Juddmonte's Patience Pays off with Arrogate

Patience is a high virtue, or so the world was assured by Chaucer's 14th century opus, The Canterbury Tales. An idiom so laughably elementary, yet reliably applicable, it becomes best visible–much like darkness being the absence of light–in its contrast when one experiences fruitless anxieties and impulsive shortfalls. In the same stride, thoroughbred horseracing has a habit of quickly humbling the hasty, while rewarding the calculated patience of the fortunate few. Such seems to be the case with Juddmonte Farms, the powerhouse ownership and breeding operation of Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah Al Saud that has acquired nearly every major prize in racing, yet still strives for more excellence.

Formed in the late 1970s, Juddmonte was built from its foundation on the deliberate matings that amalgamated into the world's foremost broodmare band and the accommodating approach to campaigning that has allowed the racing public to enjoy horses like 6-year-old division-leading globetrotter and Saturday's GI Sword Dancer winner Flintshire (Dansili) over several sound seasons. One race after Flintshire's second consecutive romp in said $1-million event, something compelling occurred. A Bob Baffert trainee donning Abdullah's familiar pink and green silks mesmerized the racing world in the most reputable race of the summer, the $1.25 million GI Travers S.

Starting from the unenviable rail position in a 13-horse field, Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) waltzed all over his competition by 13 1/2 lengths under Mike Smith, stopping the clock in track-record time (1:59.36) and wowing effectively every speed-figure aficionado.

“Obviously he really surprised us,” said Garrett O'Rourke, manager of Juddmonte's North American division. “We expected Flintshire to perform how he did because he never fails to deliver, but Arrogate not only stepped forward, he surpassed our expectations. He has been such a lovely horse from the beginning and had no problems going into training, except that he was growing taller and had some sore shins, so we gave him some time. Athletes go through stages like that and we waited for his body to catch up. He took a few months and put the muscle back on and went back into training. He was showing enough to Bob in the morning after winning in California in allowance company to give us the confidence that he was good enough to compete with those horses.”

Arrogate is not your typical Juddmonte Grade I horse. He is not a sleek bay from a Danehill line, nor is he closely related to any of the farm's three megastar Broodmares of the Year, Hasili (Kayhasi), Toussaud (El Gran Senor) or Slightly Dangerous (Roberto). He is a robust gray colt by late American champion Unbridled's Song (Unbridled) with an intimidating amount of brawn and a powerful way of attacking the ground in action. A great-grandson of speedy champion juvenile filly Meadow Star (Meadowlake) and first foal of multiple stakes winner Bubbler (Distorted Humor), the $560,000 Keeneland September 2014 Sale purchase (hip 498) is part of a concerted effort to reintroduce Juddmonte's colors to top races on the West Coast.

“This started primarily with Prince Khalid's desire to have a presence in California again,” O'Rourke said. “We had a discussion and he asked who the best trainer was out there, and it is and has been Baffert. We discussed that Bob likes to train fast dirt horses and with most of our bloodlines being classy turf lines, we had Bob buy exactly what he wanted to suit his program. Each year he said 'this is what I want' and we did our best to get them. Bob keeps his targets specifically for speed dirt horses and when you go into a sale with a focus of a specific target, by the time you land on it, you will see 10 other people trying to land that same one. Then you think 'is this good enough to be what we want?' [Bloodstock agent] Donato Lanni has been helping Bob for years with this and he helps find exactly what Bob desires to train and that's what he did.

“Arrogate was purchased the third year we went to the sale with Bob and we actually had our eye on three horses that day–two Tapits and an Unbridled's Song, being Arrogate,” he continued. “We bid on but didn't get the Tapits. One turned out to be Mohaymen [$2.2 million], who was in the stall beside Arrogate. The other wound up becoming [Tathqeef ($1.1 million)], who is a blacktype horse for John Gosden. Bob was initially keen on Mohaymen, having trained his half-brother New Year's Day (Street Cry {Ire}) and had Prince Khalid on the phone while bidding, but we moved on. When Mohaymen was favored for the Kentucky Derby I was worried we had the wrong one, but you just have to put your best judgment forward and Baffert knew exactly what he wanted to train. At this level it can get expensive, but the payoff is getting a real star. Arrogate wound up being the cheapest of the three and we have a horse now who can go beyond paying for the rest of the previous purchases. Sometimes you get lucky.”

