A date with this stud just doubled in price to $192,000
There’s alpha males and then there’s super studs. This stallion has so much X factor a date with him has doubled in price.
Star race horse Kingman now commands a hefty $192,000 a time for breeders looking to mate their mares, twice as much as his debut fee after a prolific start to stud life.
In his racing career, Kingman won a host of big titles including the Irish 2000 Guineas as well as being the world’s top-rated three-year-old colt in 2014.
But after winning just under $1 million on the track, it is his potential as a stallion which has prompted his Banstead Manor Stud owner Juddmonte to slap the bumper price tag on his conjugal services.
Kingman’s first crop bred 2019 French Classic winner Persian King as well as impressive Royal Ascot champion Calyx, plus a number of other high-profile winners.
But if the cost of a brief liaison appears steep, consider that at the recent Tattersalls yearling sales, progeny from Kingman averaged more than $400,000 for 59 sold, including colts sold for $2.8 million and $2.2 million.
“In 2019 the only sire in Europe to have had more three-year-old stakes winners than Kingman was Galileo,” said a Juddmonte statement, referring to the legendary stallion whose stud fee is undisclosed but reported to be as much as $700,000, making him the most expensive sire in the world.
READ: Dubai ruler spends more than $4 million on single horse
Like father, like son
Kingman, whose father was leading Irish sire Invincible Spirit, is now second in the Juddmonte stud line-up to wonder horse Frankel, whose fee remains at about $225,000 for 2020, making him the sixth most expensive stallion in the world.
Frankel, the most notable of Galileo’s many offspring, won 14 straight races in a blistering career under the tutelage of trainer Henry Cecil. In his four years as a stallion, Frankel has sired 10 Group 1 victors with five in 2019, including Classic winners in Anapurna and Logician.
At October’s Tattersalls sales, his yearlings averaged $560,000 for 37 sold, including a record $3.8 million for one of his colts.
“Frankel offers breeders the greatest chance of producing a Group winner of any other sire in the Northern Hemisphere,” added Simon Mockridge, stud director of Juddmonte, the breeding operation of Saudi royal Khalid bin Abdullah.
“He is second only to his own sire Galileo in terms of Group winners from crops foaled between 2014 and 2017, and is Galileo’s most successful son despite only having four crops of racing age.”
READ: The remarkable story of the groom to a wonder horse
READ: Meet the trainer to rulers, royals and billionaires
READ: Sheikh Fahad and the call that changed racing
‘Great theater’
Alongside Frankel and Galileo, who won the Epsom Derby in 2001 and stands at stud for Coolmore in Ireland, is the third member of Europe’s “big three” sires — Dubawi.
Based at Darley’s Banstead Manor Stud for Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, Dubawi commands a stud fee of $320,000 with the aim to get about 140 mares in foal a year. The maths is eye-watering.
Then there’s the value in his progeny. An offspring of Dubawi out of the mare Alina, whose father is Galileo, sold to Sheikh Mohammed and his Godolphin racing outfit for about $4,356,000 at the Tattersalls sales.
Godolphin also splashed out $4.1 million on a son of Frankel and a half-brother to Golden Horn, which won the Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2015.
“It is great theater,” marketing manager Jimmy George said of the Tattersalls sales last month.
“There are times when it is so extraordinarily compelling in the ring and you can’t help but watch it all unfold. That’s the beauty of Tattersalls and this sale. It’s a little bit special.”
After Galileo, the world’s second most expensive stallion is Japan’s Deep Impact with a fee of $370,000, according to Thoroughbredracing.com.
Visit CNN.com/Sport for more news, features and videos
Nice work if you can get it.
