Stallion Manager John Freeman announced on Wednesday that Drakenstein Stud Farm have instructed his team to syndicate and manage the career of 2018 Joint-Irish Champion racehorse Lancaster Bomber.
Lancaster Bomber, who stands16.1hh, was last seen running his rivals off their feet at the Curragh when winning the Gr1 Tattersalls Gold Cup by two lengths in May 2018.
The 5yo son of War Front will stand at Drakenstein Stud and is being syndicated and managed by FreemanStallions.
Freeman said that the loss of SA champion sires Captain Al and Dynasty further compounded breeders’ access to older proven sires.
He also pointed out that the new up-and-coming younger sires are all fully syndicated and very well-booked.
In his view there has never been a better time to bring such a beautifully pedigreed Gr1 winning International Champion to South Africa adding that the globe-trotting Lancaster Bomber is an ideal stallion prospect for South Africa:
Precocious and fast enough to win over 7f at 2yrs with the class to compete against the best in the world at 3yrs and to train-on and win at Gr1 level over 10f at 4yrs.
Lancaster Bomber was trained by Aidan O’Brien for Coolmore partners. The International globe-trotting Irish Champion Older Horse of 2018 opened his account at the second time of asking as a 2yo and went on to finish second in the stallion making Gr1 Dewhurst Stakes, filling the same position in the Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf that season despite traffic problems.
In a busy three-year-old season that sent him racing around the world again, he was a close fourth to Churchill in the Gr1 2,000 Guineas, second to Barney Roy in the Gr1 St James’s Palace Stakes (beating Churchill, finishing in a time fast enough to win every other running of the Royal Ascot race first held in 1834) and also runner-up in both the Gr1 Woodbine Mile and Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
The SLOWEST Lancaster Bomber ever ran a mile was when breaking the Ascot round mile record in the St James’s Palace Stakes, and he ran the three fastest miles and five of the fastest ten of all of the new sires sent to stud in Europe in 2019.
Royal Ascot Tues 20 June 2017 Picture: Caroline Norris
Barney Roy ridden by James Doyle, near camera, getting up to win The St James’s Palace Stakes from Lancaster Bomber ridden by Donnacha O’Brien, 2nd, far side, and Thunder Snow ridden by Christophe Soumillon, 3rd.
The Dewhurst colt rated better than Dark Angel, Showcasing and No Nay Never and superior at three to Scat Daddy. A classier older horse than Invincible Spirit and Kodiac. And rated above even his own sire, War Front.
Gr1 winner and runner-up in five Gr1 races from two to four years, Lancaster Bomber finished third to Rhododendron in the Gr1 Lockinge at four years and put up a fantastic front-running performance to win the Gr1 Tattersalls Gold Cup from Cliffs Of Moher and Defoe. The victory put his career earnings beyond £1 million.
US Navy Flag, Lancaster Bomber and Fleet Review go head to head
His sire War Front is the source of 19 Group/Grade 1 winners including European celebrities Air Force Blue (champion 2yo), Declaration Of War (champion) and War Command, as well as triple Gr1 winner Roly Poly and her champion brother US Navy Flag, who took last season’s Gr1 July Cup and is the first horse in 35 years to win both the Gr1 Middle Park and Gr1 Dewhurst.
War Front, the sire of 73% winners and over 15% stakes winners, is emerging as a notable sire of sires, with Declaration Of War’s first crop yielding last season’s Gr1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Olmedo and leading freshman sire War Command who has already notched 27 winners from his first crop.
Lancaster Bomber has enormous pedigree appeal on the distaff side.
He is a half-brother to the champion crack miler Excelebration; sire of Gr1 winner Barney Roy and the durable Mull Of Killough, while his dam Sun Shower is by highly successful broodmare sire Indian Ridge out of a daughter of Classic winner Sarah Siddons.
- Press Release published by Freeman Stallions on 13 March 2019
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