Breeders send their mares to Banstead Manor Stud at Newmarket each year secure in the knowledge that the farm’s stallions have been, and will continue to be, supported by Juddmonte’s own herd — arguably the strongest concentration of broodmares anywhere in Europe.
To illustrate the point, Juddmonte has been responsible for breeding the first G1 winners by many of its own stallions down the years: from Known Fact’s son Warning, a champion 2-year-old and top miler, to Bated Breath’s daughter Viadera, who landed the Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in November.
The latest Banstead Manor Stud resident to benefit from that all-important home support has been Expert Eye, who carried the late Prince Khalid Abdullah’s illustrious silks to a wide-margin victory in the Vintage Stakes at 2 and the Jersey Stakes, City of York Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Mile at 3.
Juddmonte welcomed six homebred foals by Expert Eye last year — colts out of Lilyfire (by First Defence), Tested (Selkirk), Ultrasonic (Mizzen Mast) and Zaminast (Zamindar), and fillies out of Mirabilis (Lear Fan) and Ombre (Galileo).
In addition, the operation paid 70,000gns for a colt out of the winning Lawman mare Orangey Red at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale at the end of 2020.
Those youngsters are being reared under the watchful eye of Barry Mahon, Juddmonte’s Stud Director in Ireland. He is extremely pleased with what he has seen.
“The bay colt out of Lilyfire is a big, strong, imposing colt with an athletic walk and very good conformation,” he reports. “The mare’s first two foals are stakes performers [Chaleur and Dalvey] and this quality individual has all the attributes to continue her fine start at stud.”
Lilyfire, an impressive Ascot maiden winner on debut at 2, is a half-sister to Tantina, the listed-winning dam of high-class pair Bated Breath and Cityscape and granddam of St Leger hero Logician.
Moving on to the bay filly out of Ombre, Mahon says, “She’s a medium-sized, strong and quality filly. She walks well, is correct and looks like a sharper 2-year-old type — a very sweet, racy filly. Her dam is a Galileo mare who has already bred a stakes performer [Gavota].”
Ombre is a half-sister to the stakes-placed trio Disclose, Grand Vista and World Ruler, from the further family of G1 performers Mons and Urban Fox.
Mahon describes the bay colt out of Zaminast, a listed-winning half-sister to the prolific Group-race winner Famous Name, as “a strong, quality, racy colt with hocks slightly behind him and a very good walk”.
Expert Eye is by Acclamation, the source of last year’s record-smashing first-season sire Mehmas, and so it might be considered auspicious that Mahon added that Zaminast’s weanling was “very typical” of both successful stallions.
The filly out of Mirabilis is also bay and another who earns the epithet of “strong” from Mahon. “She was a late April foal who is very strong and walks well,” he says. “She has good conformation and a nice outlook.
“Mirabilis was a very good racemare who won at Group 3 level and was Group 1-placed, and she has already produced a really good Group 3 performer in Monarchs Glen.”
The dam, who was beaten wafer-thin margins into third behind Court Masterpiece and Caradak in the G1 Prix de la Foret, is a half-sister to Prix de Diane winner Nebraska Tornado and Prix Eugene Adam scorer Burning Sun.
As for the purchased colt out of Orangey Red, Mahon says, “He was purchased at Tattersalls from recently crowned ITBA breeder of the year Derek Veitch’s Ringfort Stud. He’s a good-sized, quality, racy colt who walks well and is very correct. He looks very similar to Expert Eye at the same stage.”
Speaking generally about the Expert Eye yearlings, he adds, “We’re very excited by the ones we have at Juddmonte. He’s really stamping his stock with lovely quality, a big rear end, good conformation and a nice athletic walk.
“They look like they’ll be 2-year-old types. From what I’ve seen of them so far, they are typical of the Acclamation sire-line and very similar to Mehmas.”
Naturally, Juddmonte also gave Expert Eye steadfast backing in his second season last year. Among the home mares he covered were Across The Floor (Oasis Dream), Atone (Oasis Dream), Depose (Kingman), Heat Haze (Green Desert), Palmette (Oasis Dream), Rostova (Arch), Scottish Jig (Speightstown), Swiss Range (Zamindar), Tiadargent (Kendargent) and Variable (Sea The Stars).
“We have a number of mares in foal to him, none of which have foaled yet,” says Mahon. “But a few we’re particularly excited about are Swiss Range, a listed winner and Group 1 fourth, Rostova, another listed winner from a deep Juddmonte family, and Atone, a winning full-sister to Midday.”
Needless to say, Expert Eye is in line to receive a number of distinguished Juddmonte mares once again in his third season at Banstead Manor Stud in 2021, when he is advertised as standing at £12,500.
Strong foundation
“The plan is to support Expert Eye very strongly again this year, given the quality of his first crop,” continues Mahon. “Mares who are set to visit him include Strelka, a winning Kingman half-sister to Derby and Arc winner Workforce, Principal Role, a daughter of Empire Maker who was a stakes winner and Group 1-placed, and Scottish Jig, another stakes winner by Speightstown.
“They will be joined by Photographic, who is the dam of Group 3 winner Shutter Speed, and Kilo Alpha, who is already the dam of three stakes performers, including multiple Group 1-placed Juliet Foxtrot.”
Knowing that Juddmonte’s support of Expert Eye will provide a strong foundation to his stallion career no doubt encouraged outside breeders to entrust some of their accomplished and/or well-bred mares to him — as if the horse’s form, pedigree and conformation were not enticement enough.
Among his other well-bred debut yearlings are Merry Fox Stud’s colt out of Prix de Cabourg winner and Prix Morny third Pontenuovo, the Aga Khan Studs’ half-sister to Group 1-placed sprinter Sonaiyla, Branton Court Stud’s filly out of smart sprinter Beyond Desire and Lordship Stud’s three-parts brother to Group 3-winning speedster Projection.
Weatherbys reports that Expert Eye covered 140 mares in his first season, including no fewer than 45 stakes performers, and 105 in his second year, 32 of whom had black type.
That means, thanks to the combined effort of Juddmonte and its clients, he has served no less than 30 percent black-type performers in each of his first two books. It doesn’t take an expert eye to observe that those are mighty impressive statistics.