Tales from the Crib: Mandaloun

Unfortunate to finish second in the 2003 Kentucky Derby (G1) with favored Empire Maker, internationally acclaimed Juddmonte Farms tries again with a grandson of his, Mandaloun.

Only this time, the team returns mourning the loss of Juddmonte’s founder, Prince Khalid Abdullah, who passed away in January. Through decades of painstaking effort, Prince Khalid acquired, then further developed, some of the most exquisite bloodlines in the Thoroughbred industry. His homebred masterpieces include unbeaten phenom Frankel and the queen Enable.

If Mandaloun can give Juddmonte a first Kentucky Derby victory, the trophy would be a memorial to the Prince’s legacy as an owner/breeder. For the colt is himself an embodiment of Juddmonte craftsmanship, melding the American dirt and European turf heritage.

His dam, Brooch, descends from two of Prince Khalid’s “blue hen” broodmares. Her sire, Empire Maker, is out of the mercurial but gifted Toussaud. Brooch’s broodmare sire, Dansili, is out of the superb matron Hasili.

Brooch was bred and raised at Juddmonte’s Kentucky operation, but raced exclusively on the Irish turf. Trained by the maestro Dermot Weld, she won her first four career starts capped by the 2015 Lanwades Stud S. (aka the Ridgewood Pearl) (G2) at the Curragh.

“She’s a gorgeous filly – she’s class,” Weld told irishracing.com.

Her jockey, the late Pat Smullen, described her as “a lovely, big, old-fashioned mare.”

After Brooch lost her four remaining starts in Ireland, Juddmonte’s U.S. general manager, Garrett O’Rourke, formulated a plan to try her stateside on dirt. His idea remains a tantalizing what-might-have-been, since Brooch sustained an injury that prompted her retirement. 

In an interview on Ron Flatter’s March 19 podcast, O’Rourke explained the context for breeding Brooch to Mandaloun’s sire, Into Mischief:

“She was an Empire Maker, and I was hoping that we’d be able to turn her into a top filly over here.

“I was even looking at her thinking, ‘Well, you look like a big dirt mare.’”

Although that never came to fruition, “it encouraged me at least to consider her for a horse like Into Mischief.

“She’s a lovely, big Empire Maker type, and we used Into Mischief a lot for the Empire Maker mares that we had.”

When Brooch produced her lovely bay colt on March 18, there was no doubt that she should go right back to Into Mischief.

“He was such a nice foal we did it again, and then we did it a third time, and she’ll actually go back to him for a fourth time this year,” O’Rourke said.

“You sometimes do matings, and when you get the results on the ground you go, ‘well, that’s not what we ordered.’”

This was not one of those cases, as the successful cross on paper was manifesting in the flesh. 

“But it was coming out exactly, producing good lookers, and that gives you a comfort level to keep on trying it,” O’Rourke added.

As he grew up, Mandaloun kept piling on the positive reinforcement. 

“He’s been a relatively uncomplicated horse to get all the way up to the races, maybe a little bit green in his earlier starts….”

Overcoming trouble to win on debut at Keeneland last fall, Mandaloun followed up with a sharp allowance score at Churchill Downs. But his greenness showed in his first stakes race, the Jan. 16 Lecomte (G3) at Fair Grounds, where he was a wide-trip third to Midnight Bourbon. Blinkers helped him turn the tables emphatically in the Risen Star (G2), at the same time proving his effectiveness at 1 1/8 miles. 

“I wouldn’t call him your prototypical speed Into Mischief,” O’Rourke said. “He’s got a bit of leg on him, kind of like an Authentic (the 2020 Derby winner), and a little bit of length to him as well.”

O’Rourke noted that the match of Into Mischief with Empire Maker has the potential to bestow the best of both upon Mandaloun:

“His style of running suggests that he can grind it out a little bit more like an Empire Maker. I just hope he has that nice blend of Into Mischief and Empire Maker – Into Mischief to keep him up with the pace and Empire Maker to help him get…further.”

Although O’Rourke said that before the Louisiana Derby (G2), the theory applies just as well to the Kentucky Derby. The only negative is that Mandaloun picked Louisiana Derby Day to run an inexplicably poor race, backpedaling to sixth in his lone unplaced effort. On the plus side, it’s better to get the clunker out of the way in a prep.

Trainer Brad Cox has been pleased with Mandaloun’s works in the build-up to the Run for the Roses. Indeed, he’s been flashier than his champion stablemate, Derby favorite Essential Quality, in the morning. And the very fact that the Juddmonte brain trust is giving Mandaloun his chance could be significant.

While Prince Khalid pursued the Kentucky Derby, he was ever careful in his placement of contenders. Thus Juddmonte has made just five previous attempts at the roses, over a quarter-century. Three of those five placed – Aptitude in 2000; the aforementioned Empire Maker, who might have won if not for Derby week foot troubles; and Tacitus, elevated to third when Maximum Security was disqualified in 2019.

It would be fitting if a grandson of Empire Maker fills that one blank space in Juddmonte’s glittering trophy cabinet, this year most of all.