The wonderful winner of the Nell Gwyn Stakes whose family is still flourishing half a century later

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens talks about the immense influence of Nell Gwyn Stakes winner Rose Bowl – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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When a Classic trial attracts a large number of unexposed three-year-olds, the majority of whom haven’t been seen in public since last season – as happens in the Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket today – a check on the betting to gauge stable confidence is a must.

The markets certainly proved instructive on the Rowley Mile 50 years ago this week. Rose Bowl was backed from 11-4 into 7-4 favourite for the Nell Gwyn, in spite of taking on the champion two-year-old filly Cry Of Truth, behind whom she had finished third in the Cheveley Park Stakes at odds of 25-1 during the preceding autumn.

The surge of money proved correct, as Rose Bowl trotted up by three lengths under Lester Piggott, with outsider Posy in second and One Over Parr a further six lengths back in third. Cry Of Truth plainly did not stay the trip, beating only one rival home, and she had to relinquish her position as 1,000 Guineas favourite to Rose Bowl, who was backed at all rates down to 5-2 that day.

The Nell Gwyn Stakes of 1975 turned out to be the launchpad to a stellar racing career for Rose Bowl, who was trained by Fulke Johnson Houghton for Jane Engelhard, widow of the wealthy industrialist Charles Engelhard, famed in racing circles as the owner of Triple Crown hero Nijinsky. 

The filly, from the second crop of the Engelhard-raced champion miler Habitat, was bred in Kentucky by the couple’s Cragwood Estates out of Roseliere, the champion three-year-old filly in France of 1968 and one of the first major broodmare prospects purchased by Charles Engelhard. She was sent to Johnson Houghton, who had trained Habitat with such success.

Things didn’t go smoothly for Rose Bowl straight after the Nell Gwyn, though. She was sent off at 7-4 for the 1,000 Guineas, due in part to the assistance she was receiving from housewives’ favourite Piggott, but suffered agonisingly bad luck in the race, travelling sweetly but finding no room against the fence, only to be switched wide and to run into more traffic problems. When clear, she flew home to finish fourth behind Nocturnal Spree.

“The pace was very slow and I didn’t see any daylight until two furlongs from home,” reported Piggott after the race. “Rose Bowl didn’t come down the hill too well, but I had a bad run and I think I was very unlucky.”

Lester Piggott: rode Rose Bowl in the 1,000 GuineasCredit: Mark Leech/Offside

Rose Bowl made racing fans wait a little longer before revealing her brilliance, as a pulled muscle meant she also missed the chance to gain compensation in the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes. She reappeared in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, where she had to take on the 2,000 Guineas winner Bolkonski. 

Bolkonski, who had become jarred up by a loose horse in the paddock and was bathed in sweat on that boiling hot day on the Downs, dashed into the lead three furlongs from home and grimly held on by a neck from the fast-finishing Rose Bowl, who didn’t have the benefit of a prep race. She passed the post in unison with the July Cup winner Lianga, who had also come with a late run.

Rose Bowl had shown herself to be an exceptional talent, and yet she still wasn't able to confirm it straight away. She was sent off at 1-2 for the Waterford Crystal Mile back at Goodwood in the following month, but had to settle for second behind Vincent O’Brien’s twice-raced Jersey Stakes winner Gay Fandango.

Punters could be forgiven for finding the filly more than a little frustrating by that point, but she finally showed her true colours in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot that September. She gained sweet revenge on Gay Fandango, whom she beat easily into second, and Bolkonski, a disappointing fourth in the contest.

Rose Bowl was outstanding again in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket on her next start, slamming the great racemare Allez France by a length and a half. She was billed as ‘the new queen of European racing’ after that victory, her unlucky efforts earlier in the season now a dim and distant memory.

Rose Bowl stayed in training at four, but didn’t maintain her newly discovered consistency that season. She found trouble in running and finished fourth to Infra Green in a slowly run Prix Ganay on her seasonal reappearance, before getting back on the winning trail with an easy victory over inferior opposition in a Listed race at Goodwood.

Success in a weak renewal of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot looked a formality but she flopped on the firm ground and finished fourth behind French challenger Trepan (later disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance). It was reported that she returned stiff and sore, and she was given the summer off in order to recuperate for the defence of her QEII and Champion Stakes titles in the autumn.

Rose Bowl’s task in the QEII was made easier by the late defection of Wollow, and she duly regained her crown with a four-length score, but she had to settle for second behind Vitiges in the Champion Stakes. Her final start was in the Washington International at Laurel, but she was a no-show on her first attempt over 12 furlongs, a distance that clearly stretched her stamina too far.

Soon after Rose Bowl was retired to stud in Kentucky, Jane Engelhard reportedly grew tired of racing and sold nearly all her horses, including the mare and her dam Roseliere, to another North American faithful friend of British racing in Paul Mellon.

Rose Bowl turned out to be a very good broodmare, if not quite a blue hen, for Mellon. She produced eight winners, the best of whom was by the breeder’s magnificent colt Mill Reef: namely Rose Reef, who struck in the Gladness Stakes for John Oxx.

