JUDDMONTE’S homebred Idiomatic recorded an all-the-way success when she was a 4¼-length winner of the 68th running of the $600,000 Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Sunday.

Trained by Brad Cox, Idiomatic provided the sponsors with their second win in a race which they have endowed since 2005, having won previously with Emollient in 2013. The victory provided Idiomatic with a fees-paid place in the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff to be run at Santa Anita on November 4th.

What a year it has been so far for Idiomatic. The four-year-old daughter of Curlin (Smart Strike) was unraced at two, won and was placed twice last year in three runs, but she has been a revelation this season, suffering just a single defeat in eight starts when runner-up in the Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes. Her weekend triumph was her second at Grade 1 level, having previously captured the Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga. She will be short odds to add substantially to her $1.4 million earnings next month.

Idiomatic is from a family that has been prominent for the past half a century, and she has a long association with Juddmonte, being a fourth-generation homebred. The decision to keep her in training was certainly influenced by the fact that she is what her trainer describes as “the biggest horse I’ve ever trained”. This would explain the fact that she has been brought along slowly.

Curlin is fast approaching a rare landmark for a stallion, that of siring 100 stakes winners. His tally currently stands at 97, and 22 of them have won at the highest level. That list actually includes Malathaat who won the Spinster Stakes last year before going on to land the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Connections of Idiomatic will be hoping for lightening to strike again.

Idiomatic is the first foal and only runner so far for Lockdown, a daughter of Juddmonte’s First Defense (Unbridled’s Song). Now in Saudi Arabia, First Defense has made a sizeable contribution as a stallion, while as a broodmare sire he is also responsible for the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby winner Beyond Brilliant. Dam of the unraced three-year-old filly Abditory (Medaglia D’Oro), Lockdown sadly died after foaling the now yearling filly by Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday).

Champion

A stakes winner at Aqueduct, Lockdown was placed in a couple of Grade 1 races, notably the Kentucky Oaks. She also placed in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes, a race won by her full-sister Close Hatches (First Defense). That champion older mare in the USA won nine of her 14 starts, five of which were Grade 1 stakes. At stud, Close Hatches is the dam of Tacitus (Tapit), the multiple Grade 2 winner who was runner-up in both the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes.

Lockdown’s third dam was the Group 3 winner Monroe (Sir Ivor). She was second in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, and her 14 winners at stud were headed by Xaar (Zafonic), rated the best in Europe at two when he won both the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and Prix de la Salamandre. He was later placed in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes and Irish Champion Stakes.