At the 2014 September sale, Juddmonte purchased by eight yearlings for a gross of $3,180,000 and average of $397,500.

“When you buy horses at sales, it's a numbers thing,” O'Rourke explained. “It's not until you put them to the test to figure out what you have that you know, and there is a natural attrition in that–but you have to stay the course. The Prince has been around long enough to know to trust his trainers, give them good horses and be patient to wait until they deliver. Like so many other successes, he had the foresight and it delivered.

“Success in this game is cyclical,” he continued. “Sometimes you're doing everything right and not getting success and sometimes everything starts going right and you might think you're smarter than you really are. The longer you're in it, you learn to make much slower changes and stay the course.”

O'Rourke, who has been with Juddmonte since 1992, has seen the program change and develop over the years. From the successful Bobby Frankel years, to the years of the equine Frankel's world-topping successes, he has learned not only that patience is a virtue, but to be virtuous in one's work is something for which it is worthwhile to be patient.

“It comes from the top-down with Prince Khalid,” he explained. “He's an owner who takes such pleasure from the long haul of development of not just a program, but every single horse in the program. He's keenly involved in the selection process of matings and the allocations of horses to the trainers. A lot of work is put in and the payoff is well-earned.”

With the Breeders' Cup to be contested over Arrogate's home track at Santa Anita this year, and again next year in Southern California at Del Mar, it would not be a surprise to see him racing in 2017–something O'Rourke expressed that he would love to see, while also stipulating that said decision was far off and ultimately in the hands of Abdullah and Baffert. Upon retirement, it is assumed that the well-bred colt will take up residence at Juddmonte's Kentucky farm, not only adding to a roster that already stands a pair of useful sires–Mizzen Mast and First Defence–but effectively becoming the highest-profile stallion to enter their Kentucky operation and the culmination of a willful effort to bring dirt-surface excellence to the brand Abdullah has worked so diligently to refine.

“Prince Khaled has always only stood horses, whether here or at Banstead Manor in England, that he totally believes in and when he does that they are given the very best of opportunity succeed,” O'Rourke said. “It's tough to make a stallion, as 90% of them are failures, but we've had some success so far. Mizzen Mast is a horse who can sire runners on every surface and First Defence is doing well. Before we had Empire Maker and Aptitude, as far as dirt horses, and of course Chester House, who produced 12.5% stakes winners before he unfortunately died prematurely of cancer. Empire Maker unfortunately didn't do well with our Juddmonte mares, which is understandable, so we sold him, which was tough because we were very fond of the horse. We try to make all the stallions work. If they don't, you have to have the courage to do what you have to do.”

First things first, though, for the well-seasoned multiple Grade I-winning teams of Juddmonte Farms and the Baffert stable. Arrogate will complete his preparations at Santa Anita while recovering from his massive Travers exertion–an effort that earned him the highest BRISnet speed figure in its brief history (123) and smashed General Assembly's (Secretariat) 36-year-old course and stakes record. The Clearsky Farm-bred's connections will then hope to add to what is already looking like one of the most enthralling Breeders' Cup Classics in recent memory. In the meantime, a little savoring of the moment is in order.

“We're so proud,” O'Rourke concluded. “It's decades of persistence for Prince Khalid. It's not always that way in racing, but when you're at it as long as we have been, the appreciation is better. That happens in life and not just in the horse business and there's a huge crew of people behind the scene who many don't know about. Grooms on the farm who iced Arrogate's shins and exercise riders who first got on his back when he began to train; people who love their jobs and have been here for a long time. We'll bask in the glory of Saturday for a little bit–then go get another one!”