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The new stud season came closer to reality at Cambridge Stud last week as the red carpet was rolled out for the exciting newcomer Chaldean and returning shuttle duo Almanzor and Hello Youmzain.
As a dual Group One-winning son of Frankel, Chaldean is a massive coup to represent the racehorse recognised as the best of his generation and now making huge waves as a sire across the bloodstock breeding world.
Just days ago, Frankel was credited with his 100th Group winner when Lake Victoria won the Gr. 3 Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket, making the 16-year-old stallion the fastest ever to reach that mark. Earlier in his stud career he equalled the record feat of fellow Juddmonte-bred champion and influence Danehill to reach 100 stakes winners.
Chaldean is one of 34 Group One winners and 13 classic winners sired by the son of Galileo, who retired to his birthplace, Banstead Manor Stud, as the unbeaten winner of 14 races from 2010 to 2012. Frankel’s deeds as a sire from Great Britian to Ireland and Europe, to North America, the Arab States, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia are unprecedented, commanding a 2024 stud fee of £350,000.
His 2020 son Chaldean earned his Group One stripes at either end of his two and three-year-old campaigns, first in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket as an autumn two-year-old and at the same venue the following spring in the English 2000 Guineas. When he retired as the winner of five of his 10 starts, he was considered of sufficient quality to stand alongside his famous sire at Banstead Manor, and in his recently completed debut season he covered more than 170 mares.
In their quest to make the best international bloodlines available to breeders in this part of the world, Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay made the bold decision earlier this year to add Chaldean to the Cambridge Stud roster.
“Brendan and I went up to Juddmonte in March with the aim of doing a deal on Chaldean, who appealed as the ideal son of Frankel to stand in New Zealand,” Cambridge Stud CEO Henry Plumptre told RaceForm. “Frankel himself needs no introduction – he’s simply a phenomenon – and this horse being a Group One winner at seven furlongs and a mile fitted the bill perfectly.
“He was dominant winning four on end at two years capped by the Dewhurst and in the spring he stepped up to the mile in the Two Thousand Guineas.
“Not only have we got a classic-winning son of Frankel, but he’ also a lovely individual with a great shoulder and quarter and an obvious influence from his dam. She was by a leading two-year-old in Dutch Art and has left four precocious stakes winners.
“There’s been a queue wanting to inspect Chaldean since he arrived last week, and everyone who has seen him agrees that he’s just a gorgeous animal with so much presence and the temperament to go with it.”
Chaldean stood his first northern spring at £25,000, while his advertised fee at Cambridge Stud is $35,000, along with a three-year package deal.
“The motivation for that is to secure quality and numbers in those first three years, and for breeders who take up the option a further incentive is that his book will be limited to 120,” Plumptre added.
Complementing outside bookings will be the pick of Cambridge Stud’s burgeoning broodmare band, headed by star racemare Probabeel and another Group One-winning daughter of Savabeel, Amarelinha, Group Two and Three winners Excelida, Letzbeglam, Vernazza and Melt, as well as several producers of stakes winners including the Lindsay-owned gem Zonza, the dam of Gr. 1 Queensland Derby winner amongst three stakes winners.
“He’s going to serve a lovely book, both our own and from a wide range of prominent breeders who are keen to make use of him with their best mares.”
Star European sprinter Hello Youmzain has landed back in New Zealand in capital order after another busy season at Haras d’Etreham, buoyed by excellent results from his first crop to the track. The dual Group One winner has to date had 20 individual starters for eight winners, including Electrolyte, a winner in France and a close and unlucky runner-up in the Gr. 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot.
“We’re thrilled with Hello Youmzain’s results to date, he’s off to the start we were all anticipating,” Plumptre said. “He’s a horse with immense appeal in both hemispheres, as we’ve already seen at the sales, and the stables that they’ve have found their way to.
“We’ve got 12 just turned two-year-olds going into work ourselves both here and in Australia, so he’s a young stallion at an exciting stage.”
Hello Youmzain will again stand at a fee of $30,000, as will fellow French shuttle Almanzor, whose stocks remain solid after a season in this part of the world that saw a Sydney Cup quinella by his European-bred sons Circles Of Gold and Athabascan, as well Kiwi filly Positivity following her Gr. 3 Sunline Stakes wins and New Zealand Oaks second with victory in the Gr. 3 South Australia Fillies Classic, and most recently Lux Libertas winning her last two starts in the style of a horse going places.
Embellish, the value stallion on the Cambridge Stud roster at a fee of $5,000, also enjoyed a rewarding 2023-24 season with members of his first crop, headed by multiple Australian stakes winner Bold Soul, New Zealand 2000 Guineas runner-up Talisker and fellow stakes-paced three-year-olds Luberon, Quintabelle and What You Wish For.
At a fee of $15,000, the Cambridge roster is completed by yet another Group One winner, Snitzel’s son Sword Of State, whose first crop yearlings are typical of the sire-line renowned for its ability to leave precocious speed. At the National Weanling Sale nine of his progeny averaged just under $38,000 with a high of $75,000, suggesting Sword Of State will be well received at the summer yearling sales.
This weekend ushers in Cambridge Stud’s first race sponsorship of the new season with the running of the Gr. 3 Northland Breeders’ Stakes and the chance to make an early impact with home-bred three-year-old I’m All In.
The Stephen Marsh-trained gelding notched his second win from five starts, albeit in a dead-heat with Chicago Jack at Ruakaka a fortnight ago, setting him up for his first shot at black type on Saturday.
