The nomination fee for Kingman, the highest-ranked second-season sire in the world, is to double to £150,000 for the new breeding season, Juddmonte have announced.
The 2020 fees for all five of Juddmonte’s European stallions at Banstead Manor Stud near Newmarket were announced, with the current world #35’s increase the most notable change.
Frankel, the world #4, stays at £175,000. He has been the sixth highest-priced stallion in the world in 2019.
Other than Kingman, the only sire whose fee increases for next season is Bated Breath (up to £12,500 from £10,000). The fees for Oasis Dream (£25,000 from £30,000) and Expert Eye (£17,500 from £20,000) have been slightly lowered.
Stud Director UK Simon Mockridge had this to say about the five sires:
Frankel
“He offers breeders the greatest chance of producing a Group winner of any other sire in the Northern Hemisphere, with a phenomenal 14 percent Group winners to runners and 28 percent black-type performers to runners. 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.
“He sired five Group 1 winners in 2019, including two British Classic winners in Anapurna and track-record-breaking Logician. Frankel reached his tenth Group 1 winner overall when 2-year-old Quadrilateral won the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, and she’s currently favourite for next year’s Classics.
“At the sales, his yearlings averaged £436,160 for 37 sold, including his highest ever priced yearling with a colt sold for 3.1 million guineas to Godolphin.
Kingman
“He has had an outstanding start, with a Classic winner from his first crop as well as Group 2 winners Calyx and Headman, Musidora Stakes winner Nausha and Hampton Court Stakes winner Sangarius. In 2019 the only sire in Europe to have had more 3-year-old stakes winners than Kingman was Galileo.
“Kingman has had four stakes winners from his second crop, including Prestige Stakes winner Boomer, and his third crop proved incredibly popular at the yearling sales. Kingman averaged £317,933 for 59 sold, including colts sold for 2.3 million guineas and 1.8 million guineas at Tattersalls Book 1.
Bated Breath
“2019 has been a breakthrough year for him, with 12 stakes winners, including Group 2 winners Space Traveller, Worth Waiting and Daahyeh – the latter twice Group 1-placed, including in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. I
“In siring three winners at Royal Ascot, he put himself level with Galileo and Sea The Stars, with just one less than the leading sire of the meeting, Shamardal. He is the best value sire in Europe in terms of stakes winners, and the leading sire standing for €/£35,000 or less.
Oasis Dream
“He is Europe’s leading Group 1 sprint sire, a top-five active European sire by stakes winners, Group winners and Group 1 winners, with ten percent black-type winners to runners. He was responsible for 16 black-type performers in 2019, including Irish 1000 Guineas runner-up Pretty Pollyanna (a 2-year-old Group 1 winner in 2018) and Group winners Shine So Bright, Polydream, Imaging, Azano and Mr Ritz.
“A small reduction in his fee recognises this stage of his career and represents excellent value for breeders looking for a proven stallion.”
Expert Eye
“We await with excitement the first foals by Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Expert Eye. This son of sire-of-sires Acclamation covered a full book of mares in 2019, including 30 stakes winners and 73 black-type performers/producers. Ninety seven percent of his book were stakes performers, producers or siblings/daughters of stakes performers.
“As well as being a Group 1 winner at three, Expert Eye was a brilliant, Group 2-winning 2-year-old, described by his trainer Sir Michael Stoute as ‘naturally precocious, very well-balanced, well developed and mature. You would say that he’s the best 2-year-old that I have had for quite a while’.
“He has impressed breeders with his good looks and athletic walk, and as a fourth-generation home-bred, we fully expect him to be the latest stallion success story produced by Juddmonte.”
Breeders interested in any of the five Banstead Manor sires can contact the sales team, led by Nominations Manager Shane Horan.