cost breeders $250,000 to avail of his services. His first nine crops have yielded 11 Grade 1 winners, all in the USA, and Mandaloun is his second son to claim victory now in the Kentucky Derby, the year after Authentic won it.

Authentic, like Mandaloun, also triumphed in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes, and closed out his eight-race career with a win over a high-class field in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, afterwards going to stand alongside his sire at Spendthrift Farm. Authentic’s first foals are now on the ground.

Mandaloun will be making just his ninth start today, and he has six successes now under his belt and earnings of more than £2.1 million.

Irish-trained

Mandaloun is the second foal and second winner out of Brooch, a daughter of Juddmonte’s Empire Maker (Unbridled). Racegoers in Ireland will remember Brooch who won half of her eight starts for Khalid Abdullah when she was trained by Dermot Weld.

Pat Smullen was in the plate each time she ran, and they progressed from a debut maiden win at Gowran 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.

This is a Juddmonte female line rich in blacktype. Three of Mandaloun’s first four dams were stakes winners, the other being stakes-placed, and all four are stakes producers.

Brooch is a half-sister to Caponata (Selkirk) who was a listed winner at Gowran Park and Naas, and Freddie Tylicki bought her for 110,000gns last December, 10,000gns less than the figure David Redvers paid for her winning daughter Siyata (Siyouni) at the same sale.

Emulous

Brooch is one of six winners from the French listed winner Daring Diva (Dansili), and she has a pair of stakes-winning siblings.

First Sitting (Dansili) was a Group 3 winner in Deauville, but his biggest wins were short of those achieved by the Weld-trained Emulous (Dansili). She won and was placed in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.

Emulous was the best winner from the stakes-placed 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 at Keeneland as a broodmare by Juddmonte back in 1989, carrying the stakes-placed, three-time winner Wise Words (Seattle Slew).

Mandaloun’s older brother Radetsky (Speightstown) is a three-time winner, including this year, and the Kentucky Derby hero is followed by a pair of full-brothers and a yearling colt by War Front (Danzig).