If there is one place to put on your bucket list at the upcoming open house season, when stallion farms warmly welcome breeders and fans to see their stock, let it be the recently revamped Ace Stud in Dullingham. Ambling along the picturesque driveway, there are a host of people scurrying about the flower beds, readying the already charming stud farm for the many visitors likely to descend in two weeks’ time. I have the pleasure of interviewing stallion manager Niall Kennedy on his birthday, though as he arrives in the office, it appears as though the day is perhaps not off to the brightest of starts.
“They’re planting about 20,000 bulbs out there,” he says incredulously to the room, “putting in a Japanese garden.”
For all that Kennedy is concerned about the upturned turf and 20-odd gardeners busying themselves on this grey and damp morning two weeks away from gates opening, this marks a comical beginning to the interview from a writer’s perspective, but also a comforting reminder that the work in progress at Ace Stud is showing no signs of relenting. As we head outside to the exquisitely designed hospitality pavilion, perfectly positioned by the show ring with three large bay windows to admire the stallions, Kennedy’s mood improves markedly when I ask about how the apple of his eye, Shaquille, is doing. Kennedy has been here since Shaquille arrived in 2023, and shares an anecdote about the sprinter, who you may recall proved a little bit hard to handle under starters orders:
“He has the most wonderful temperament. People comment on it when they see him show, in the paddock and in the covering barn. Julie Camacho and Steve Brown [trainers] always affirmed that he was an absolute gentleman. Paige, the girl who looked after him and rode him, she’s not much over 5ft. James Doyle said the same, he went to ride him before Haydock and do some stalls work at home and he asked was he on the right horse, he was so relaxed. He was foaled at Steve Brown and Julie’s and he never went overnight racing, so his first day here was his first night off the farm. This whole place was a building site, he was the only horse here. It was him, the night watchman and myself, and he was the only one out of the three of us who slept. You can lead him around in a head collar and lead rope, he’s just a gentleman. You can see it in his foals as well, people always comment on their temperaments. He has a wonderful attitude and outlook and a really kind eye. People always say you can tell a lot from a horse’s eye. Hopefully we’ll have a champion three-year-old by Night Of Thunder to join him next year [the Gr.1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Gewan], but he is quite happy and chilled on his own anyway.”
Can the same be said about the team of people around him in advance of his first foals going under the hammer next week? They have plenty of reason for optimism. A two-time Gr.1-winning sprinter, he won on his debut at York over 7f and added two further victories before turning three, both in novice company. Returning in a 6f handicap on Guineas weekend at Newmarket, the son of Charm Spirit made a mockery of his opening mark of 94, winning with minimal fuss. Stepping into Stakes company, he proved a class apart once again when landing the Listed Carnarvon Stakes by two lengths. Racing exclusively in Gr.1 company thereafter, he put in a commanding performance in the Commonwealth Cup against his own generation, asserting his dominance in the final furlong to reel in Little Big Bear (No Nay Never) by a length and a quarter. Campaigned progressively until bursting into the big league at Royal Ascot, he was assigned a monstrous task for his next and final victory when taking on open company for the Gr.1 July Cup. Success looked unlikely at just about every point of the contest with the three-year-old missing the start and pulling hard throughout, but he responded gamely for pressure and, after picking up the running at the halfway stage, went on to win cosily in the end, taking some time to be pulled up. It is for those reasons amongst others that Kennedy is upbeat about the upcoming sales:
“I’ve seen most of his foals in England and have heard excellent reports from Ireland. During the yearling inspections, all of the Goffs and Tattersalls agents were saying they had seen a nice Shaquille on their travels, it’s a really positive hype.”
