JUDDMONTE sponsored the Group 1 Irish Oaks on Saturday, a race they won with the great Enable eight years ago. They did not have a runner this year, but the result was still a great one for the large team who had travelled from their farms in Ireland and England to enjoy the day.

As expected, Minnie Hauk added the Irish classic to her win in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom, and this was her fourth victory in just five starts. Her blacktype winning sequence started when she took the honours in the Listed Cheshire Oaks at Chester. Minnie Hauk’s only defeat came on her two-year-old debut when she was second to Wemightakedlongway, the filly who made a race of the Juddmonte Irish Oaks but had to settle for the runner-up spot.

Minnie Hauk represents the all-powerful teams of owners Smith/Magnier/Tabor, trainer Aidan O’Brien who was winning his eighth Irish Oaks after Alexandrova, Peeping Fawn, Moonstone, Bracelet, Seventh Heaven, Snowfall and Savethelastdance, and jockey Ryan Moore. Bred by Ben Sangster, Minnie Hauk is from a family that represents the best of Juddmonte, and she provides a further boost to a family with which they have a deep association.

In shorthand, Minnie Hauk is a daughter of Frankel (Galileo) out of a Dansili (Danehill) half-sister to Kingman (Invincible Spirit), and their classic-winning dam Zenda (Zamindar) is a half-sister to Oasis Dream (Green Desert).

One could almost leave the pedigree summary at that, such is the power and strength of the last sentence. However, a dual classic winner deserves more, though it is highly likely that we will yet be celebrating many more big race successes for Minnie Hauk. She is one that will already be on many shortlists for October’s Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Ben Sangster

Named after a famous opera singer of more than a century ago, Minnie Hauk is the latest star performer bred by Ben Sangster. His son Ollie paid $525,000 at the Keeneland November Sale six years ago for Multilingual (Dansili) who was being culled by Juddmonte.

It was a fortuitous purchase, not a gamble, as the odds were stacked in the young mare’s favour. The seven-year-old’s first foal was an unraced two-year-old colt named Tilsit (First Defence), and Multilingual was sold in foal to Frankel’s Group 1-winning full-brother Noble Mission (Galileo).

Nonetheless, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Sangster since he bought Multilingual. Tilsit was so unlucky not to win a Group 1, beaten a head in the Prix d’Ispahan. He made amends when he won the Group 2 Summer Mile at Ascot, adding to an earlier Group 3 win at Goodwood. Multilingual’s second foal never ran, and the third, Polyglot (Kitten’s Joy), finally won at five last year in the USA.

Multilingual was carrying a filly, Decipher (Noble Mission), when Sangster bought her, and eight runs failed to even produce a placed effort. Next up was a filly, Multiple Choice (No Nay Never), sold as a yearling for 780,000gns. She took her time to start paying back the investment. In the ownership of Gestüt Schlenderhan, and having turned four in February, she won at Lignieres in France. Presumably she was then sent straight to the breeding shed.

Sale-topping

Minnie Hauk was next, and she was consigned by Camas Park Stud at the 2023 Goffs Orby sale, selling for a sale-topping €1.85 million to Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier. The investment has certainly paid a handsome dividend. Ben Sangster must have been bewildered when Multilingual’s No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) yearling filly was led out unsold last year at €170,000. At the time of the sale, Tilsit was the only winner for Multilingual. Named Voice Coach, the two-year-old has four winning siblings now, including a dual Group 1 classic heroine. This year Multilingual had a filly by Justify (Scat Daddy).

Multilingual is a full-sister to Group 3 Royal Ascot winner Remote (Dansili) and half-sister to Kingman. They are all out of Zenda, winner of the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas. She was born a year before her half-brother Oasis Dream, and his Group 1 Middle Park Stakes win saw him crowned champion European two-year-old in the same year that Zenda won her classic.

At three, Oasis Dream was champion sprinter in Europe thanks to wins in both the Group 1 July Cup and the Nunthorpe Stakes. He has been a hugely successful sire at stud.

The best son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), Frankel was unbeaten in 14 starts, and at stud has been as successful as he was when winning 10 Group 1 races. The fastest stallion to rack up 100 group or graded winners, that number stands now at 106, and Minnie Hauk is one of 37 at the highest level. In addition to 106 pattern winners, add 57 other blacktype winners for Frankel. Enough said.

Kingman shines on three continents

IT was quite a weekend for the Juddmonte team and their major stallions.

Frankel (Galileo) added to his laurels 24 hours after Minnie Hauk’s classic victory when his son Diego Velazquez bounced back from his Royal Ascot disappointment with a workmanlike win in the seven-furlong Group 2 Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh.

Not to be outdone, Kingman (Invincible Spirit) had three pattern winners on three continents.

He sired his 58th group or graded stakes winner when the five-year-old British-bred Redistricting took his score to four wins with a triumph in the Grade 2 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park. This was his second stakes win this year, the other also coming at the same venue. This 140,000gns buy as a yearling more than doubled his winnings with his win on Saturday to almost $650,000.

Redistricting is one of eight winners out of the two-year-old winner Cascata, a daughter of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), himself an outstanding broodmare sire whose early death was a great loss to the world of breeding. Cascata is a full-sister to the outstanding St Nicholas Abbey (Montjeu).

European champion two-year-old, St Nicholas Abbey would go on to win half of his 18 starts, including the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, and become an unprecedented three-time winner of the Group 1 Coronation Cup. He met with an injury racing, and a prolonged effort to get him right for a stud career ended when he succumbed to colic.

Sunday was a good day for Kingman. His five-year-old daughter England Eyes, the only filly in the lineup for the Group 3 Kokura Kinen in Japan, produced a late challenge to record her first pattern win, and fourth success in all.

England Etes has run 16 times in four seasons, but is having her best year yet. Foaled in England and bred by Hara Reiko Racing Co Ltd, she is the best of four winners for her dam, Nuovo Record (Heart’s Cry).

Japanese Oaks

It is no wonder that Nuovo Record was sent to Europe to be covered, as she was one of the best racemares of her generation in Japan. Her six wins were headlined by victory in the 2014 Group 1 Yushun Himba-Japanese Oaks, while her trips abroad included finishing second in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup.

She travelled to the USA to contest the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, and though she disappointed, she raced at Del Mar a couple of weeks later and won a Grade 3.

Four of Nuovo Record’s first five foals have won, including her year-younger full-brother Omega Imperial (Kingman), while their three-year-old half-sister Sena Style (Sottsass) won over 10 furlongs in Japan this year.

Meanwhile, in France on Sunday afternoon, Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum’s Kingman colt Quddwah got back in the winning groove with success in the Group 3 Prix Messidor at Chantilly. This was a sixth win in nine starts for yet another five-year-old, and his biggest win to date was the Group 2 Summer Mile at Ascot. Quddwah is closing in on the eight-win record of his dam Sajjhaa (King’s Best), and her finest hour was when winning the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free at Meydan.