lead-artist-gatefold-brochure

Lead Artist gatefold brochure

For all the brilliant families associated with Juddmonte, none are probably quite so powerful as that belonging to Lead Artist’s great-granddam Hasili.
The Kahyasi mare was a true blue hen as the dam of five Gr.1 winners for Prince Khalid Abdullah, a record unsurpassed in the modern era. And while a Gr.1 win eluded her excellent son Dansili, he was thoroughly deserving of one, as his Timeform rating of 127 attests.
Hasili was a tough race filly in a 17-race career for Henri-Alex Pantall, winning the Listed Prix des Sablonnets at Nantes in November 1993. Durable with a touch of class - Hasili had every right to become a successful broodmare but what came next was extraordinary.
Multiple visits to Danehill were the backbone of her success, yielding Dansili, Banks Hill, Cacique, Intercontinental and Champs Elysees.
Dansili, her first foal, won the Gr.2 Prix du Muguet for Andre Fabre but was Gr.1-placed on six occasions notably when narrowly beaten in the Gr.1 Sussex Stakes by Giant’s Causeway.
Hasili’s second foal, Champion Banks Hill, won the Gr.1 Coronation Stakes, Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Filly &amp; Mare Turf and Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois. Several years later, her younger sister Intercontinental emulated Banks Hill by winning the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Filly &amp; Mare Turf.
Later visits to Danehill yielded two further top-class colts in Cacique and Champs Elysees; Cacique won the Gr.1 Man O’War Stakes and Gr.1 Manhattan Handicap while Champs Elysees struck in the Gr.1 Canadian International, Gr.1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes and Gr.1 Hollywood Turf Cup.
Hasili also clicked with Green Desert to produce another Gr.1 winner in Heat Haze, successful in the Gr.1 Beverly D Stakes and Gr.1 Matriarch Stakes, while in later years she produced the Gr.3 winner Deluxe to Storm Cat.
In all, her progeny won or were placed in 43 Gr.1 races.
Remarkably, each of Hasili’s sons to stud developed into Gr.1 sires. That is especially true of Dansili, a leading sire who became an extremely important element to Juddmonte’s ongoing success, not only as the sire of 24 Gr.1 winners but in his role as elite broodmare sire and influential sire of sires - Juddmonte’s own Bated Breath being a case in point.
Between them, Dansili, Cacique and Champs Elysees were responsible for 32 Gr.1 winners.
Lead Artist descends from Hasili via her Oasis Dream daughter Responsible as a son of her first foal, Obligate. By Frankel, Obligate won three races for Pascal Bary including the Gr.2 Prix de Sandringham over a mile at Chantilly. Lead Artist is her first foal.
Lead Artist is bred on a variation of the highly successful Dubawi - Galileo cross. Night Of Thunder is one example, as is multiple Gr.1 winner Ghaiyyath. It is also worth noting that Zarak’s outstanding dam Zarkava is a granddaughter of Kahyasi, who also appears in the background of Lead Artist as the sire of Hasili.

Dubawi was an unbeaten Gr.1-winning two-year-old and Classic miling talent. When he retired to stand for Darley in 2006, he had already done plenty to enhance the legacy of his short-lived sire Dubai Millennium, who left behind a single crop of just 56 foals. Dubawi, as winner of the Gr.1 National Stakes at two and Gr.1 Irish 2,000 Guineas and Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois at three, went some way on the track to alleviating the repercussions of that loss. What he has since achieved at stud, however, means that the sire line, which represents the Seeking The Gold branch of Mr Prospector, is today an extremely powerful force across the globe.
Dubawi’s stud record showcases a sire who is often an influence for durability as well as class and versatility. There have been the Gr.1 milers Night Of Thunder, Modern Games, Makfi, Coroebus and Notable Speech, top sprinters such as Creative Force and Naval Crown, two-year-olds of the ilk of Henry Longfellow, Ancient Wisdom and Quorto, plus high-class older horses such as Ghaiyyath, Lord North and Rebel’s Romance.
Crucially, a number of Dubawi’s sons have gone on to become important sires in their own right.
Night Of Thunder is on an upward trajectory as the sire of close to 80 stakes winners, among them 2025 Gr.1 winners Desert Flower, Ombudsman, Dynamic Pricing and Choisya. Zarak has already sired close to 35 stakes winners, 21 of them at Group/Graded stakes level, despite not standing for more than €25,000 until 2023. Too Darn Hot’s successful start is headed by the European Gr.1 winners Fallen Angel, Hotazhell and Tornado Alert while Space Blues is the sire of Gr.1-winning 2yo Power Blues in his first crop. New Bay also has three Gr.1 winners to his name.
It won’t escape breeders’ notice that several of those high-flying sire sons were excellent milers, among them Night Of Thunder and Too Darn Hot, all of which bodes well for the prospects of his Gr.1-winning miler son Lead Artist.

