How a page from Hukum's family history suggests he is worth a shot as a Flat sire

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Here he argues why family history suggests Hukum should stand as a Flat stallion - subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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Consider today’s email the first signature on the petition to ensure that Hukum becomes a Flat stallion in Britain or Ireland at the end of his racing career.

A quarter of a century ago or more the retirement of a brilliant King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner into a prestigious role on these shores would have been a foregone conclusion, but in an era in which 12 furlongs is seen by commercial breeders as an extreme test, you couldn’t be sure about that eventuality.

Poet’s Word, the last entire to win the summer showpiece at Ascot and have a stallion career mapped out for him, lasted just the one season at Nunnery Stud before being sold to Boardsmill Stud in County Meath to be repurposed as a National Hunt sire. 

Conduit, Harbinger and Novellist before him on the race's roll of honour were all snapped up to stand in Japan, although Coolmore were refreshingly willing to give other 21st century winners Duke Of Marmalade, Dylan Thomas, Galileo, Golan, Highland Reel, Hurricane Run and Montjeu a chance, with wildly varying results. 

Thank goodness, too, that Newsells Park Stud signed up Nathaniel and gave him every opportunity to succeed as a Flat stallion, or else we would never have had his fabulous daughter Enable, who became the first horse to win the King George three times. 

Nathaniel: one of the most recent King George winners to have been given a chance as a Flat sire Credit: Edward Whitaker

Many of the more recent King George winners who retired to Flat operations in Britain and Ireland such as Highland Reel and Nathaniel – and Postponed, who it has to be said doesn’t look like God’s gift to breeding – made themselves more palatable to commercial breeders by also winning Group 1 races over ten furlongs. 

Hukum hasn’t done that yet, for all that he beat Desert Crown in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes over the trip in the spring, and even worse, he has committed the cardinal sin of winning the Geoffrey Freer Stakes over 13 and a half furlongs twice and the John Smith’s Silver Cup over half a furlong further once. 

I can almost hear commercial Flat breeders (at least those unaware that Deep Impact won a Group 1 over two miles or forgetful of the fact that Nijinsky’s St Leger victory didn’t exactly render him ineffective as a sire) choking on their cornflakes as they are reminded of that. 

I hope that collectively they create enough demand for Hukum’s services, though. He is clearly classy, consistent and courageous, as well as undeniably tough, having come back from a serious leg injury and still found improvement. In other words, he encapsulates many of the best qualities of the thoroughbred, which ought to be preserved in future generations. 

He is also exceptionally well bred, being a Sea The Stars full-brother to last year’s outstanding European champion Baaeed, who last month finished covering a glittering first book of mares at Nunnery Stud. He might lack a little of his sibling's natural brilliance but he could surely prosper as a more affordable alternative on the Shadwell stallion roster. 

In fact, a similar scenario has already played out at Shadwell, and with earlier members of Hukum and Baaeed’s family, to boot. 

Hukum: a brother to the brilliant Baaeed and a top-class performer in his own rightCredit: Edward Whitaker

And the amazing thing is the inferior sibling arguably outshone his superstar half-brother, especially considering the difference in opportunities they were afforded. 

Nashwan, an easy winner of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse and King George at three, and the year-older Unfuwain, a relentless galloper who competed solely over 12 furlongs at three to four and won two Group 2s and found only Mtoto too good in the King George, were both out of Hamdan Al Maktoum’s deeply influential foundation mare Height Of Fashion – the fifth dam of Hukum and Baaeed. 

Nashwan, by Blushing Groom, and Unfuwain, by Northern Dancer, both retired to Nunnery Stud for the 1990 covering season. Their values, and therefore the standard of mares they were sent in the early years, were poles apart though. 

Unfuwain was syndicated into 45 shares costing £60,000 each, valuing him at £2.7 million – a fraction of the £18m price-tag carried by Nashwan, whose debut book included big-name racemares Ashayer, Awaasif, Bella Colora, Bourbon Girl, Dark Lomond, Family Style, Glorious Song, Melodist, Mona Stella, Optimistic Lass, Pebbles and White Star Line, as well as the dams of celebrities Common Grounds, John French, Legal Case, Roseate Tern and Secreto. 