She was also represented by two Listed winners in Golden Bowl (a filly by Vaguely Noble who won the Lupe Stakes) and Rokeby (a colt by Lomond who took the Kronimus-Rennen at Baden-Baden and finished third in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes), as well as a pair of stakes-placed performers in Rose Campion (a Mill Reef filly who finished third in the Radley Stakes) and Rokeby Bowl (a Salse gelding who ran third in the Ormonde Stakes).

Rose Bowl’s maternal grandchildren were better than her own offspring. Golden Bowl produced the stakes winners Golden Mintage (by The Minstrel) and Nero Zilzal (by Zilzal), while another daughter, the unraced Nijinsky mare Browser, bred the US Grade 3 scorer High Browser (by Tom Rolfe).

However, Rose Bowl’s best producing daughter was undoubtedly Crystal Cup, a non-winner by Nijinsky. Her eight winners included Haydock Sprint Cup victor Iktamal (by Danzig Connection), dual French Group 2 hero First Magnitude (by Arazi) and Arkansas Derby scorer Rockamundo (by Key To The Mint).

Rose Bowl’s maternal line still flourishes around the world, through various strands. 

Golden Bowl’s descendants include Havnameltdown, who won the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes and finished second in the Del Mar Futurity and Saudi Derby for Bob Baffert a few years ago, and Sea Silk Road, successful in the Prix de Royallieu for William Haggas in 2023.

Oriental Magic, the Listed-winning daughter of Doyen who is the dam of Sea Silk Road, has been a marvellous mare for Kildaragh Stud. They sold a Sea The Stars filly out of her, thus a full-sister to Sea Silk Road, to Godolphin for 1,600,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last autumn. She has since been named Ribbon Of Sea and sent into training with Charlie Appleby.

Sea Silk Road: a Group 1-winning descendant of Rose BowlCredit: Edward Whitaker

Crystal Cup’s dynasty meanwhile features the Group 3-winning siblings Above Average and Sent From Heaven, the latter the dam of the useful pair Almania and Benacre, as well as another stakes-scoring pair of siblings in Conquest and Victory Command, and Toshin Macau, a Grade 2 winner in Japan who finished a neck second in the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama last September.

Shrewdie breeders Paul and Marie McCartan landed a bit of a touch with this particular clan when they sold a Night Of Thunder yearling filly out of Guanina, an unraced Lawman half-sister to Conquest and Victory Command, to Mike Ryan on behalf of Klaravich Stables for 230,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 last year. They had paid just 30,000gns for the dam three years earlier.

Another nice profit was made last year by Rochestown Lodge Stud when in April they paid 17,500gns in an online sale for a Mehmas yearling filly out of Rasmiya, a winning Galileo half-sister to Above Average and Sent from Heaven who was already the dam of Listed winner Jouza, and less than six months later resold her to Sackville Donald and Manor House Stables for €50,000 at Goffs Orby.

Plenty of breeders have good reason to think kindly of Rose Bowl’s bloodlines, then.

Many others have cause to thank Rose Bowl's wider family, too, even if they might not immediately realise it.

For example, Ile De Bourbon, her three-years younger half-brother by Nijinsky, was sent out by Johnson Houghton to win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Coronation Cup for a partnership of the trainer, his mother Helen Johnson Houghton, Sir Philip Oppenheimer and Charles and Jane Engelhard’s former racing manager David McCall.

Ile De Bourbon wasn’t a roaring success at stud but he left a number of talented horses, none more so than the Anglo-Irish Derby winner Kahyasi, who in turn sired Hasili, a fabulous matriarch for Juddmonte, and Zarkasha, the dam of unbeaten Arc heroine and increasingly influential broodmare Zarkava. For good measure, Ile De Bourbon’s daughter Bourbon Girl, runner-up in the Epsom and Curragh Oaks, is the third dam of the mighty Enable.

Shy Rambler, a placed Blushing Groom half-brother to Rose Bowl and Ile De Bourbon, also enjoyed some success at stud in Australasia. His best progeny was Peep On The Sly – winner of three Group 2s, the Sandown Guineas, TS Carlyon Cup and Tulloch Stakes – and he featured as broodmare sire of Gai Waterhouse’s popular four-time Group 1 scorer Juggler.

Fans of jump racing in the 1990s and 2000s owe Rose Bowl’s family an especially large debt of gratitude, and not just because Kahyasi delivered the likes of Kasbah Bliss and Paddy’s Return, as well as the dams of A Plus Tard and Fastorslow.

Roselier, a full-brother to Rose Bowl and Ile De Bourbon’s dam Roseliere, landed the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil before being bought inexpensively as a jumps sire by Knockhouse Stud in County Kilkenny. 

From there he conceived – prepare yourself for a wave of nostalgia – Baronet, Berude Not To, Bindaree, Carvill’s Hill, Classified, Ebony Jane, Kendal Cavalier, Kingsmark, Monet’s Garden, Moorcroft Boy, One Knight, Royal Athlete, Senor El Betrutti, Suny Bay, Take Control, The Grey Monk and The Listener.

Those positive market vibes for Rose Bowl ahead of the Nell Gwyn Stakes half a century ago this spring heralded a wonderful racing career for the filly, and helped set in motion breeding decisions that brought about numerous superstars of the last five decades.

Better look out for where the money is going this afternoon.

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our unmissable email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday