In conversation with: Shane Horan on the rise of Kingman in Australia

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

There’s that old saying about waiting for a bus, only for two to come along at once, and you’d forgive the team at Juddmonte Farms right now if that’s how it feels at Banstead Manor.

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The Shamardal succession

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The property is home to a pair of the world’s elite stallions in Frankel (GB) and Kingman, making it a vintage era for the stallion operation… except that Juddmonte Farms has had a few vintage eras since it originated in 1977.

There were the years that Dancing Brave (USA) was going around, and then Rainbow Quest (USA) and Zafonic (USA). Prince Khalid Abdullah was the first Arab national to own a British Classic winner, which came about when Known Fact (USA) won the 2000 Guineas in 1980.

There was the broodmare Hasili (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}), one of only a sprinkling of mares ever in the history of the Pattern to foal five Group 1 winners, and of course the modern greats like Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), Frankel and Arrogate (USA).

In the great majority of these cases, the horses were Juddmonte homebreds, which adds a layer of continual brilliance that is rarely matched around the world. That peerless brilliance is on vibrant show right now when it comes to its Banstead Manor stars, Frankel and Kingman.

Gallery: Some of Juddmonte's vintage stallions, images courtesy of Juddmonte Farms

“It’s an absolute dream,” said Irishman Shane Horan, Juddmonte’s stallion nominations manager. “You always want to be associated with a great stallion, and I’ve been lucky in my career to have worked with a lot of top-class stallions. I worked at Coolmore and Darley prior to this, but I always wanted to manage the book of a really influential stallion and, certainly with Frankel, we have that. For Kingman as a supporting act, he himself is of the highest class.”

In any other era and probably on any other farm, 12-year-old Kingman would be the poster boy. But at Banstead Manor, he’s competing with a thoroughbred of whom the sport has rarely seen the like, both in racehorse and stallion merit.

Frankel was a dazzling performer during his career for Henry Cecil, but feedback to Horan of late is that the horse may well be a better stallion than racehorse. It’s a frightening prospect given Frankel ran his opposition off their legs for three straight seasons, retiring with the highest Timeform rating of any horse in history (147).

Frankel and Kingman are two of the five rostered stallions at Banstead Manor. The others are Oasis Dream (GB), Bated Breath (GB) and Expert Eye (GB). All five, as expected, are Juddmonte homebreds.

Frankel is a third-generation homebred, Oasis Dream second generation, and Expert Eye is fourth generation. Kingman, now eight years at stud, is also a third-generation Juddmonte product.

“It is a golden era for Juddmonte stallions, and that is not lost on us,” Horan said. “It is a very select and strong roster, and all five are homebred. The Prince had been developing Juddmonte for 40 years, and it's time and work coming up with stallions of this calibre. The fact that they’ve come so close together, and not forgetting the great race mare Enable, we’re very blessed, and long may it continue.”

There’s a degree of humility in that statement. Juddmonte, of all farms, would be forgiven for the occasional brag, but it rarely comes.

“The Prince had been a very selective breeder for decades,” Horan said. “He has been hugely successful, but he did invest very wisely at a high level when he first started, and Juddmonte hasn’t had to do that for many years.

“All the success we’re having now is from families established decades ago. He took immense pride in the success of his homebreds, and if only he could see them now.”

Sensational value

Last weekend in Australia, Horan and the Juddmonte team had their eyes on the G1 JJ Atkins S. in Brisbane. Kingman had a runner in the shape of King Colorado, but he also had the Group 3-winning Sinawann (Ire) in a Listed event on the same card, a horse raced by a syndicate of Glentree Racing and Rupert Legh, among others.

Of all the results that weekend, Horan said flippantly to his colleagues that King Colorado would be the best result for Kingman, which is exactly what happened when the 2-year-old snatched the JJ Atkins to give his sire his first Australian Group 1 winner.

In the race’s aftermath, there was as much adulation for Kingman as King Colorado. On so few runners, the Juddmonte stallion seemed to be returning extraordinary results.

To the time of writing, Kingman has had 23 runners in Australasia for 15 winners, and three of those have been stakes winners, namely King Colorado and Group 3 winners Emissary (GB) and Sinawann. He’s also had the Group 3-placed Tass.

It’s been well-publicised that Kingman has been covering Australasian mares to Southern Hemisphere time, patronised by some of this region’s most elite breeders, so is it reasonable to assume that King Colorado’s result will up the amps on the Kingman spotlight? Horan confirms that it has.

This week, he was on the phone a fair bit to Australia, and by that point, the horse’s Southern Hemisphere fee had already been set. Kingman will be open to Southern Hemisphere breeders at £40,000, which equates to AU$75,000.

In comparison, the horse’s Northern Hemisphere fee is £125,000 (AU$235,000), while Frankel is available on Southern Hemisphere time at the same figure, £125,000 this southern spring.

“Kingman’s fee is all about making him sensational value,” Horan said. “He’s a top-class stallion, but he’s somewhat overshadowed by the genius of his stablemate. But offering him up was also in aid of offering an appealing alternative to Frankel.”

Frankel’s southern service fee hasn’t been publicly announced yet. He will be restricted to 50 and his book is largely full, with surplus applications already filling his file. Horan confirmed that Kingman isn’t too far in arrears of Frankel when it comes to southern bookings, and perhaps they will later thank King Colorado for that.