But by the time Unfuwain and Nashwan died in 2002, just before and just after that year’s covering season respectively, their covering fees had reached parity at £30,000. 

Unfuwain had climbed the ladder, from being the often overlooked, inexpensive understudy to become the leading British-based sire at the TBA awards, while Nashwan had reached a plateau as a decent, if not entirely dependable, source of high-class horses. 

Unfuwain: the often overlooked, inexpensive understudy often outshone his brother NashwanCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Unfuwain, with his less flashily bred offspring and one fewer crop, supplied eight Group or Grade 1 winners. There was a pronounced sex bias to his record, with seven of those being fillies and mares – Bolas, Eswarah, Lahan, Lailani, Petrushka, Vadawina and Zahrat Dubai. The only colt among the number was Alhaarth, who took the scalp of Danehill Dancer in the Dewhurst (not a bad result for a sire who was once cribbed for lacking a turn of foot) and later became a useful sire for Shadwell, getting Haafhd among others. 

The better supported Nashwan, on the other hand, delivered two fewer Group or Grade 1 winners, albeit he came up with two colts of the highest calibre in Bago and Swain. He never threatened to establish a lasting sire-line, though. 

The 1,000 Guineas and Oaks heroine Midway Lady’s record with the two half-brothers makes for an interesting, if admittedly highly selective, case study. 

The daughter of Alleged, bought by Sheikh Hamdan as a breeding prospect for $3.3m in 1986, was one of the VIPs in Nashwan’s introductory book, with the resultant progeny being Tharqaam, who was beaten out of sight on his sole start in a Musselburgh bumper. 

Some 11 years later Midway Lady visited the upwardly mobile Unfuwain, in the covering season after Lahan had won the 1,000 Guineas and Petrushka had taken the Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille, and the outcome was Oaks victress Eswarah.

Nashwan after his victory in the 1989 2,000 Guineas victoryCredit: Mark Cranham

There is no guarantee that history would repeat itself with Hukum and Baaeed, of course, but the example of their distant relatives Unfuwain and Nashwan does suggest that it would be a shame not to give the lower rated sibling a chance with Flat mares, even if fashion has moved even further away from middle-distance achievement since the turn of the 1990s. 

It would be especially galling if he were to head straight into a National Hunt role, as happened controversially with another superbly talented son of Sea The Stars in Crystal Ocean a few years ago. 

A position in France or Germany would be more acceptable, but it's on a Flat roster in Britain or Ireland where I really want to see him. Who else is signing my petition? 

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

Must-read story

“It is premature to say that there will be breeding activities which are commercially realistic in the next ten or even 15 years, but it is the right time to build a bridge to facilitate cooperation, both locally and internationally,” says Apollo Ng of the Hong Kong Thoroughbred Breeders’ Alliance in a Q&A.

Pedigree pick

There’s not an awful lot of well-bred newcomers on show in Britain and Ireland today, even though it’s Glorious Goodwood and the Galway races this week, but I’ve found one who is in possession of an intriguing pedigree and might offer a little each-way value.

Champagne Girl, declared for the bumper that brings the opening day at Galway to an end (8.20), is a four-year-old from the first crop of Jack Hobbs, who already has a handful of bumper winners to his name, and is out of Centoria, a Generous half-sister to Listed bumper third Everglow. The dam finished first on her own debut in a bumper only to be demoted to second by the stewards.

Centoria, who is out of a winning Hernando full-sister to Champion Bumper neck-second De Soto, is already the dam of a winner in Midnight Centurion, who finished second in a bumper on his first start.

Besides that useful pedigree Champagne Girl also has in her favour a 7lb fillies’ allowance and in-form connections, as trainer David Harry Kelly and jockey Adam Ryan have combined with two previous runners in bumpers in the past fortnight: 12-1 winner Easy Peasy and 66-1 second Adela Icon.

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