Nic Doggett: King for a day

A fortnight ago, Question Time aficionado Jamie Lynch mentioned the role that Kingman filled in the absence of Frankel during the 2014 Flat season, a task that would have been a daunting proposition for any top-class horse. However, like Moore and Connery or Keegan and Dalglish, the two Prince Khalid Abdullah-owned horses dovetailed effortlessly so that despite a 13 lb difference in ratings, the true brilliance of Frankel – Timeform’s highest-rated Flat horse - doesn’t jump off the page as perhaps it might.

Both horses now reside at Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket, the European headquarters of the owner’s breeding operation, and a base that is immersed in history. Though Abdullah’s Quest For Fame stood mainly in America, Dancing Brave at Darley’s Dalham Hall base and Commander In Chief in Japan, Banstead Manor has been home to Dansili and Oasis Dream for more than a decade and there is a weight of expectation on both Frankel and Kingman to follow in their illustrious footsteps.

Horse racing's appearances on the back pages of newspapers are often fleeting and negative, but the winning debut of Cunco at Newbury last week was a welcome burst of sunshine breaking through the cloud cover. Cunco - the first of Frankel's sons to race - is now Chesham-bound after overcoming nearly every bad trait of an immature horse making its racecourse debut. The spotlight on a horse is brightest during their performances on the track, however the shadow of each 'great' often extends much further. Though it's clearly early days, Cunco's win provided both anticipation for his own future and also a sigh of relief that his sire's ability could transcend the conclusion of his own racing career.

However, while most of the focus is on Frankel as his first crop hits the track, Kingman is once more going about his day job - as he did his racing career – with alacrity and enthusiasm, according to Simon Mockridge, Stud Director, UK, for Juddmonte. Mockridge explains: "He has settled into the new surroundings very well and has shown a very professional attitude towards his new routine and is immensely fertile.”

It’s never an easy question to ask, regardless of situation, but just how fertile?

"He has achieved a fertility rate of over 90% in 2015, coincidentally, so have the other stallions standing at Banstead Manor. Everything points to a similar rate for 2016. An age related decline in fertility can be observed but it varies between individuals; our oldest stallion here, Dansili, is 20 years old this year and still achieving a very high conception rate.”

I couldn’t proclaim to be an expert on such matters, but quantity doesn’t always equal quality. However, as you’d expect, there has been no lack of distinguished mares visiting the Irish 2000 Guineas winner – a total of 143 in 2015 (17 from Juddmonte) and around 135 in 2016. Kind – more on her later – was one such horse, and like an equine Boots advert, has been flanked by the Group 1 winners African Rose, Emulous and Proportional.

Uncle Ben (of Spiderman rather than microwavable rice fame) once said “with great power comes great responsibility”, and Mockridge admits that there is always a high level of expectation when a champion colt with a top-class pedigree retires to stud. Does he expect Kingman to be a very fast-starting first-season sire when his first crop hit the track? "His close relation Oasis Dream had 22 individual winners and seven black type performers in his first season; if Kingman could emulate him we would be delighted,” explains Mockridge. “It is a very high benchmark to be aiming for, but the Green Desert line is renowned for speed.”

Oasis Dream – whose sons Muhaarar (five) and Goldream (three) won eight Group races between them last season, six of them Group 1s – is a half-brother to Kingman’s dam Zenda. "Kingman is a taller horse than Oasis Dream, very well balanced, athletic and compact with a similar outlook to Invincible Spirit. Both possessed incredible speed and acceleration as was evident in the Sussex Stakes, when the sectional time recorded for Kingman’s penultimate furlong was a staggering 10.22 seconds.” To put that into perspective, Frankel’s was 10.42 seconds in the same race two years earlier.

Speed. That seems to be the overriding message, whether it is in Kingman’s performances on the track or the swiftness that he has shown in settling into his new role. While Coolmore’s breeding operation continues to dominate pattern races in Britain and Ireland, especially over middle distances – horses by Galileo won 25 of the 214 pattern races in Britain and Ireland last season – there is little doubt that the current focus at Banstead is on speed. That is not to downplay current Juddmonte stallions Dansili and Champs Elysees, or potential future stallions Flintshire (Juddmonte’s all-time leading money earner), New Bay, Midterm and Time Test, but just the way the cards have fallen. Frankel may have won over ten furlongs, but, like Kingman, his performances were illuminated by raw speed.

In a lackadaisical manner, I’d assumed that the majority of Group races in Britain and Ireland were over further than a mile. However, 128 of those 214 pattern races last season were over a mile or less, and it's a global phenomenon, too, with three-quarters of all the Grade 1 events in North America run over eight or nine furlongs. Juddmonte’s emphasis on speed may not have been planned, but is a happy coincidence thanks to the presence of two iconic racehorses now standing at the stud. There is little reason to think that the influence of Banstead Manor Stud’s stallions on top-level races will diminish in the coming seasons.

GCSE maths reminds me that speed=distance/time. There’s a long way to go before Kingman becomes a stallion of note, but all the signs are there that it’s only a matter of time.

One of a Kind

Banstead Manor’s roster is unique in that not only are all of their stallions homebred, but so are their dams and grandams, with the exception of Oasis Dream’s grandam Bahamian. One dam whose profile was sent into the exosphere by a famous son is Kind, of Frankel fame, however there was palpable disappointment when she slipped a Kingman foal in 2015. Though keen not to count any chickens before they’ve hatched (Kind also slipped Galileo foals in 2013 and 2014), Mockridge reports that Kind has re-visited Kingman and is currently in foal to him once again.

Curragh connection

Kingman’s sole defeat in his eight-race career came when sent off favourite for the 2000 Guineas, before making up for it at the Curragh when comprehensively winning the Irish version. Another of Newmarket’s vanquished favourites – Air Force Blue – bids to bounce back in Saturday’s race. Though connections have hinted at stamina concerns and a possible sprint campaign, Air Force Blue’s Curragh record and the potent turn of pace shown on more than one occasion last season leads me to think that we will see a different horse on Saturday.