The last foal sired by pensioned stallion Kingmambo is scheduled to be offered during the Arqana August yearling sale in Deauville, France. The chestnut colt is Hip No. 127 in the catalog for the auction, which has 478 horses.
Mueller Farms and Bluegrass Farm Partners bred the colt in Kentucky. He was the only member of Kingmambo’s 2010 foal crop. The stallion, which stood at Will Farish’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., was bred to one mare in 2010 and she didn’t become pregnant. Farish announced Kingmambo’s retirement from stud duty in September of that year.
Haras des Capucines will consign the Kingmambo colt to the Arqana sale as agent for John Stuart, Peter Bance, and David Mueller. Stuart is the president of the Kentucky-based Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services bloodstock agency and Bance serves as the company's vice president. Mueller is the co-founder and the former chairman and CEO of Comair.
“He’s a beautiful colt,” said Stuart of the Kingmambo yearling. “He looks like a (typical) Kingmambo (offspring). I’m sure they’ll be very pleased over there with him. He probably would have ended up racing in Europe no matter where he had been sold. We’ve already had several offers from Europeans to buy him privately.”
In the mating that produced the colt, Stuart and Bance provided the Kingmambo season and Mueller provided the Corporate Report mare Queen of Money, according to Stuart.
“She was a very fertile mare and we bred her early in the season,” Stuart said.
The resulting colt was foaled and raised at Ann McBrayer’s Keene Ridge Farm near Lexington. He was sent to France in late June to be prepared for the Arqana auction.
Queen of Money captured the 1997 Sana Ynez Stakes (gr. III) at Santa Anita Park. In addition to the Kingmambo colt, her offspring include Pocketfullofpesos (by In Excess), winner of the 2002 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes at Santa Anita, and Quiet Cash (by Real Quiet), who scored in four added-money events in Canada in 2005 and 2006. Queen of Money also produced Miss Skagit State (by In Excess), who won three times, finished second in the 2001 Maiden Stakes at Hollywood Park, and produced the stakes winner Spanky Fischbein (by Hook and Ladder).
A 21-year-old son of Mr. Prospector, Kingmambo was a group I winner in England and a classic winner in France. He sired 90 stakes winners, including the Lane’s End stallion Lemon Drop Kid , who captured the 1999 Belmont Stakes (gr. I) and was 2000 champion older male in 2000.
A great number of Kingmambo’s runners have raced in Europe. Alkaased, Divine Proportions, Russian Rhythm, Virginia Waters, Okawango, Rule of Law, El Condor Pasa, and Henrythenavigator were champions and/or group I winners there. Henrythenavigator, bred in Kentucky, returned to the United States to run in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) and finished second.
El Condor Pasa also was a Horse of the Year in Japan. Another of Kingmambo’s sons, King Kamehameha, was honored as Japan’s champion 3-year-old male in 2004 when he won the Tokyo Yushun (Jpn-I, Japanese Derby).