All hail the Kingman! Juddmonte homebred Sangarius strikes in Hampton Court

Kingman continued his rapid ascent of the stallion ranks on Thursday, when his son Sangarius stormed to an impressive victory in the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes on day three of Royal Ascot.

The Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt, a powerful, long-striding individual, looked a horse of great potential at two, when he landed a Doncaster Listed event in ready fashion, and having surged two and a quarter lengths clear of a hot field at Ascot, bigger things surely await.

The result is the latest in a slew of stakes race successes for the progeny of Kingman, and the sire's red-hot run of form was consolidated by also supplying the runner-up, Fox Chairman, a half-brother to dual Group 1 winner La Collina.

Sangarius becomes Kingman's second Royal Ascot winner, following on from last year's Coventry Stakes hero Calyx, and the fourth member of his first crop to strike at Group level, a number that also includes Poule d'Essai des Poulains victor Persian King and Musidora Stakes scorer Nausha.

Kingman: sire of SangariusCredit: Asuncion Piñeyrua

The three-year-old's pedigree showcases the best of Juddmonte breeding, as he descends from one of Prince Khalid Abdullah's most famed families.

His third dam is the blue hen Hasili, whose herd includes five homebred Group/Grade 1 winners, namely Banks Hill (second dam of Sangarius), Cacique, Champs Elysees, Heat Haze and Intercontinental.

Banks Hill, Cacique, Champs Elysees and Intercontinental are all by another Juddmonte homebred, the late, great Danehill.

Hasili also produced Dansili, who stood alongside Kingman at Banstead Manor Stud until his retirement in April 2018.

Banks Hill also did her bit to uphold family honour once she retired to the paddocks, as she produced the stakes winners Romantica and Ideal World, as well as the dam of Sangarius in Trojan Queen, a winning daughter of Empire Maker.

Kingman made his impact on Royal Ascot during his own racing career, having beaten Night Of Thunder to land the 2014 St James's Palace Stakes in bloodless fashion, while his half-brother Remote, a son of Dansili, landed the previous year's Hampton Court Stakes, run then as the Tercentenary Stakes.

KINGMAN'S 2019 STAKES WINNERS

PERSIAN KING - Poule d'Essai des Poulains, Group 1
CALYX - Pavilion Stakes, Group 3
NAUSHA - Musidora Stakes, Group 3
SANGARIUS - Hampton Court Stakes, Group 3
KING OF COMEDY - Heron Stakes, Listed
PRIVATE SECRETARY - Cocked Hat Stakes, Listed

Juddmonte have bred and owned three of the last seven Hampton Court winners, having also been represented by Time Test, who struck in 2015.

Sangarius's success pushes Kingman further clear at the head of the second-season sire standings. The son of Invincible Spirit and Poule d'Essai des Pouliches victress Zenda, who stood 2019 at a fee of £75,000, has sired six stakes winners already this year.

That fee looks almost certain to rise in 2020 given the exploits of Kingman's progeny to date, and given the quality of the books he has covered there could still be plenty more to come.

His three-year-old crop contains 114 foals bred from a book that included 83 (59 per cent) stakes performers and 29 Group winners (20 per cent). His second crop of two-year-olds, meanwhile, is comprised of 109 foals bred from a book containing 65 stakes performers (46 per cent) and 17 Group winners (12 per cent).

There was another feather in the cap of the Juddmonte breeding programme later in the day on Thursday, when Biometric, a son of Kingman's studmate Bated Breath, claimed the Britannia Stakes.

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