Khaadem (Ire)’s win over G2 King George S. at Qatar’s ‘Glorious’ Goodwood Festival further enhanced his coach Charlie Hills’ amazing race record, who is now the winner. in five of the past six years . Hills, of course, was helped by having the mighty Battaash (Ire) under his care, that great horse responsible for four of those five victories. Although the best Battaash is in a class of its own, there are many similarities between these two very fast horses, over and above both being the son of the Dark Angel (Ire) ideal by sprinting. favored Goodwood’s pace, through which Khaadem won the Stewards’ Cup three years ago. Another obvious similarity is that both are gelding. In an age when so many nimble ponies are retired early in life, it’s no surprise to see geldings win over King George S. However, that situation is a deviation from the overall record of the race, its title contains many horses, both male and female, who have contributed significantly to the development of the breed.
First running in 1911 to celebrate the coronation of King George V, King George S. didn’t take long to produce a stellar winner as the Tetratema (Ire) (The Tetrarch {Ire}) won. got it at the age of 3 in 1920 before accepting it again the following year. He was the 2-year-old who ruled England in 1919, when he was the season’s top prizewinner thanks to an undefeated six-race campaign that began on National Breeders’ Produce S. at Sandown and ends at The Middle Park S. in Newmarket. Although the limits of his stamina were revealed in 1920 at the Derby and Eclipse S. Ascot at the age of three, and the King’s Stand S. at Ascot and the July Cup at Newmarket at four.
Retiring to side with his father at Ballylinch Stud, Tetratema became the champion son of Great Britain and Ireland in 1929. He bred many fast horses including his Four Course (GB) heroine. Guineas in 1931 1,000; 1927 Irish win 2,000 Guineas Fourth hand (Ire); brilliant fillings Tiffin (GB) and Myrobella (Ire), both completing the July Trophy / King George S. Winner at St. James’s Palace S. Royal Minstrel (GB) and Mr Jinks (Ire); and 1938 winner King’s Stand S. Foray (GB). In the long run, his son Theft (GB), runner-up in the 2000 Guineas in 1935, was the son of Japan’s champion for five seasons from 1947 to 1951; his daughter Una (Ire) produced the great sprinter/miler and the Palestinian male (Ire); and another daughter Queen Of The Nore (Ire) the giants of Horama (Ire), with whom the Moller brothers developed the family responsible for Derby winners Teenoso and Sir Percy (GB). ). The aforementioned Myrobella did even better in school than she did at the racecourse, creating King George VI’s 1942 winner Big Game (GB) 2,000 Guineas. She later became the ancestor of the winners of Classic Snow Knight (GB), Chamossaire (GB), Linamix (Fr), the last two of which became the champion sire.
Although the Tetratema stood out, it was his claim to be the best gray chosen by The Tetrarch to win over King George S. A great racehorse, she eventually became a greater stallion. . Her sons include the excellent fast Mirza II (Fr) and the Sussex S. winner Badruddin (Fr) in 1934 but ultimately her daughters, headed by Nasrullah’s dam, Mumtaz Begum (Fr). , who have the most lasting impact. Her other daughters include Rustom Mahal’s Abernant dam (Fr) and Mah Mahal’s Mahmoud dam (Fr). In subsequent generations, her descendant celebrities include Royal Charger (GB), Migoli (GB), Petite Etoile (GB), Nishapour (Fr), Shergar (Ire), Habibti (Ire), Octagon (NZ), Alamshar (Ire), Zarkava (Ire), Igugu (SAF) and the Golden Horn (GB), as well as the great Eight Carat (GB) and Alruccaba (Ire) matriarchs.
Mumtaz Mahal’s further memories flooded back to Goodwood after World War II when her grandson Abernant (GB) (Owen Tudor {GB)) married King George S. in both 1949 and 1950. In both year, he both won by taking the July Cup and was followed by a victory over Nunthorpe S. at York. Along with his older close relative Tudor Minstrel (both horses are from Hyperion Owen Tudor and both have Mumtaz Mahal’s Lady Josephine dam as their third dam), Abernant is a one of two outstanding horses trained in Beckhampton shortly after the Second World War. Tudor Minstrel became the couple’s more influential crossbreed, largely through his son Sing Sing (GB) and that horse’s son Song (GB) and Jukebox (GB), who British sprinter crossbreeds for many years. However, Abernant has also made his mark, most notably through the Classic Abermaid (GB) and Even Star (GB) winning fillings.
Mumtaz Mahal was once again invited by the results of King George S. in 1956 when the prize went to Palariva (GB) (Palestine {GB}) of HH Aga Khan III. The daughter of Rivaz (GB), Nasrullah’s sister, with excellent agility, Palariva was trained in France by Alec Head but did most of her races in England, including winning at Goodwood when was just 2 years old (when she was awarded the Molecomb S. . She made a great contribution to the Aga Khan Studs as the grand dam of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains in 1973 and the winner of the Prix Jacques le Marois Kalamoun (GB), who was a mainstay on the nest’s mare list. throughout the 1970s, although he passed away after only five years at the school. Kalamoun’s influence lasted until the age of 21st century through his son Kenmare (Fr) who won the Prix Jacques le Marois, most obviously with the help of Kenmare’s nephew, Kendargent (Fr).
