9 minute read
Looking forwards: Kameko
With a Group 1 winner, a Group 1 third, four juveniles rated over 100, the future looks bright for Tweenhills’ young sire Kameko, writes Jamie McGlynn
TO GET THE CHANCE to stand a Group 1 Futurity Trophywinning two-year-old and the fastest 2,000 Guineas (G1) winner in history, bought by your team as a yearling, would be a satisfying result in itself for most stallion farms, but for Tweenhills, retiring Kameko, a son of Kitten’s Joy, to stud duties for the 2021 breeding season always was going to mean that bit more.
And now that Kameko has gone on to sire a Group 1 winner and a Group 1 performer in his first crop, it can be termed a good start and certainly one that mattered.
As the curtain comes down on the European Flat Turf season for 2024, Kameko has sired 12 individual winners from 44 runners.
That group is headed by Qatar Racing’s homebred colt New Century, who landed the Summer Stakes (G1) at Woodbine for Andrew Balding, and was beaten just 2l into fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) at Del Mar.
Trained by Andrew Balding, who also handled Kameko for the entirety his career, it would be no surprise to see him aimed at the first Classic of the season next year.
Another member of that initial crop is Wimbledon Hawkeye, whose victory in the Royal Lodge Stakes (G2) and third-place finish in the Futurity Trophy (G1) have earned him a rating of 114, which is the highest official rating given to any juvenile by a first-crop stallion in Britain this year.
The Gredley family homebred, who became his sire’s first winner when winning a Kempton maiden on his racecourse debut in May, has also been placed in both the Superlative Stakes (G2) and Acomb Stakes (G3), and rates an exciting prospect for next year, given that he is out of a Sea The Stars mare who won twice over 1m2f as a three-year-old. "To have two Group 1 performers in Kameko's first crop is very exciting" remarks David Redvers, managing director at Tweenhills.
“It was great to see New Century do it in the Qatar Racing colours. He’s been so consistent all year and has taken his racing and travelling really well.
“He’s got a great attitude and obviously for his sire to have a top-flight winner in his first crop is of huge importance.
“Wimbledon Hawkeye has been so progressive, too. He’s another who thrived on racing and, despite not being in love with the ground at Doncaster, he still ran on to the line. You'd have confidence in him taking another big step forward next season."
The 100-rated Rajeko, who won on his racecourse debut in June and has since finished fourth behind subsequent Prix Morny (G1) hero Whistlejacket in the July Stakes (G2), is out of the 93-rated Archipenko mare Rajar, while Hawksbill, officially rated 95 after his fourth-place finish in the Listed Ascendant Stakes, is out of the Frankel mare Like, who shed her maiden tag in December of her three-year-old caree
“The four of his horses that are rated over 100 are out of later-maturing mares, which gives us great optimism that the best is yet to come,” adds Redvers.
“Kameko was the same. He was so laid back and didn’t set the world alight in his early work. However, when the penny dropped, he never looked back and was most progressive. You’d be hopeful that, come the spring, Kameko could have a couple of genuine Classic contenders and some improving three-year-olds too."
When assessing the season for Kameko, Redvers adds: “Young sires have to be able to produce winners in numbers, but they also have to be able to come up with a couple of good ones for people to really step up and really take note of them. Thankfully, Kameko has, and we have had some very good breeders come to us on the back of those performances to purchase nominations for 2025. You’d hope that the best is yet to come.”
In 2019, Tweenhills sadly lost Roaring Lion, the four-time Group 1-winning son of the Hill ‘N Dale Farms and Ramsey Farm resident Kitten’s Joy, after covering just one book at the Gloustershire Stud.
Kameko, both on the track and now in the covering shed, is doing his bit to try and fill that void, and has further justified Tweenhills’ faith in Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s son of El Prado as a sire of sires.
“We always felt that when we were sourcing yearlings in the US that there was an angle in buying Turf-bred horses or those who were by sires that had done well on the Turf in the early books at Keeneland – a lot of the action was geared towards the bigger horses who would run on the Dirt,” confirms Redvers.
