Juliet’s dance to Grade 1 glory a tribute to late Prince’s global vision
JULIET FOXTROT (GB) landed the Gr.1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday, recording a first top-flight victory for her owner-breeders, Juddmonte Farms, since the death of their founder Prince Khalid Abdullah in January.
Previously a juvenile winner for Charlie Hills in Lambourn, the daughter of retired Banstead Manor Stud sire DANSILI (GB) is now based at Brad Cox’s stable in the USA.
Yesterday’s performance rates the best of the six-year-old’s racing career. In 2019, she took the runner-up spot in the Gr.1 First Lady Stakes at Keeneland in 2019 and last October won the Gr.3 Gallorette Stakes at Pimlico.
While now a representative for Juddmonte’s American operation, Juliet Foxtrot is out of the Banstead Manor mare KILO APLHA (GB), winner of the Listed Prix de Bagatelle in her racing days and now the dam of three black-type performers. The grand dam, ANASAZI, a half-sister to DANCING BRAVE, was sold the year after Kilo Alpha was foaled to HM The Queen at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, for 48,000 guineas.
Speaking with GBRI on Sunday morning, Juddmonte Farms stud director Simon Mockridge commented:
“That’s now 114 individual homebred Group 1 winners [for Juddmonte Farms]. Given that His Highness Prince Khalid was always a great believer in giving horses a chance to move from Europe to America, this is typical of what he was looking to achieve.
“It just shows the toughness and the genuineness of the Dansili’s in the first place, and in particular that Hasili family, so we were delighted that she was able to win her Grade 1, especially as she had been so close last year.
“Kilo Alpha comes from that wonderful Navajo Princess family of Dancing Brave and really she’s the only one we have left from that family, other than some of her daughters, so it’s nice to be able to have that continuation.
“She’s got a Kingman filly this year and she’s been covered by Expert Eye. She has a yearling filly by Bated Breath, but no two-year-old.”
On future plans for Juliet Foxtrot, Mockridge said:
“Garrett [O’Rourke] in America will make those recommendations to the family, but I would imagine that this stage the plan is to continue with her. The manner in which she won the race last evening suggests there’s a little bit more to come. We know that she’s effective on all forms of ground and she won very readily in the end, which was encouraging. I’d guess she is going to be very competitive this year.”
Juddmonte Farms earned further notable success as breeders Stateside the same afternoon, courtesy of DELAWARE (GB) (FRANKEL {GB}) in the Listed Danger’s Hour Stakes at Aqueduct. Delaware represents the latest success story for Banstead Manor sire OASIS DREAM (GB), who enjoyed an outstanding 2020, with his tally of 18 Stakes winners going unmatched by any northern hemisphere-broodmare sire aged 20 or under.
Mockridge commented:
“Oasis Dream, at the age of 21, is still a very active part of the stallion roster here and he’s covering a very good book of mares again this year. He really has set his stall out as a broodmare sire and I think that that has been recognised by breeders, without a doubt.
“We’ve sent an awful lot of the Oasis Dream mares to Frankel just on the basis that we were trying to get a little bit more speed into him, and it seems to be working so far.
“Although Delaware doesn’t run in the Prince’s colours anymore, it’s nice that he’s bounced back this year. It was pretty impressive to come from the back and catch a leader who had stolen a march and gone clear, and in track record time.
“The mare [Zatsfine] is in foal to Frankel, she hasn’t foaled yet. She is a decent mare, typical of what we expect from Oasis Dream, and we like this family very much. I think it’s a family that’s working very well with Frankel.”