Lead Artist operated at a high level throughout his racing career to the point that nine of his 11 starts were in stakes company. It says a lot for the regard in which he was held by John and Thady Gosden that he was sent off a warm order for the Wood Ditton Maiden at Newmarket’s Craven meeting, in which he was beaten only a nose into second by First Conquest.
Lead Artist had that rival well behind him next time out when the near five-length winner of a mile novice at York, and from then on plied his trade exclusively in stakes company, mostly at a mile.
In the Gr.3 Thoroughbred Stakes at Goodwood, it was imperative that he was able to hold a good early position from his inside draw, and he did just that, bouncing out to make most of the running and ultimately win a shade cosily.
He found only the older Gr.1 winner Kinross too good in the Gr.2 Park Stakes at Doncaster but was subsequently impressive in victory over older horses in the Gr.3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket, picking up well off in a steadily run race. That win set him up for a crack at the Gr.2 Bahrain International Trophy, where he ran an excellent race to be second over a 1m2f trip that stretched his stamina, only succumbing to Spirit Dancer’s winning run in the final 50 yards. As it was, he had three Gr.1 winners well behind him that day, including the $3.8 million earner Nations Pride.
It says plenty for Lead Artist’s constitution that he was able to run such a good race in Bahrain at the end of a campaign that had begun in April. He returned at four with a Gr.1 miling campaign on his agenda and he rewarded the belief in him when winning the Gr.1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in May; always prominent under Oisin Murphy, he led narrowly a furlong out and although headed by the runner-up, battled back to take it up again at the line. In behind were no fewer than three Classic winners - Rosallion, Notable Speech and Fallen Angel.
Lead Artist’s performances were underpinned by an array of desirable attributes. Best over a mile, he possessed the early speed to be able to make the running if needed, as he demonstrated in the Thoroughbred Stakes, yet could also quicken off a steady pace. In a show of durability, his form never dipped during that lengthy, international three-year-old campaign. While as his Lockinge win illustrated, he was a genuine horse who was on your side in a battle. In short, Lead Artist possesses many of the attributes to be successful at stud.

lead-artist-2

Lead Artist

Goodwood 2.8.24

lead-artist-26-9-25

Lead-Artist-26.9.25

<ul>
<li>Group 1-winning miler by Dubawi, a world-class sire of sires</li>
<li>A Juddmonte homebred, from the iconic stallion-making family of Hasili - a blue hen mare whose descendants are responsible for 53 Group 1 performers</li>
<li>Bred on the potent Dubawi - Frankel cross, he is the first foal out of Obligate a Group 2-winning and Group 1-placed daughter of Frankel</li>
<li>Won a very strong renewal of the Gr.1 Lockinge Stakes (in the second fastest time in history) beating four Group 1 winners, including three Guineas winners (Rosallion, Notable Speech and Fallen Angel)</li>
<li>Reached a Timeform Rating of 124</li>
<li>“Lead Artist is a very powerful and well-balanced miler from a superb family." John Gosden, trainer (2025)</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.g1goldmine.com/g1g/ui/stallionmatch-result?for=G1StallionMatch%20-%20JUDDMONTE-BANSTEADMANOR-LEADARTIST.htm"><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-1344 size-full" src="https://cms.juddmonte.com/content/uploads/sites/3/2020/09/G1Goldmine-logo.png" alt="" width="138" height="48" /></a>

Winner of 4 races from 3 to 4 years including:
Won
<ul>
<li>Lockinge Stakes Gr.1, 8f, Newbury</li>
<li>Darley Stakes Gr.3, 9f, Newmarket</li>
<li>Thoroughbred Stakes Gr.3, 8f, Goodwood</li>
<li>Novice Stakes, 8f, York</li>
</ul>
Second
<ul>
<li>Bahrain International Trophy Gr.2, 10f, Rachid Equestrian &amp; Horseracing Club</li>
</ul>
Third
<ul>
<li>Sir Henry Cecil Stakes L., 8f, Newmarket</li>
</ul>

<div id="attachment_10835" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10835" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-10835" src="https://cms.juddmonte.com/content/uploads/sites/3/2025/09/racingfotos_92723729408-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" srcset="https://cms.juddmonte.com/content/uploads/sites/3/2025/09/racingfotos_92723729408-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.juddmonte.com/content/uploads/sites/3/2025/09/racingfotos_92723729408-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.juddmonte.com/content/uploads/sites/3/2025/09/racingfotos_92723729408-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.juddmonte.com/content/uploads/sites/3/2025/09/racingfotos_92723729408.jpg 1224w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Lead Artist wins the Lockinge Stakes. Photo Ian Headington / Racingfotos</div>

Lead Artist

Media

Group 1 Lockinge Stakes, Newbury - 17 May 2025

Site links

UK

Ireland

USA