Pinatubo about to erupt

THE BEST racehorse from a family of outstanding runners and top-class sires, champion two-year-old Pinatubo retired to the Newmarket base of his owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed with high hopes that the record-breaking colt would enhance his late sire Shamardal’s legacy.

His stud career hasn’t made the same explosive start as his racing one, but Pinatubo is stealthily compiling a record that ought to have breeders and buyers taking note.

His stakes winners number nine, which is a decent 5.3 per cent and when black-type placed horses are added to that number his stakes horses-to-runners rate is 12.4 per cent.

Top of the heap is Qilin Queen, from the Prix Jean Prat (G1) winner’s first crop, born in 2022. Trained by Ed Walker, the four-year-old won the Group 2 Prix de Malleret and the Listed Childwicksbury Stud Oaks Trial last season having also finished runner-up in the Ascendant Stakes (Listed) at two.

Fourth in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan on her seasonal reappearance, Qilin Queen is one of two Group winners from her sire’s first crop. The other is Saddadd, who won the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes first time out this season and followed that with third in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (G1), a fine effort on his first run at the highest level.

Qilin Queen is out of a mare by Sea The Stars, while Saddadd’s broodmare sire is Cape Cross, the sire of Sea The Stars. It is a continuation of the affinity that Shamardal had with daughters of his fellow Kildangan Stud resident – the cross between Shamardal and Cape Cross produced the Group 1 winners Tarnawa and Emaraaty Ana, while Shamardal’s best stallion son – Lope De Vega – has sired the top-level winners Almaqam (who finished two places ahead of Saddadd at The Curragh in May), Duke De Sessa and Lucky Vega out of mares by Cape Cross.

Pinatubo’s second-crop daughter, the Listed Prix Herod winner Quiescent, shares her broodmare sire with Saddadd, while Sea The Stars is the damsire of Pinatubo’s Group 2 Ridgewood Pearl Stakes runner-up Carolina Jetstream.

From his second crop, Pinatubo has produced his first Classic performer in Komorebi, who was runner-up in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) for Godolphin and André Fabre. 

The Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau winner is inbred to Shamardal’s family as a son of Fillies’ Mile winner Lyric Of Light by Street Cry, a full-brother to Shamardal’s dam Helsinki.

Cape Cross’s sire Green Desert also plays a role in Komorebi’s family, too, as the sire of the colt’s second dam Suez.

Although Pinatubo has three Group winners and a total of nine progeny successful in black-type races it is the cleverly named Basalt, who has accumulated the most winnings with lifetime prize-money of £384,606, according to the data provided by Weatherbys’ Global Stallion App.

The four-year-old colt, also from that first crop, was trained first by Archie Watson for whom he was third in the Listed Silver Tankard at two. He was purchased by Gassim Ghazlil at the Tattersalls July Sale as a three-year-old and, on his second start in Qatar for the champion trainer, he won the Thoroughbred Guineas (local G3) and followed that with third in the Qatar Derby (local G1). This year he has won the Ebraz Cup (Qatar G2) and finished fifth in the Qatar Gold Trophy (G1).

Despite the success of Qilin Queen and Saddadd over 1m4f and 1m2f, the majority of Pinatubo’s progeny seem to take after their sire when it comes to a preference for distance. 

Successful in juvenile Group 1 contests over 7f, Pinatubo was placed three times at the highest level at a mile as a three-year-old – in the 2,000 Guineas, the St James’s Palace Stakes and the Prix du Moulin, and his sole three-year-old victory coming in the 7f Group 1 Prix Jean Prat.

His progeny have an average racing distance of 7.85f with their average winning distance a tad longer at 7.88f.

Pinatubo was Europe’s champion two-year-old of 2019 and the rating assigned him for his unbeaten debut season was the highest in a quarter of a century, since Celtic Swing was anointed champion juvenile in 1994.