Several ponies that won King George S. from the late 1950s through the 1970s became decent stallions, most notably Michael Jarvis-trained So Bless (GB), which succeeded in racing at the age of 3 in 1968. A son of the stallion Nasrullah Princely Gift (GB), So Bless became an outstanding stallion of sprinters from his base. himself at Lord Howard de Walden’s Thornton Stud in Yorkshire. One of the many fast horses he bred was King George S’ 1977 victory Scarcely Bless. Trained for her breeder Tim Holland-Martin in Overbury Stud by Fulke Johnston Houghton, Scarcely Bless is a foal. great chubby dog and then became an excellent mother hen upon his return to Overbury, most obviously producing College Chapel (GB) (Sharpo [GB}) who brought down the curtain on the long-running Vincent O’Brien/Lester Piggott Royal Ascot show with his victory in the G3 Cork & Orrery S. (now G1 Platinum Jubilee S.) in 1993.
Five years before Scarcely Blessed’s victory, the King George S. had been won by a filly who became an even more notable broodmare. The redoubtable Stilvi (GB) (Derring Do {GB}) was trained in Palace House in Newmarket by Bruce Hobbs and then became a stalwart at stud for her owner George Cambanis, producing a galaxy of Hobbs-trained stars for him including the 1976 G1 Middle Park S. winner Tachypous (GB) (Hotfoot {GB}), 1978 G1 Dewhurst S. winner Tromos (Busted {GB}) and 1980 Irish Derby winner Tyrnavos (GB) (Blakeney {GB}).
The race’s next winner after Stilvi was the charismatic Sandford Lad, an 1,800-guinea yearling who became a champion sprinter from Ryan Price’s Findon stable. He became only modestly successful at Airlie Stud, perhaps his most notable son being Spindrifter (Ire), a 13-time winner as a 2-year-old in 1980 when trained by Sir Mark Prescott. More successful were some of the colts who won later in the ’70s including Auction Ring (Bold Bidder), the Cheveley Park Stud stalwart Music Boy (GB) (Jukebox {GB}) and the remarkable Ahonoora (GB) (Lorenzaccio {GB}). The latter won the Stewards’ Cup at three from Brian Swift’s Epsom stable and the King George S. at four when trained in Newmarket by Frankie Durr before becoming a world-class stallion, most notably responsible for the equally influential sire Indian Ridge (Ire) and for the 1991 Derby winner Dr Devious (Ire).
The next horse to complete the Stewards’ Cup (as a 3-year-old in 1982) and King George S. (at four) double was the enormously popular David Chapman-trained, David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls-ridden Soba (GB) (Most Secret {GB}). Bred and raced by Chapman’s sister Muriel Hills, Soba showed very little as a 2-year-old, her only placing from nine starts in 1981 coming when she finished third, carrying bottom weight, in a nursery at Edinburgh (now Musselburgh) on her final run of the year. However, she improved out of all recognition over the winter, winning 11 of her 14 starts at three. She is generally held to have ended up as a disappointing broodmare but actually produced nine winners from 10 runners as well as the unraced Sadler’s Wells filly Oh So Well (Ire), who became the dam of the 1999 G1 Prix Ganay and G1 Gran Premio di Milano winner Dark Moondancer (GB) (Anshan {Ire}).
Another Goodwood specialist was the 1985 King George S. winner Primo Dominie (GB) (Dominion {GB}), who had won the G2 Richmond S. at the meeting the previous year. He became a successful sprinting sire when standing alongside Music Boy at Cheveley Park Stud. The following year’s winner Double Schwartz (Ire) (Double Form {Ire}) was also a terrific sprinter, going on to take the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye, while two years later the race was won by the outstanding filly Silver Fling (The Minstrel), another to follow up in France’s top sprint. Her trainer, Ian Balding, subsequently won the King George S. with an even greater sprinting mare: the brilliant Lochsong, successful in both 1993 and ’94 (in both of which years she too won the Prix de l’Abbaye) after taking the Stewards’ Cup in 1992.
Lochsong became a useful broodmare for her owner/breeder Jeff Smith, without (inevitably) producing anything of her own calibre. That was not the case, though, for a couple of other very fast fillies who won the race soon afterwards: Land Of Dreams (GB) (Cadeaux Genereux {GB}) and Cassandra Go (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), the King George S. winners of 1998 and 2000. The former is now best known as the dam of the superb Dream Ahead (Diktat {GB}) and the latter as the dam of 2008 Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Halfway To Heaven (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) and thus as the grand-dam of seven-time Group 1 winner Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and her three-time Group 1-winning full-sister Rhododendron (Ire).
The King George S. is almost certainly in a lull as regards being a source of star producers, male and female, as eight of its last 10 runnings have been won by geldings. (The jury is still out, though, on George Strawbridge’s filly Suesa (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) who won it last year and for whom an interesting breeding career presumably awaits). However, it’s still a race which highlights speed at its purest, and we can now look forward to York’s Ebor Meeting where Khaadem will aim for the mighty Goodwood/York double completed in the Nunthorpe S. by so many great sprinters including Mumtaz Mahal, Abernant, Mickey The Greek (GB), Right Boy (Ire), Floribunda (GB), Polyfoto (GB), So Blessed and, most recently, Khaadem’s erstwhile stablemate Battaash.
