If Philip Larkin had needed some case studies for his poem ‘At Grass’ (in which he gazes upon a group of retired racehorses and muses about whether they can remember their glory days) he could have done worse than to head up to Dalham Hall Stud to look for some answers to his question “Do memories plague their ears like flies?”.
The horses in Larkin’s poem are a collection whose formers days have seen “Classic Junes”, and the current line-up of Darley stallions contains several whose names are inextricably linked with the twin June peaks of the Flat season: Epsom and Royal Ascot. Dalham Hall Stud was, of course, formerly the home of a stallion who made a huge contribution to the history of the Derby by siring two of the greatest winners of the famous race – Great Nephew, sire of Grundy and Shergar – and most recently his shoes have been filled by another whose name is written boldly in Epsom’s history: last year’s Derby hero Authorized, who has proved immensely popular in his first season at stud, as befits a horse who dominated his Classic contemporaries in style.
So impressive was Authorized’s success last June that it evoked comparisons with two other Darley stallions who had recorded similarly emphatic Group One wins over the same course and distance: Singspiel and Shirocco. Each ranks among the easiest of Coronation Cup winners. Shirocco retired to Dalham Hall after a sensational career which saw him victorious in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Belmont Park in 2005 and currently has his first foals on the ground. Singspiel, whose nine wins saw him victorious in races such as the Dubai World Cup, the Japan Cup, the Juddmonte International and the Canadian International, is now the sire of eight individual Group/Grade One winners worldwide and ranks as one of the senior Darley stallions. He shares this status with Kildangan Stud resident Cape Cross, who this year looks to have an outstanding chance of siring his second Oaks winner – following 2004 heroine Ouija Board – with his daughter Cape Amber currently disputing second favouritism for the fillies’ Classic, one of the two Group One races on the first day of the two-day fixture. The other is, of course, the Coronation Cup, to which leading French trainer Andre Fabre appears to hold the key. He currently looks to have two possible runners to chose from, Getaway or Coastal Path. The former is the latest star from the same source which has previously produced two other top-class sons of Monsun: Shirocco and 2007 Horse Of The Year Manduro – and the latter, like Shirocco, is now also a Darley stallion, having covered his first book of mares at Kildangan this spring. If Fabre elects not to run Getaway, his Coronation Cup contender could be Coastal Path, an unbeaten son of Halling whose most recent victory, in the Group Two Prix Vicomtesse Vigier at Longchamp, was his most impressive to date.
Otherwise, Coastal Path’s main target during June would be the Gold Cup, the highlight of Royal Ascot. There is currently a vintage crop of stayers and Coastal Path looks to be well to its fore, currently vying for favouritism for the world’s most prestigious long-distance event. This is but one of many of the major races at Royal Ascot whose role of honour includes either Darley stallions or their offspring, with the race four years ago having been won by Singspiel’s son Papineau.
The Royal Meeting is traditionally one at which Godolphin excels, and several of the current line-up of Darley stallions are horses who have enjoyed big days out there in the royal blue silks. Of all these great competitors, Doyen is perhaps the most memorable, because his Hardwicke Stakes success in 2004 was one of the most breath-taking at the meeting in recent years. The 12-furlong record at Ascot is one of the most revered in the land, with the benchmark having been set by Grundy in ‘The Race of the Century’, the 1975 King George And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, in which he and Bustino raced neck and neck over the last half-mile, smashing the course record in the process. At the time, it was said that this would prove to be a mark which would last forever – but in fact it only lasted eight years, because the brilliant Irish mare Stanerra broke it in the 1983 Hardwicke Stakes. This new time then lasted for a couple of decades before Doyen broke it in his sensational six-length Hardwicke victory, which he followed up the following month by taking the King George And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes over the same course by three lengths.
Two of the current batch of young sires with their first runners in 2008 both posted Royal Ascot successes for Godolphin: Refuse To Bend and Kheleyf, winners of the Queen Anne Stakes and Jersey Stakes in 2004 respectively. Both are currently already among the winners with their first juvenile runners, and it would be no surprise to see one or both of them maintaining the great record which first-season sires have had in the two-year-old races at Royal Ascot in recent years. Dubai Destination, who sired G1 winner Ibn Khaldun in his first crop, was another Queen Anne Stakes winner for Godolphin, and who can forget one of the great Royal Ascot performances when Dubai Millennium took the Prince Of Wales's Stakes in emphatic fashion. Though he was only with us for one season before his untimely death, his Classic-winning son Dubawi is now standing at Kildagan Stud.
Shamardal is also a Godolphin Royal Ascot veteran, having run out an easy winner of the St. James’s Palace Stakes in 2005 when the meeting was transferred to York. He obviously will not have any runners there this year as his first crop are currently only yearlings, but one old favourite who is sure to be represented is the ever-dependable Red Ransom, one of the very few stallions to have sired the winners of both the Coventry Stakes (Sri Pekan and Red Clubs) and the Queen Mary Stakes (Shining Hour). And, even more the veteran, good old Cadeaux Genereux had his name on the sires’ board at Royal Ascot as far back as 1996, when his son Bijou D’Inde won the St. James’s Palace Stakes – and he has remained one of Britain's most reliable stallions ever since. Going even farther back, the previous year, 1995, had seen another of our veteran stallions, the ever-dependable source of speed Royal Applause, win the Coventry Stakes. And from the old to the young, of course, we can fast-forward to last year to the performance of the meeting, which came when the mighty Manduro cemented his claim to Horse of the Year honours by routing Dylan Thomas in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Such lovely memories - and so much still to look forward to. Do memories plague our stallions’ ears like flies? We don’t know; but we do know that each year when June comes around and we gaze upon the occupants of our stallion paddocks, the memories certainly make us smile.
