Cambridge Stud add Chaldean to shuttle ranks
Dual Group 1-winning son of Frankel to stand alongside fellow shuttlers Almanzor and Hello Youmzain at Tamahere property
Historic Cambridge Stud is bursting with excitement as it looks to the future with one of its most noteworthy new sires in years – the multiple Group 1 winning son of Frankel, Chaldean.
The highest rated two-year-old sired by Frankel – the great unbeaten racehorse turned global stud sensation – Chaldean will begin shuttling to New Zealand this spring, joining Cambridge’s five-stallion roster for a fee of $35,000 plus GST.
Seen as ideal for an Australasian market favouring early runners and a broodmare band heavy on Zabeel and Danehill, Chaldean will stand under a partnership between his Juddmonte home and Cambridge as the first Group 1-winning son of Frankel at stud in Australasia.
The four-year-old comes with a superb race record of two Group 1 victories among five wins from 10 starts, which ranks him seventh-best among Frankel’s 814 runners worldwide.
After taking Newmarket’s Dewhurst Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) amidst four wins in his first season in 2022, he earned a Timeform rating of 116-plus to become Frankel’s highest-rated top-tier winning two-year-old.
A relatively late May foal, Chaldean then won the 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) – four days short of turning three biologically – helping earn his peak rating of 122 and becoming only the ninth horse to achieve Newmarket’s prestigious double in the past 50 years. It also made Frankel and Chaldean the only father-son duo to win both the Dewhurst and the 2,000 Guineas.
“Cambridge Stud is delighted to secure the services of Chaldean for the New Zealand breeding industry,” said Cambridge CEO Henry Plumptre, who helped seal the deal to bring Chaldean south after being impressed on seeing the chestnut at Juddmonte in March.
“His pedigree, with a strong emphasis on two and three-year-old speed, is perfect for our market and racing programme.
“He is a magnificent type, and his conformation will be enthusiastically received by Australasian breeders.
“Having a signature Group 1 at two and a three-year-old Classic to his name makes him an extremely attractive prospect. His sire, Frankel, is currently breaking all records as a stallion and the opportunity to secure his best two-year-old was a significant drawcard for us.”
Chaldean’s dam Suelita – by Dutch Art out of an unraced Green Desert mare – was a four-time winner in Italy and has thrown four stakes-winners among six runners, also including Newbury Group 2 victor Alkumait (Showcasing).
Also running second in Royal Ascot’s St James’s Palace Stakes (Gr 1, 1m), Chaldean appears well poised to appeal to the Australasian market for several reasons, said Cambridge’s sales and nominations manager Scott Calder.
“Henry was very impressed to see him in the flesh, and his type is in keeping with his race record,” Calder told ANZ.
“He’s a really strong, precocious looking horse. He’s got a strong hindquarter, he’s correct and he moves well. He’s 15.3 hands, so not a big tall horse, but certainly a horse Henry feels will suit the market down here. We’re accustomed to seeing a 15.3 to 16-hand stallion, strong, well-made, forward-looking types.
“The market commercially likes to see a horse with good two-year-old form, he obviously displayed that, winning four races as a two-year-old, including the Dewhurst.
“And he backs that up as a type. He’s got good muscle, and we’d be hoping he throws horses that come to hand quickly and get a middle distance. He won as a miler, won a Guineas in a spring, and I think that’s ideal form that people in New Zealand and Australia are looking for.
“And that’s going to be more of a consideration in New Zealand, because of The Kiwi, over 1500m for summer three-year-olds. You’d have to think he’d cater to that market perfectly,” Calder said of the $4.5m slot race which debuts at Ellerslie next March.
Calder said the phones at Cambridge had been “running hot” from soon after the announcement yesterday morning of the imminent arrival of Chaldean, who will be limited to 120 mares in his first season.
He added there were several broodmare lines that stood out as ideal for Chaldean, who descends from the powerhouse sireline of Northern Dancer-Sadler’s Wells-Galileo-Frankel, and with Frankel having Danehill as his damsire.
“One mare line that holds particular interest for me is the Zabeel line,” Calder said. “Obviously Zabeel and his descendants like Savabeel, Lonhro and Pierro are great broodmare sires, but they cross very well with Sadler’s Wells and Danehill historically.
“That’s something that particularly for us here at Cambridge we’d like to capitalise on.
“But also we were lucky with Frankel that he’s already got a good record with his progeny who’ve run in the southern hemisphere despite him not standing here.
“Of his two Group 1 winners born in Australia, Hungry Heart is out of a mare by Pivotal, and Pivotal and Dubawi are two fantastic crosses with Frankel, and Converge is out of a Shamardal mare, and we have a lot of that sort of blood in our pedigrees in this part of the world.
“He’s also had Group 2 winner Miss Fabulass, who’s out of a Redoute’s Choice mare who’s out of a Zabeel mare, and dual Group 3 winner Argentia, who’s out of an Encosta De Lago mare. There’s three stallions who are very prevalent in our pedigrees down here.
“And while Frankel’s dam is by Danehill, he seems to work well with mares with Danehill in their pedigree.”
Calder said the acquisition of Chaldean fitted the ethos shown by Brendan and Jo Lindsay since they assumed ownership of Cambridge in 2018, with the stud now to stand five Group 1 winners.
The roster also features Almanzor (Wootton Bassett), the farm’s top-priced sire last year at $55,000 (inc GST), and whose fee may rise after he landed the quinella in last Saturday’s Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) through Circle Of Fire and Athabascan.
Hello Youmzain (Kodiac) stood for $33,000 last year, Sword Of State (Snitzel) for $16,500, and Embellish (Savabeel) for $5,500 (all fees inc GST).
“We’re in a privileged position to now stand Frankel’s highest-class son, and he’s in line with what Brendan and Jo are doing here,” Calder said.
“This season we’ll have five Group 1-winning stallions, by Frankel, Wootton Bassett, Savabeel, Snitzel and Kodiac – all high class performers by a collection of champion sires. It gives breeders access to the best bloodlines from Australia and further afield.”
Frankel claimed champion sire titles in Europe, Britain and Ireland in 2023, a year in which he had a phenomenal 11 Group 1 winners, 27 Group winners and 42 stakes winners – more than any other stallion in the world.
From 88 runners in Australia, Frankel has 17 stakes-winners at 19.3 per cent, 12 Group victors at 13.6 per cent, and 63 winners at 71.6 per cent.
His stud performance has pushed demand for his yearlings and other progeny in the sales ring, with 12 mares in-foal to Frankel selling for an average of A$807,000 in 2023.
Brendan Lindsay said in a statement: “Jo and I are very proud of the Cambridge Stud brand and welcome the opportunity of joining forces with a global brand like Juddmonte. We thank Juddmonte and their team for affording us this opportunity. We are excited to be able to offer an exceptional horse like Chaldean to our client base.”
Juddmonte general manager Simon Mockridge said he was sure Chaldean would blend well with Australasian mares.
“The exceptionally talented, good-looking Chaldean has been immensely popular during his first season at Banstead Manor Stud,” he said.
“With the ongoing support for Frankel and his incomparable statistics as they stand, Cambridge Stud have given us the perfect opportunity to send Chaldean to the southern hemisphere, where we feel his precociousness and physical type will appeal.”