Juddmonte Sires Enjoy American Purple Patch

While Group 1 racing has wound down for the season in Europe, it rolls on across the Atlantic, and somewhat lost in the shuffle of the breeding stock sales was an excellent weekend on Nov. 28 and 29 for Juddmonte sires in California. Domestic Spending (GB) became the third Group 1 winner for Kingman (GB) when kicking late to take the Hollywood Derby going 1800 metres on the turf, while Viadera (GB) made it a first Group 1 winner for Bated Breath (GB) in the one-mile Matriarch S. on the turf. She led home the Dansili (GB) fillies Blowout (GB)-a 4-year-old daughter of Classic winner Beauty Parlour (GB) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) bought by Peter Brant for €450,000 as a foal at the Wildenstein Dispersal at Goffs November in 2016-and Juliet Foxtrot (GB). Dansili, of course, is the sire of Bated Breath, so the Matriarch was yet another feather in the cap of the Juddmonte legend in his retirement.

For both Kingman and Bated Breath, stakes success in the U.S. is nothing new. Fittingly as homebreds themselves for an operation that has prioritized transatlantic success, both young sires have already proven more than capable on the American turf in their young careers.

From three crops of racing age, Kingman has had 17 runners in the U.S., 11 of which are winners. Two of those are stakes winners and a further four are stakes placed. That means Kingman's strike rate of 12% stakes winners to runners in America effectively matches his overall strike rate. In addition to Domestic Spending-who joins G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Persian King (GB) and this year's 3-year-old champion Palace Pier (GB) as Group 1 winners for the son of Invincible Spirit (Ire)-Kingman has provided She's Got You (GB), the winner of Monmouth Park's Listed Violet S. and third in this year's GIII Athenia S. Kingman may not be able to take all the credit for She's Got You's talent-the dam Without You Babe (Lemon Drop Kid) has, after all, also produced the G1 St James's Palace S. winner Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who enters stud at Newsells Park Stud in 2021.

The Rabbah-bred Domestic Spending is the third Grade I winner to be bought by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables–with the assist of Mike Ryan and Chad Brown-at Tattersalls October Book 1 in the first three years of that venture, he having cost 300,000gns. He joins GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and GI Just A Game S. winner Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and this year's GI Turf Classic S. victor Digital Age (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Klarman's support of Kingman in the Tattersalls ring, in fact, has led to two more group-placed horses in the U.S.: 4-year-old Good Governance (GB) has won two of his four starts and was third in this summer's GIII Bernard Baruch S. at Saratoga, while Public Sector (GB), a 2-year-old this year, was second in the GII Pilgrim S. Technical Analysis (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), a 2-year-old filly also bred by Rabbah and bought by Klarman at Tattersalls, broke her maiden at Aqueduct in New York last weekend.

Domestic Spending was making his fifth start in the Hollywood Derby and winning for the fourth time, his only loss having come behind Grade I winner Decorated Invader-who was behind him in the Hollywood Derby–in the GIII Hall Of Fame S. this summer at Saratoga after breaking slow and traveling wide. Domestic Spending is out of the stakes-winning Urban Castle (Street Cry {Ire}), who is a half-sister to Queen's Best (GB) (King's Best), whose daughter Queen's Trust (GB) (Dansili {GB}-there he is again) also excelled on the American turf when taking the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Domestic Spending's deep pedigree under the third dam also includes dual French Classic winner Avenir Certain (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), this year's G2 Royal Lodge S. winner New Mandate (Ire) (New Bay {GB})-who are out of half-sisters-and first-season sire sensation Mehmas (Ire).

Bated Breath, with two more crops than his Banstead barnmate Kingman, has had the exact same number of runners in the U.S. (17), but those have included six stakes winners (35%), one additional stakes-placed horse and nine winners in total. Bated Breath has forged a reputation as one of the best proven value sires in Europe and has continually churned out high-class winners like Space Traveller (GB), Beckford (GB), Daahyeh (GB) and Worth Waiting (GB). His 11 stakes winners this year included the G3 Sceptre S. winner Breathtaking Look (GB)-sold for 400,000gns at Tattersalls last week to Katsumi Yoshida–and 2-year-old Group 3 winners Cairn Gorm (GB) and Makaloun (Fr).

Viadera, then, was the top-level breakthrough that Bated Breath needed to take his profile to the next level. Viadera was bred in Britain by Juddmonte and is a three-quarter sister to Crossed Baton (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who won the Listed Blue Riband Trial in 2018 for John Gosden, who thereafter opted to keep him to 2000 metres rather than go the Derby route. That was also the preferred trip of his close relation Twice Over (GB), who won the G1 Champion S. twice, the G1 Coral-Eclipse and the G1 Juddmonte International over a mile and a quarter. Other pattern race winners between a mile and a mile and a quarter in the family include Passage Of Time (GB), Time Test (GB), Timepiece (GB) and All At Sea.

In winning the third of her four outings in the U.S. since being transferred from Ger Lyons in Ireland, Viadera actually brought up a U.S. stakes double for Bated Breath on the weekend, with Feel Glorious (GB) having won Aqueduct's Listed Forever Together S. two days prior for French expatriat Christophe Clement. The sprinter Jack and Noah had been the first of his three stakes winners on U.S. soil this year in the summer at Saratoga, and his other graded winner in America is Simply Breathless (GB), who had won a trio of handicaps for Clive Cox before being transferred to Neil Drysdale in California, under whose care she won last year's GIII Wilshire S. going a mile.

Bated Breath certainly appears to have come by his affinity for the American grass naturally. The great Dansili himself, after finishing a neck third in the 2000 GI Breeders' Cup Mile, has thus far had 83 runners in the U.S., 17 of which are stakes winners for a strike rate of 20%. Six of those were Group 1 winners, with Proviso (GB) winning four times at the highest level and Flintshire (GB) three. Dank (GB) and Queen's Trust, meanwhile, were able to accomplish one of the few things their sire didn't: wins at the Breeders' Cup.

Amidst flourishing stud careers at home in Europe for both Kingman and Bated Breath, their U.S. successes are exciting chapters that, if the statistics are to be believed, look to have plenty more to still be written.