THE new flat turf season will soon be here, and with it the seventh anniversary of one of the most impressive performances in an Irish sprint in the last decade. The winner’s performance in the Listed Cork Stakes over six furlongs that March was unforgettable.

The result looked inevitable even a quarter of a mile out. An Saighdiur was at the rail, Flight Risk on his outside, but Bobby’s Kitten was cruising. It was just a matter of when Pat Smullen would press the button.

The partnership was in front and cruising as they passed the furlong pole, and the final margin of victory was eight and a half lengths under a hands-and-heels ride.

Bobby’s Kitten was the horse who beat No Nay Never in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint over six and a half furlongs at Santa Anita 17 months earlier, one who had spent most of his career at around a mile until that day in California.

The Chad Brown-trained bay landed the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes and finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at two, he was a Grade 1-placed stakes winner over a mile at three, finished fourth in a five-and-a-half-furlong edition of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland, and then moved to Ireland.

Only time

In training with Dermot Weld, all of the Group 1 sprints appeared to be on the table, but sadly Cork was the only time we saw Bobby’s Kitten run in Europe.

The first crop by Bobby’s Kitten, a son of Kitten’s Joy (El Prado), hit the ground running, and he achieved a double-digit tally of first-crop winners. While he has not sired enormous crops like many leading sires, he has continued to pile on the winners, and his best runner is the high-class Kirsten Rausing homebred Sandrine, winner of the Group 2 Lennox Stakes at Goodwood, the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket, and the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal. She has also been placed at Group 1 level in the Cheveley Park Stakes and the Falmouth Stakes, both at Newmarket.

Real opportunity

Now standing at a fee that is less than half of his starting price, Bobby’s Kitten represents a real opportunity for commercial breeders to access a proven sire line. Bobby’s Kitten, a great-grandson of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer), is by the sire of Roaring Lion, Hawkbill, Oscar Performance and Kameko.

He is a full-brother to a pair of stakes winners, including the dual Grade 2 scorer Camelot Kitten, and the many Group/Grade 1 winners under the first four generations of his pedigree feature the champion racehorse and leading international sire Theatrical (Nureyev).

Bobby’s Kitten follows in a long tradition of Kirtsen Rausing offering breeders something different, justifying her trademark of being ‘The independent option’. This year Bobby’s Kitten stands alongside Group 1 sire Sea The Moon, classic winner and Group 1 sire Sir Percy, and Study Of Man, a freshman sire in 2023.

RACE RECORD

BOBBY’S KITTEN (USA), Bay 2011. Won six races, £846,971, from 6 furlongs to 1 mile ½ furlongs, 2 to 5 years including, Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Santa Anita, Gr.1, Pilgrim Stakes, Belmont Park, Gr.3, Cork Stakes, Cork, L, Penn Mile Stakes, Penn National, L, also placed second in National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes, Saratoga, Gr.2, and third in Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (c&g), Santa Anita, Gr.1, Ricoh Woodbine Mile Stakes, Woodbine, Gr.1.

AT STUD

Retired to Stud in 2017, and sire of the winners of 141 races, and £2,192,763, including SANDRINE (GB), Monaasib (GB), Kitty Kitana (GB), Pallapannocchiesch (IRE) and Fighting King (GB)

INFORMATION

Stands at: Lanwades Stud, Moulton, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 8QS, England.

Contact: Kirsten Rausing

Telephone: +44 1638 750222

Email: info@lanwades.com

Web: www.lanwades.com

Fee: £6,000