“I had it confirmed to me only this morning (Wednesday) that there are only two stallions in history who have sired a 2-year-old Group 1 winner in Australia having never stood there,” Horan said. “Frankel is one and Kingman is the other, and the fact that they’re at the same farm at the same time is phenomenal.”

It can be added to this wonder that both of those juvenile Group 1 winners occurred in the JJ Atkins S. In Frankel’s case, it was when Converge won the race two years ago.

“These stallions are doing this from very small numbers in Australia,” Horan said. “Kingman, for example, had only four 2-year-old runners this year. One is King Colorado and the other is Zardozi for Godolphin.”

Zardozi, a 2-year-old Kingman filly for James Cummings, is undefeated in three starts. Between them, this pair of juveniles are the two winners from their sire’s four 2-year-old runners in Australia, and that sample size is small but impressive and not lost on Horan.

“It’s encouraging, isn’t it?” he said.

Marketing Kingman in the south

For Australians, Kingman is being marketed by Juddmonte as a high-speed, top-class miler.

“From a marketing point of view, his big selling point to an Aussie market is that he was a brilliant miler with a high cruising speed and a killer turn of foot,” Horan said. “He passes that on to his progeny. He is also the highest-rated son of Invincible Spirit, who is, of course, the sire of I Am Invincible, and I Am Invincible has been a revelation in Australia.

“So that’s the angle. If Invincible Spirit has worked so well in Australia with I Am Invincible, why wouldn’t his highest-rated son fare just as well? At this stage, he’s off to a great start.”

It seems like Kingman is leaving not only progeny of the same sharpness as himself, but progeny that are also physically like him. They’re lightly built, finer-boned types of racehorses, which suits so many of Australia’s powerful, short-coupled mares.

“He typically gets them looking like himself,” Horan said. “He’s an elegant stallion. He’s lightly made and light on his feet. His progeny tend to race with a high head-carriage and he’s passing on that great acceleration. It seems like he’s ideally suited to those mares with lots of substance, and he will add in all the quality you could ask for.”

Frankel, in comparison, seems to be the opposite.

“Frankel, physically, is a bull of a stallion,” Horan said. “There’s probably a lot of Danehill coming through in him. His mother was a very typical Danehill mare, and he’s probably more suited by the elegant type of mare. Kingman is probably less fussy on the size of mare sent, but a mare with substance and plenty of bone is recommended.”

Juddmonte has had few Australian runners to work out if Kingman’s progeny are handling the firmer surfaces here. However, 2022 was record-level wet in Australia, so it hasn’t given anyone much of a gauge on how the Kingmans typically go over the ground.

What is obvious is that the Kingman acceleration is suited to firmer tracks, even though the horse himself won his Irish 2000 Guineas on Soft ground. The Frankels, by comparison, seem to go over everything.

“The best stallions always find a way if they're the genuine real deal,” Horan said. “If the horses are good enough, they find a way.”

Terms and conditions

With two stallions of such value to the Southern Hemisphere audience, the obvious question is whether they would ever shuttle. Certainly, in the case of Frankel, he would be among the world’s elite sires who would be too valuable to travel, but what about Kingman?

“People have certainly asked when it comes to both of them, but there is no plan to do so at the moment,” Horan said. “That’s not to say a son of either wouldn’t shuttle in the future, but that’s the extent of it right now.”

Traditionally, Juddmonte has not shuttled its star stallions. The late Prince Khalid wasn’t ever enthusiastic to do so, and it’s unlikely Kingman will ever leave Banstead Manor.

However, he has been priced to be popular and affordable to those Australians and Kiwis willing to fly their mares to England, which is why his southern fee has reduced from £70,000 (AU$130,000) to its current £40,000 (AU$75,000).

“There was great demand for Kingman a few seasons ago, and then Frankel took off,” Horan said. “There are only so many mares in the Northern Hemisphere available to be covered to Southern Hemisphere time, so there seems to be a focus on any one horse at that time. Kingman was one of those horses, and then Frankel had his great breakthrough and he’s become that horse again.

“Who knows now, with King Colorado in one of his first Australian-born crops, if Kingman will change that again, so it’s hard to predict what sort of numbers we’ll expect for him this September. I’ll know a lot more by the Tattersalls July Sale up here when many of the Australian breeders and agents will be in attendance.”

Both Kingman and Frankel will stand to Southern Hemisphere time on Special Live Foal (SLF) terms. The fee is payable 45 days from the last service date (when the mare is confirmed in-foal), and should anything happen to the foal within 48 hours of birth in Australia, a full refund on the service fee will be provided.

Juddmonte is also supplying a £10,000 (AU$18,500) travel allowance for mares travelling up from the Southern Hemisphere, which is useful when it comes to a £40,000 (AU$75,000) service fee for Kingman. Without much argument, it’s very good value, considering what Kingman is achieving around the world.

“Kingman is often overshadowed by Frankel, which is understandable,” Horan said. “Frankel has tied with Danehill as the fastest stallion to 100 worldwide stakes winners in terms of numbers of days taken to achieve it, and in terms of getting to 50 stakes winners by number of days, Frankel was also the fastest, beating Dubawi who beat Galileo.

“But in the meanwhile, Kingman didn’t reach 50 as fast as Frankel, but he was quicker to do it than Dubawi and Galileo. So that gives you a perspective on where this horse sits.”