Manduro's not new to Darley: he spent his first season at Kildangan Stud and now, for his second year at stud, he will be standing at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket.
He was, quite simply, the complete racehorse. A son of Europe’s boom stallion Monsun, who is proving himself to be the perfect Classic sire, Manduro has the crendentials to sire top-class horses beyond 2000m – but he also showed the speed and precocity to suggest that his stock will thrive in any short-course tests. His native land, Germany, has come to the fore as the source of quality outcrosses. Ever since Slip Anchor, a son of the German mare Sayonara, ran away with the Derby at Epsom in 1985, German bloodlines have been playing a bigger and bigger part in the big races worldwide. The culmination of this trend to date has been the success of Monsun, who now ranks as Europe’s most successful sire judged on Stakes winners to foals, and responsible for top-class winners all around Europe and in America. Even with the likes of 2005 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Shirocco and Getaway to Monsun’s credit, Manduro still has to rank as his best son.
He was champion two-year-old in Germany – described by Timeform as “the best German juvenile for many a year” – winning both his starts at that age, following up his six-length maiden victory at Munich by taking out Germany’s top juvenile event, the Group Three Preis des Winterfavoriten, by five. He won two of his three races in a relatively light three-year-old campaign before the decision was taken to transfer him to the stable of champion French trainer Andre Fabre so that he would be better placed to make his mark on the international stage.
As a four-year-old, Manduro was never out of the first three in eight starts, competing against Europe’s best every time. Winner of the Group Two Prix d’Harcourt at Longchamp over 2000m, he reserved his best form for weight-for-age Group Ones, finishing second over 1600m in the Group One Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville to Librettist and third to the same horse in the Prix du Moulin over the same distance at Longchamp, while over 2000m he finished third in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot to Ouija Board and Electrocutionist. Among the Group One winners he had behind him in these races were Ramonti, Irridescence, Stormy River, Ad Valorem, David Junior, Notnowcato and Aussie Rules.
Good though this form was, at the age of five Manduro made it look second rate. At this age he compiled a flawless five-from-five record, enough for Timeform to rate him 135 and describe him as “a top-class racehorse”, and for the International Classifications to declare him the best horse in the world. He was totally dominant at all distances from 1600m to 2400m. Arguably his best performance came when he slammed Dylan Thomas over ten furlongs in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, but he was equally dominant in another Group One weight-for-age race at 1600m, strolling home by three lengths in the Prix Jacques Le Marois. A month later he toyed with the opposition, headed by the multiple Group One winner Mandesha, in the Prix Foy over 2400m at Longchamp, while his other wins for the year were in the Group One Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp over 1850m (which he won by five lengths) and the Earl Of Sefton Stakes over nine furlongs at Newmarket (in which he broke the course record).
With a record like this, Manduro would appear the perfect horse for anyone who wants to breed a fast horse but yet still hankers after a shot at one of the races that really matter, a Cox Plate or one of the many other Group One weight-for-age events beyond a mile, or a Derby. Manduro represents not only the first chance that Australian breeders have had to tap into the Monsun sireline, but also the best chance, because he is clearly the best of the many top-class horses which Monsun has sired. As he is from a German sire-line and a German-damline, he represents a valuable outcross for mares from any of the more common dominant lines. Monsun has fared best with mares by Northern Dancer-line stallions, and Monsun is no exception, but with his dam being by Be My Guest he again remains a perfect outcross here for any Danzig-line mares.
With performance and pedigree like this, what more could a stallion want? Well, looks of course – and again Manduro comes up trumps, because he is a magnificent horse, combining power and scope in equal portions. As you’ll have gathered, we think the world of this horse, but we’ll leave the last word to Andre Fabre, who has described him simply as “the best I have trained, and the best by a good margin"
