IN a wonderful piece of prescience, the most recent edition of Mark Johnston’s Kingsley Klarion had a feature on the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket. Thanks to this I was saved a great deal of research!

The trainer and his team were looking forward to the race, one which they had already bagged on three occasions. The race, thanks to the Klarion writer, was established in 1946 and is named after a royal residence situated in Windsor Great Park. It was originally run at Ascot, but has endured a number of other changes too, extended from five furlongs to a mile, and in 1987 being restricted to colts and geldings.

A look at the race’s past winners reveals some household names, and two recent stars have been Roaring Lion and Frankel. The Johnston wining association began in 1993 with Mister Baileys, the horse who gave Mark his first classic success the following spring in the 2000 Guineas.

In 2008 Mark welcomed his second winner of the race, the now Burgage Stud stallion Jukebox Jury. He too was to go on to enjoy Group 1 success in The Irish Field St Leger and the Preis von Europa. While the third winner for Johnston did not go on to win a Group 1, Steeler made his mark on the race when he broke the juvenile track record on his way to winning the 2012 renewal.

Now Mark and Charlie Johnston, along with the proud owners Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, have a most exciting colt to look forward to with the 2021 Royal Lodge Stakes winner, the aptly-named Royal Patronage. Fifth on his debut, he was runner-up second time out to the now Group 1 winner Native Trail, before a run of three wins that has also included the Group 3 Acomb Stakes.

Harry Herbert

Recently married to Clodagh McKenna, a delighted Harry Herbert is likely to be dreaming of the possibility that Royal Patronage will, in time, develop into a Derby contender – and his pedigree would certainly suggest he might.

He is a son of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) and out of the three-time winner Shaloushka, an Aga Khan-bred daughter of Dalakhani (Darshaan).

Royal Patronage was bred by Emma Capon Bloodstock, and he was purchased in utero through Blandford Bloodstock at the 2018 Arqana Breeding Stock Sale for €100,000. His dam Shaloushka’s first foal died after his birth, Royal Patronage is her second produce, while this year she produced a colt by Magna Grecia (Invincible Spirit). Royal Patronage was bought as a yearling for 62,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by John and Jake Warren.

Shaloushka is a full-sister to an 11-time winner, and a three-parts sister to Shalapour (Darshaan). He ran third to Hurricane Run and Scorpion in the Group 1 Budwesier Irish Derby in 2005. They are all out of Shalama (Kahyasi), the dam of seven winners in all, and she was a half-sister to Shahrastani (Nijinsky). He won the English and Irish Derbys in 1986 for His Highness the Aga Khan, beating Dancing Brace at Epsom.

Wootton Bassett’s phenomenal year continues. Eleven stakes winners, a Group 1 winner, three group-winning juveniles (and another pair who are listed winners), and a number of them Group 1-placed horses. Keep an eye also on his son Almanzor whose runners are starting to impress.