BANSTEAD Manor Stud, the headquarters of the Juddmonte European breeding operation, is an idyllic place to breed horses. It is home to champions, the birthplace of many more, and this is a five-star location for the thoroughbred.

I was delighted to get behind the gates and enjoy a tour of the stallion farm in the company of the stallion nominations manager Shane Horan this week, and to meet the stud’s director Simon Mockridge. After a visit one is left with an immense feeling of pride among the team for what the stud, its owner Prince Khalid Abdullah and the famous graduates of the farm have achieved.

For many outsiders the stud is currently about one horse – the incomparable Frankel. Few racehorses have caught the imagination of the racing public as he did, racing for three seasons and retiring to stud as the undefeated winner of 14 races and with earnings marginally shy of £3 million. Unlike many other champions though, Frankel’s appeal grew to encompass a wider audience, that of the general public, and no horse since Red Rum has garnered as much media attention.

However, standing in the same yard as Frankel is a horse who could in time rival his stud mate for attention as a stallion, given his impeccable credentials. Kingman may not have retired to stud with quite the same hype as Frankel, but anticipation is high ahead of the appearance of his first foals at Newmarket next week.

Apart from his second-place finish to Night of Thunder in the 2000 Guineas, Kingman was first past the post in all his other races, reversing the Newmarket classic form when landing the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. John Gosden said of the son of Invincible Spirit that he was “a long way the most exciting colt I have ever trained,” adding that he possessed “a high cruising speed, a couple of turbo charged engines.” High praise indeed.

No surprise then that he covered such a stellar book of mares in his first year at stud, Juddmonte themselves entrusting him with Frankel’s dam Kind, Group 1 winners Passage Of Time, African Rose, Emulous, Promising Land and Proportional, as well as the dam of Workforce. The brilliant Taghrooda and Pride were among the outside mares he covered, as well as the dams of such luminaries as Al Kazeem, Legatissimo, Reckless Abandon and Star Of Seville.

The first two foals by Kingman have already shown that demand for his stock will be exceptionally strong. At the select sale in Japan in July a colt out of the Group 3 winner Mambia sold for the equivalent of $850,000, while at Goffs this week the half-brother to Group 2 Hungerford Stakes winner Breton Rock was snapped up by Shadwell for €320,000. Next week his four colts and four fillies at Tattersalls include a trio of foals from Norelands Stud and one from Knocktoran Stud.

While the recent sale of Champs Elysees – responsible for no less than 16 stakes horses in 2016 alone – has proven to be a great topic of discussion, Simon Mockridge points out that it was a pragmatic decision and one that was not taken lightly. The well-established, multiple Grade 1 winning son of Danehill is a full-brother to Dansili, another stalwart of the stallion ranks at Banstead Manor.

Mockridge believes that Champs Elysees will receive huge support from breeders in Ireland in 2017.

Last but not least

Completing the stallion roster at Banstead Manor are Oasis Dream and Bated Breath. The former is a horse who needs no introduction and he is a Green Desert half-brother to the French 1000 Guineas winner Zenda, the dam in turn of Kingman who is a grandson of Green Desert.

One horse that the farm is hopeful will attract more interest from Irish breeders is Dansili’s son Bated Breath. In spite of an excellent first season with his runners, he has had his fee reduced from £10,000 to £8,000. The speedster did not race at two and he got better with age, so it is pure conjecture how much improvement will be seen in his stock who have made such an impressive start at stud.

To date he has covered 130 or so mares in each and every season at stud and this sustained demand is proof positive of his popularity with breeders, buyers at the sale and now with trainers. A visit to see him at the stud will only endorse his appeal.

Banstead Manor Stud is well established and yet it is not a name that might immediately spring to the lips of breeders questioned about the more commercially minded stallion operations in Ireland or England. Situated on 360 acres at Cheveley, a few miles outside Newmarket, it stood its first stallion in 1988 when Rainbow Quest moved there.

A couple of years later he was joined by his close relation Warning, whose dam Slightly Dangerous was purchased less than a decade earlier and she has become a cornerstone of the successful breeding operation at Juddmonte, being responsible also for Commander In Chief, Yashmak and Dushyantor.

The newly extended stallion yard welcomed its first new resident in 2013 when Frankel entered stud and the boxes now are occupied by the five stallions on the 2017 roster.

Alongside the stallion operation is the private stud farm. The magnitude of the successes enjoyed by Prince Khalid since he became a racehorse owner and breeder are staggering. Of the eight mares to have ever produced four or more Group/Grade 1 winning offspring, two were owned by Prince Khalid.

Broodmare of the year in Britain in 2006, the listed winning Kahyasi mare Hasili is the dam of five top-flight winners, namely Banks Hill (multiple champion and triple Group/Grade 1 winner), Intercontinental (champion and dual Grade 1 winner), Cacique (dual Grade 1 winner and successful sire), Heat Haze (dual Grade 1 winner) and Champs Elysees (Canadian horse of the year, triple Grade 1 winner and a Group 1 sire). In addition she is dam of Dansili (sire recently of his 20th Group/Grade 1 winner). She is one of only a pair of mares to ever breed five top-flight winners.

Backing up the importance and influence of the broodmare band at Juddmonte is Toussaud, broodmare of the year in the USA. Grade 1 winner of Gamely Handicap, Toussaud bred Chester House (Grade 1 winner and Grade 1 sire), Honest Lady (Grade 1 winner and dam of Grade 1 winner First Defence), Chiselling (Grade 1 winner) and Empire Maker (multiple Grade 1 winner and Grade 1 sire). Additionally she is dam of the Grade 1 runner-up Decarchy.

IRELAND

Juddmonte comprises two stud farms in Ireland – Ferrans Stud in Co Meath and New Abbey Stud just outside Kilcullen in Co Kildare – and three farms each in England and the USA. It is there that the vast majority of Juddmonte winners are bred and raised. That said, Prince Khalid had a memorable Breeders’ Cup this year with the yearling purchase Arrogate defeating California Chrome in a thriller.

So many good horses have carried the distinctive silks of Prince Khalid (which differ slightly in France where they have pink epaulettes rather than a sash). The first to do so was Known Fact who won the Middle Park Stakes in 1979 and the following year gave his owner the first of his 11 British classics when winning the 2000 Guineas. Dancing Brave, Zafonic and Frankel have also won the same classic, while Quest For Fame, Commander In Chief and Workforce won the Derby at Epsom.

In France the Prince has been successful four times in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and he has won many major races elsewhere around the world. One of the few prestige events to elude him has been the Kentucky Derby, coming close twice with Aptitude and Empire Maker. It is one on the wish list.

While few owners or breeders in history have achieved the levels of success enjoyed by Prince Khalid, he has celebrated them in typically modest style. He is a man for whom his horses do the talking, and that ethos seems to extend throughout the organisation.

With Frankel promising to be one of the sire sensations of modern times if his first crop runners are anything to go by, abetted along the way by Kingman, Bated Breath and the established duo of Oasis Dream and Dansili, the future is bright for the stallions at Banstead Manor.

A visit to see the sires during the Tattersalls sale weeks ahead is a firm recommendation and the team at the stud will be waiting for you with ‘bated breath’!