Field of Gold - favourite to go one better than his sire Kingman in the 2000 Guineas

Pedigree profiles for Field of Gold, Zanzoun and Almeric

By John Ingles

Horse Racing

Sun April 20, 2025 · 8M ago

John Ingles delves into the pedigrees of the major three-year-old winners at this week's Craven meeting.

Both winners of the main three-year-old contests at Newmarket on Tuesday were home-breds who came from families developed by their respective breeders for generations.

If Almeric’s grey coat wasn’t already a clue, the Feilden Stakes winner’s name was a big give-away that he comes from Lanwades Stud’s famous ‘Al’ family which had its origins when Lanwades owner Kirsten Rausing bought the Aga Khan filly Alruccaba – Almeric’s fourth dam - in the mid-1980s.

Alruccaba’s descendants have been hugely successful for Miss Rausing, particularly the female members of the family. They include Alpinista who ended her racing career with a sixth straight Group 1 success in the 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Alpinista is a granddaughter of Albanova, also trained by Sir Mark Prescott, who won three Group 1 contests in Germany, and was a sister to a still better filly in Alborada, dual winner of the Champion Stakes for the same stable.

Alborada’s daughter Alvarita might not have been quite as good, but she raced only four times and still showed useful form, making a belated winning debut at Salisbury in September of her three-year-old season and winning a listed race at Saint-Cloud over an extended ten furlongs on her final outing that December. Alverita has been a prolific broodmare at Lanwades, with Almeric being her tenth winning foal.

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Some of her earlier winners have been useful, including Alla Speranza, winner of the Group 3 Kilternan Stakes at Leopardstown, who is herself the dam of Shine So Bright, an untypically speedy member of the family (he was by Oasis Dream) who won the now discontinued Free Handicap at the Craven meeting for Almeric’s trainer Andrew Balding in 2019 before going on to success in the City of York Stakes.

With a Timeform rating of 112p, Almeric is already the highest rated of his dam’s many winners, with the potential to improve further and stay a bit further too than the Feilden Stakes’ nine furlongs. He holds a Dante entry but if he ends up contesting a Derby, it’s likely to be the French version as he’s not entered at Epsom. If he did end up at Chantilly, he’d be bidding to follow in the footsteps of his sire Study of Man who won the Prix du Jockey Club in 2018 and began his stallion career at Lanwades two years later. Almeric comes from just the second crop of his sire whose best runner so far is his year-older stablemate Kalpana, a very smart winner of the Fillies’ And Mares’ Stakes on her final start last year.

In a very good week or so for Juddmonte, the Nell Gwyn Stakes went to their Dubawi filly Zanzoun who is the first foal of Frankel’s daughter Franconia. That means that Zanzoun is bred on the same cross as the same connections’ Lead Artist who was narrowly beaten in the Wood Ditton at last year’s Craven meeting before developing into a very smart colt for John and Thady Gosden at up to a mile and a quarter.

Gosden senior also trained the useful Franconia (Timeform rating 109) who ran just five times but was first past the post in listed races at Newbury (subsequently disqualified) and York in the covid-hit season of 2020. Franconia’s notable half-sister was the smart filly Winsili, also trained by Gosden. She too ran only five times but ended her career by causing something of an upset when a 20/1 winner of the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood when avoiding trouble in a messy race. Incidentally, Khalid Abdullah’s apparent first string in that Nassau, Hot Snap (that year’s Nell Gwyn winner), was back in third and she’s the dam of another promising Juddmonte filly this spring, Swelter, winner of the 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown.

Further back in Zanzoun’s pedigree, it’s a very solid middle-distance/staying family featuring the likes of Dubai Sheema Classic winner Polish Summer, Hardwicke Stakes/Yorkshire Cup winner Snow Sky and Coronation Cup winner Sunshack. While Zanzoun was beaten when tried over a mile as a two-year-old, that was early days in her career and it’s hard to believe she won’t prove effective given another try at the trip; if anything, she’s bred to stay a mile and a quarter in due course.

Zanzoun wins the Nell Gwyn

Juddmonte and the Gosden stable also won Wednesday’s Craven Stakes with Field of Gold, though unlike Zanzoun he’s not a product of Juddmonte breeding, at least not on his dam’s side. In recent years, Juddmonte have supplemented their home-breds with auction purchases of offspring by their own sires. If Field of Gold goes on to justify favouritism in the 2000 Guineas, he would become Juddmonte’s second winner of the race in three years bought at auction as a foal – he was a €530,000 purchase at Goffs - following Frankel’s son Chaldean.

Field of Gold, though, is by Kingman (a Solario Stakes winner at two, like Field of Gold) whose only defeat for Gosden came in the 2000 Guineas when he was headed late on by Night of Thunder. He gets his grey colouring from his dam Princesse de Lune (by Shamardal) whose short career began promisingly but abruptly ended with the Timeform ‘squiggle’.

Unraced at two, Princesse de Lune had three starts at three for Roger Charlton when coincidentally ridden by Field of Gold’s jockey Kieran Shoemark. She looked sure to progress after winning a division of the Bridget Maiden Fillies’ Stakes for unraced fillies at Newbury’s Greenham meeting by four lengths, but she disappointed in listed company in her other two starts that year and then virtually refused to race – hence the squiggle - when beaten in a match on the all-weather at Kempton early the following season on her only start for Archie Watson.

Field of Gold is his dam’s third foal and third winner following the fillies Zanbaq (by Oasis Dream), a smart listed winner at Newmarket over a mile, and the lightly-raced Lunar Eclipse (by Night of Thunder), a two-year-old seven-furlong winner at the same track on her debut who showed fairly useful form last season without making an impact in listed company.

Princesse de Lune has some notable winners among the eight other successful foals produced by her dam, the US winner Princess Serena who was out of a sister to the champion US filly Serena’s Song. They include her smart sister Queen Power, winner of the Middleton Stakes at York, brother Puissance de Lune who showed very smart form in Australia, half-brother Zabeel Prince, winner of the Earl of Sefton at the Craven meeting before his Group 1 victory in the Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp, and another half-brother, the smart Temeussias Fox, who won the Rosebery Handicap at Kempton last month. Another of Princesse de Lune’s half-sisters is the dam of smart filly Rizeena whose wins included the Moyglare Stud Stakes and Coronation Stakes.

Field of Gold was impressive on his first try at a mile in the Craven where he showed a turn of foot reminiscent of his sire having taken a keen hold, so that might prove his optimum trip.

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