JONQUIL can refer to both a flower (a type of daffodil) and a colour, a shade of yellow. It is more significantly, for our purposes, the name of Juddmonte’s highly-rated three-year-old son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), and the stakes-placed, three-time winner Jovial, a daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

With antecedents like that, how could he be anything but a star? Trained last season by the now retired Sir Michael Stoute, Jonquil was badly hampered on his debut at Sandown in a seven-furlong maiden, but Ryan Moore got him balanced again and up to win. Just two weeks later, he was a disappointing fifth of six in a listed race after dwelling at the start, and perhaps he was feeling the effects of his troubled debut. A planned third outing was abandoned.

Jonquil was moved to Andrew Balding, and made his first start for the new stable in the 10-runner Group 3 Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes at the weekend. In the past decade, this Newbury race has been a potent source of Group 1 winners, and this year’s winner, Jonquil, looks well on his way to matching those past achievers. He is a colt who will most likely contest the 2000 Guineas, and could join Known Fact (1980), Dancing Brave (1986), Zafonic (1993), Frankel (2011) and Chaldean (2023) as another Juddmonte winner.

With a French and an Irish classic winner, victory for Jonquil at Newmarket would provide Ballylinch’s flagbearer Lope De Vega with a first British classic winner, while the Balding-trained colt is from the immediate family of one of the best winners ever of the Group 1 2000 Guineas, Frankel (Galileo). When it comes to the pursuit of excellence, few match the achievements of Juddmonte.

Lope De Vega

On this occasion, let’s start with Jonquil’s sire, Lope De Vega. Could it ever be right to say that a sire who stands for €175,000 is something of a bargain? Ballylinch Stud’s dual classic winner is off to the kind of start this year that Rory McIlroy made at the Masters on Saturday.

At the weekend, his Irish-bred son Carl Spackler won a third Grade 1 in his last four starts and took his winnings to more than €1.75 million with his eighth career success. Then, his French-bred son Arapaho added the Group 1 Sydney Cup at Randwick to a previous victory in the Grade 1 Tancred Stakes at Rosehill.

In the current racing season in Australia, Lope De Vega is responsible too for the Irish-bred Duke De Sessa won landed the Group 1 Caulfield Cup in October. Last year he sired two French classic winners, among them his Prix de Jockey Club-French Derby winning son Look De Vega who is going down a storm at Ballylinch, and they are among 24 Group 1 winners Lope De Vega has sired to date.

Lope De Vega’s percentage of blacktype winners stands at 9%, according to the Global Stallions app, and this is only bettered by Dubawi (€400,000) and Frankel (€400,000), is the equal of Sea The Stars (€250,000), and is ahead of Kingman (€145,000), Night Of Thunder (€150,000), No Nay Never (€125,000), Siyouni (€200,000), and Wootton Bassett (€300,000). All of their stud fees are in euros or the equivalent figure.

Jonquil is the first foal for his dam Jovial, and she won three races when in the care of Sir Michael Stoute, two of them on the all-weather. Jovial was headed in the final strides when going down a neck in a listed race at Haydock, and she had the subsequent dual Grade 1 US winner Althiqa back in third.

Last year Jovial had a filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), and this spring she is already mothering a filly foal by Blue Point (Shamardal). It will come as no surprise that she is revisiting Lope De Vega this year.

Brilliant Frankel

Jovial’s dam Joyeuse (Oasis Dream), a stakes-winning and group-placed half-sister to the brilliant Frankel and his triple Group 1-winning full-brother Noble Mission (Galileo), is visiting No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) this year, in the hope of breeding a full-brother or sister to Array. That colt won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes in 2023, but missed out completely on his three-year-old season. He remains in training with Andrew Balding, and hopefully can recapture some of his juvenile magic.

Five of Joyeuse’s seven winners got some blacktype, and they include a pair of Group 1 runners-up. Jubiloso (Shamardal) was third in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, while Maximal (Galileo) went even closer, being runner-up in the Group 1 Doomben Cup and the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes in Australia.

This is, quite simply, one of the best Juddmonte families. As befits such a family, the mares in it visit the best stallion, and Jubiloso had a filly this year by Justify (Scat Daddy) and is visiting his son City Of Troy.

Joyeuse, who this spring had a filly by Wootton Bassett, is a half-sister to Frankel, Noble Mission and the Group 3 winner Bullet Train (Sadler’s Wells). With four stakes winners, their dual listed-winning dam Kind (Danehill) matched the record of the next dam, the Group 3 winner Rainbow Lake (Rainbow Quest).

Half of Rainbow Lake’s eight winners were successful in blacktype contests. They included Powerscourt (Sadler’s Wells) who won the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Grade 1 Arlington Million, Riposte (Dansili) who won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot and two Grade 2 races in the USA, while Last Train (Rail Link) was a Group 3 winner in France and second in the Group 1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris.

Duty First

Apologies to all connected with the other classic hopeful and Newbury winner, Duty First. That daughter of Showcasing (Oasis Dream), on just her fifth start, ran away with the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes, and as a two-year-old she placed in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes (third) and Group 3 Prestige Stakes (second). Duty First was bred by Ryanair’s and Gigginstown House’s Michael O’Leary at his Plantation Stud.

Sold as a foal for 58,000gns, Duty First turned into a most successful pinhook when she was resold for 330,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Oliver St Lawrence bought her on the second occasion for Victorious Racing. The bloodstock agent already knew about the family, as he paid 120,000gns the previous year for her half-brother Army Athos (Shalaa), the Group 2 Coventry Stakes second.

Acquired privately after failing to sell at the Tattersalls December Sale nine years ago, Duty First’s dam Dream Dana (Dream Ahead) was a 100,000gns yearling who won at three. Her first four foals are all winners, all of them won at least once at two, and her two most recent offspring have made a splash in the sales ring.

Her two-year-old filly by Pinatubo (Shamardal) sold for 240,000gns as a foal to JP Bloodstock and Ed Walker will fashion her racing career, while Tally-Ho Stud will presumably reoffer Dream Dana’s yearling colt by Palace Pier (Kingman). They paid 180,000gns for him as a foal.

Wizz Kid

Dream Dana has no foal this year but is already in foal to Night Of Thunder (Shamardal). She is out of Lidanna (Nicholas), a fast filly whose wins included the Group 3 Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes and the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes.

Lidanna bred eight winners and is the grandam of Wizz Kid (Whipper), Ballylinch Stud’s filly who won the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

The Juddmonte-bred Showcasing is in his 15th season at Whitsbury Manor Stud. He started out at £50,000, dropped to £4,500 for three seasons, and after a stunning first year with his runners he jumped to £15,000. A high of £55,000 was reached for 2019 and 2020, and this year he looks well-priced at £35,000.

His three Group 1-winning sons Belbek (France), Mohaather (England) and Advertise (Ireland) are at stud, and his only Group 1 winning daughter, Quiet Reflection, sold for 2,100,000gns nearly eight years ago to M.V. Magnier