“We had identified Kitten’s Joy as a sire who had done very well with his early crops and, in fairness, he was almost exclusively supported by the Ramseys.
“They really believed in the horse and supported him accordingly, so he was somewhat of an underdog to achieve the things that he did.
You’d be hopeful that come next spring, Kameko could have a couple of genuine Classic contenders and some improving three-year-olds
“We had tried to buy subsequent Eclipse Stakes (G1) and Sheema Classic (G1) winner Hawkbill as a yearling, but we didn’t have the firepower of John Ferguson, who bought him for $350,000 for Godolphin.
“We obviously bought Roaring Lion two years later and he took us on a wonderful journey.
“In the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, he showed the class and toughness that the sire line produces time and time again. He really had to put his neck out and battle all the way to the line, a trait that is so typical in progeny of Kitten’s Joy.”
Four days before that memorable Irish Champions Stakes, Redvers and his team were busy hunting the sales ground at Keeneland when they landed on Kameko, who cost just $90,000.
“Hannah Wall, Peter Molony and I all thought that he was the best by the sire in the sale and were keen to get him,” recalls Redvers.
“He was bred by an historic farm in Calumet and had that European mix in his pedigree, so we were gobsmacked that we got him for that price. It’s easy to say now, but he genuinely was a standout for us.”
While his sire was crowned champion Turf sire seven times in the US, Kameko also has that mix of top-class European form in his immediate pedigree that Redvers alludes to.
He is out of Sweeter Still (Rock Of Gibraltar), who was bred by Ann-Marie O’Brien and trained by husband Aidan to finish fourth in the Listed Flame Of Tara Stakes on her racecourse debut before being sold to the US where she landed the Senorita Stakes (G3) for Jeff Mullins.
Sweeter Still is a half-sister to the South African sire Kingsbarns (Galileo), who also won the Futurity Trophy (G1), and they hail from the immediate family of the three-time Group 1 winner and sire Rip Van Winkle. whose rating of 130 puts him behind only Frankel on his breed-shaping sire's list of top-rated horses.
The pedigree has received a further update this year through Catchingsnowflakes, a Galileo half-sister to Kameko, whose first foal The Waco Kid (Mehmas) won the Somerville Tattersall Stakes (G3) for trainer Hugo Palmer.
Neatly coinciding with the action on the track by Kameko’s offspring, the progeny from Kameko’s second crop was in high demand in the yearling sales this autumn, with the undoubted highlight being the Tweenhills-consigned full-brother to New Century, who was purchased by Godolphin for 1,000,000gns, a new record price for a colt at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.
Lots of people at the sale were all commenting on how much the colt looked like his father
“It was bittersweet in a way,” continues Redvers. “Obviously, we are delighted to sell a million-guinea yearling from Kameko’s second crop, but I was sad to see him go at the same time.
“I know it is always said at times like these, but he really was the stand-out of the sale and made everyone’s list.
“Lots of people at the sale were all commenting on how much the colt looked like his father and he’s a full-brother to a Group 1 winner.
“We expected him to make 500,000gns – I felt he definitely warranted that – but to sell him for 1,000,000gns was great.
“We’re so grateful to the Godolphin team for purchasing him. It gives the sire a big chance to see him go to Charlie Appleby, too.
“Charlie had actually joked at the sale that he ‘didn’t want to be chasing him next year,’ so the fact that the team went and bought him was one way of making sure that didn’t happen!”
The Tweenhills team will go into the winter with optimism for the future as, whether his progeny run in the colours of Godolphin, Qatar Racing, or anyone else for that matter, Kameko looks to have a bright future.
He will stand next season for £20,000, which is up on last year’s fee of £15,000, but is still below the £25,000 at which he retired to stud in 2021.
He covered 93 mares last year and, given the exploits of his progeny both on the track and in the sales ring, it is highly likely that number will rise.
If breeders were to support him in the same way that the Ramsey’s supported his own sire, there is no evidence so far to suggest that history won’t repeat itself.
