John Gosden's influence fuelling a vintage spell for Juddmonte breeding

It's been some 40 years since Known Fact landed the Middle Park Stakes, and in so doing became the first Group 1 winner for the man now widely regarded as the Turf's most accomplished breeder, Prince Khalid Abdullah.

A further 115 runners have carried those now familiar silks to a top-level triumph since, including the unbeaten Siskin, who contests this year's running of the Juddmonte-backed juvenile Group 1 prize on Saturday.

While there could be more glory to come, and even with a history of uncommon excellence in mind, the current campaign must already rank as a particularly fruitful period for the Juddmonte racing and breeding powerhouse.

A notable subplot to this success has been the hand that John Gosden has played in the good fortunes of the prince's operation.

John Gosden and Prince Khalid Abdullah at Royal Ascot in 2000Credit: Edward Whitaker

The champion trainer has, of course, applied his masterful touch to the preparation of Juddmonte colour-bearers Enable and Logician, who have swept all before them in their respective divisions this season.

And with the mighty mare firmly on track in her bid to land an historic hat-trick of Prix de l'Arc de Triomphes, what would be a career-defining success for her trainer, and another seemingly impossible milestone passed for her breeder, is still in the offing.

"To have achieved what Prince Khalid has inside 40 years is quite amazing," says Gosden when asked about Juddmonte's recent run of form.

"The thing that's very clear is that none of this happened by accident. There's been nothing flamboyant at all, it's all been quite subtle, but Prince Khalid set out with a plan in about 1980, and with the bloodlines, the pedigrees, the matings and the land, he's reached where he is now.

"Everything has been done properly in a very measured – but very determined – manner."

Sire power

Known Fact also become the prince's first stallion when he retired to the original Juddmonte Farms near Wargrave in Berkshire, and just as the number of elite winners has grown exponentially since his breakthrough Group 1 success, so too has the influence of the stallions standing under the Juddmonte banner.

Thanks to the likes of Rainbow Quest, Zafonic, Distant View, Zamindar, Mizzen Mast and Dansili, to name but a few, the Juddmonte stallions can boast of a lengthy list of triumphs achieved on a truly global scale.

The current occupants of the Banstead Manor Stud stallion boxes have been in rude health this year too, and their success also bears the fingerprints of the champion trainer.

Dual world champion Frankel has continued his ascent of the ranks through a stakes winners to runners strike-rate of 18 per cent and a brace of Classic winners, both of whom reside at Gosden's Clarehaven Stables.

Logician: the second Classic winner for Frankel in 2019Credit: Edward Whitaker

First came the Oaks victory of Meon Valley Stud's Anapurna before the aforementioned Logician gave Abdullah his second homebred St Leger scorer, following Toulon in 1991.

Those results mean that four of Frankel's nine elite winners have been trained by Gosden, with Anapurna and Logician joining Cracksman and Without Parole.

However, some seasoned observers have noted that Frankel's rise and rise is arguably in danger of being overshadowed by the meteoric trajectory of his near neighbour, Kingman.

All hail the King

A notably fast start from Kingman's debut two-year-olds has been consolidated with some stunning results with his first Classic crop. Moreover, his reputation has only been enhanced by the man who prepared the son of Invincible Spirit himself to win four Group 1 contests over a mile during the summer of 2014.

While Kingman's breakthrough Group 1 winner came courtesy of the Andre Fabre-trained Persian King, Gosden has been responsible for a strong supporting cast that includes Calyx, King Of Comedy, Private Secretary and Twist 'N' Shake.

Palace Pier, the brightest light among the sire's second two-year-old crop, has also looked something quite out of the ordinary with two bloodless successes.

"They show his speed and brilliance," Gosden says of the progeny of his old ally.

"He was an incredibly laid-back character, if he had his way he'd just lob around the place. I've noticed a lot of his progeny have great acceleration and fire like he had on the track, but they're quite fiery elsewhere, too."

Kingman strikes a pose at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor StudCredit: Asuncion Piñeyrua

Having trained a Coventry Stakes winner and a Cocked Hat Stakes scorer by the sire, Gosden has seen first hand the gamut of qualities Kingman is transmitting to his progeny, but is unshakable in his view that the horse's key attribute, during his own racing career at least, was speed.

"He seems to be able to complement a middle-distance mare as well as the sprinters," he notes. "He has a gorgeous pedigree, of course, and the owner always felt that he might have been able to go a mile and a quarter.

"But, actually, he was so fast that if I'd had to change his trip from a mile, I'd have brought him back to six furlongs. He could have won a July Cup, he was that fast."

In typically measured fashion, Gosden won't be drawn into making any grand predictions for how significant an impact Kingman could go on to make at stud, but says: "He's rolling along and his progeny seem to be very popular.

"People seem to be queuing up to send nice mares to him; the quality of mares he's getting must be going through the roof. He's a very exciting stallion."

The generation game

The very foundations for Kingman's flourishing stallion career were laid by Gosden, not only having conditioned the horse for his wins in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, St James's Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and the Prix Jacques le Marois, but having also trained his dam, Zenda, to win the 2002 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.

Nurturing the next generation is clearly a prospect he is relishing.

"If you're lucky enough to have a horse who goes to stud and then the progeny come back to you, by knowing the stallion you know what mistakes not to make, rather than the usual," Gosden says.

"It's great to be able to train the progeny of a horse you've trained; it's the same if the dam has been with you and her foal comes to you – or goes to someone else – and does well.

"Horses like Kingman and Golden Horn were a lot of fun to be around, they were very friendly and affectionate horses, everyone in the stable adored them. So when you start getting their progeny coming through it's exciting; everybody starts seeing a lot of similarities with their fathers and it makes for a lot of debate in the stables."

Prince Khalid Abdullah (left) and John Gosden (right) with Zenda, the dam of Kingman, after her success in the Poule d'Essai des PoulichesCredit: Ed Byrne

When asked whether an understanding, first-hand or otherwise, of a horse's pedigree provides a trainer with an edge, a broad, wry smile breaks across Gosden's face.

"A man I respect a great deal will tell you it's always the pedigree and the training," he says. "I won't say who that man is, but he's very famous – and lives in Ireland!"

There can be little doubt that when pedigree and training exist in perfect harmony, the results can quite extraordinary. We need look no further than the Juddmonte and John Gosden axis for proof of what is possible when such sublime elements combine.

Gosden on Enable-like levels of inbreeding...

As a student of pedigrees, Juddmonte presented Gosden with an interesting and quite exceptional case study in Enable, who boasts extremely close inbreeding to Sadler's Wells, being inbred 3x2 to the diminutive breed-shaper.

However, Gosden, while observing that Enable will be destined for an outcross stallion once her racing days are over, advised extreme caution for breeders planning on replicating such close line breeding.

John Gosden and Frankie Dettori celebrate after Enable's win in the 2017 Prix de l'Arc de TriompheCredit: Alan Crowhurst

"You've got to be careful otherwise the gene pool becomes pretty restricted," he says. "[Marcel] Boussac tried it and it worked for a time, but then it imploded. There's always that risk and it's pretty obvious that Enable is going to have to be bred out from the Sadler's Wells line.

"It's not Northern Dancer's fault that he's been so prepotent and that the gene pool has tightened and tightened. I remember travelling with Charlie Whittingham into Kentucky back in late 1988 and he was going through the catalogue and said, 'My God! This Northern Dancer will be covering himself soon!'"

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