Hype is one thing, but the proof is in the pudding and keen observers of the Return of Mares 2025, released recently, will notice there has been little to no ill effect on the quality or numbers of mares visiting Shaquille, despite a change of ownership midway through the breeding season. In fact, if anything comes from the conversation with Kennedy, it’s that the shake up is going to result in a renewed effort to support the champion sprinter next year in his third season, typically one of an unproven sire’s weaker books. The level of commitment the operation are showing at sales across the globe is there for all to see, and nothing Kennedy says would inspire you to think any different. The list of mares purchased in July with Shaquille in mind is extensive and impressive. Kennedy mentions just a few of the exciting mares he has received this term, and is confident the support, both in house and external, is going to roll into next year:
“We’ve sent him a nice mix of young mares and proven mares. Khor Sheed [Dubawi], the dam of the Gr.1 winner Without A Fight [Teofilo] and French Dressing [Sea The Stars], dam of the Gr.2 winner Mohaafeth and progressive stayer French Master [both by Frankel] are two lovely mares. It was tricky, because he was acquired mid-season and that’s always going to present challenges. But actually it looks as though it will benefit him, as he’s going to get even more support next year with a clear run. We’ve bought a number of sisters to Gr.1 performers, Viadera [Bated Breath] is one. The operation made a statement at Keeneland November too in how heavy they are willing to support and get behind home stallions. I think he’ll cover a very good book next year. The hype around his foals is massive.“
That’s not pocket talk either, as Kennedy goes on to list a number of breeders who have increased their support, and indeed the level of mare, from year one to year two:
“There was one large English breeder with a paddock full of six-figure stallions’s offspring and they picked out Shaquille. People who supported him in his first year came back again on the back of his foals, which is a real vote of confidence. Houghton, Robin and Malcolm, as well as their clients, have sent five mares to him this year, and they’re nice mares too. People have upgraded their mares from year one to year two as well, which is a great sign and will hopefully carry on into his third year. Before he was purchased in March, he had just under 30 mares booked in but he’s ended up covering 121 mares by the end of the season. He’s very fertile and has 90 per cent fertility, which helped him massively, but also helps the breeders, especially at this level. People would switch mares on to him and he’s getting them in foal first time.”
With such a high fertility rate, at the very least breeders enticed by the electric sprinter can rest assured he has the required strength in numbers to at least be competitive in the title race for champion first-crop sire honours. Kennedy shares his thoughts on what we might expect to see from his first runners down the line and is best placed to do so, having trekked around Britain to see them:
“He’s out of a Galileo mare but his grandam Danehurst [Danehill] was an exceptional sprinter and he is from a proper sprinting family developed by Cheveley Park Stud. His first year, he covered 56 two-year-old winners over 5f, 6f or 7f, so there is plenty of speed in there too, that’s nearly a third of his book were winners at two. I don’t think they’ll necessarily be super early, because he wasn’t early himself and he is a stamp of a horse. We all dream of having a horse running at Royal Ascot by your stallion but I do think they’ll better with age. I’d like to think we’ll see some of them improving for a mile at three and progressing. Breeders have tapped into his speed and substance, trying to put that size into their sharper mares, and then you’ve also got some breeders sending more Classic-type mares, and I think he could do well with them. When you look at him, he’s not built like a sprinter. He’s built like a miler and he looks like a miler. You can really see the Galileo and Danehill in him. He won three times at two and was a good two-year-old, but he got better with age. He probably had the speed to win a Gr.1 over 5f. After he won the July Cup, they were strongly considering the Nunthorpe for him. Likewise, if the jockeys could have settled him he probably could’ve won a Gr.1 over a mile. They were actually targeting the Gr.1 Prix de la Foret before he retired. The way he finished his races and had a turn of foot, if he had switched off in his races, I’d love to have seen him over a mile. But he had so much speed as well. What he did in the July Cup against proper Gr.1, older horses, he was just an exceptional racehorse. He won seven of his nine races and was doing it by good margins against top horses.”
It is evident the esteem in which Kennedy, who has worked with some pretty notable stallions in the past, holds the horse. To finish on an unbiased note, he adds:
“I love the quote from Jason Weaver after the July Cup. He said – ‘you just can’t explain how much better he is than the rest of them.’”
We’ve done our best in any case but it’s over to the equines now. Eight Shaquille foals will sell at Goffs next week, don’t say you weren’t told.
Written by Laura Joy for European Bloodstock News
