Here's hoping the sole crop of Roaring Lion cubs do their father proud

This article was first published in August 2019

The death of a champion racehorse aged only four is self-evidently a sad and shocking state of affairs, but the loss of Roaring Lion to colic this week was especially hard to take.

Qatar Racing's stallion had ranked as one of the most exciting prospects to retire to stud in Europe in years. He will now join the likes of Shergar, Ajdal, Mozart, Dubai Millennium and Saint Liam in a band of star-crossed stallions who delivered just one crop of foals.

Chief among the reasons for Roaring Lion's enhanced breeding appeal was his admirable race record. He showed high-class form at two – a big tick for commercial breeders – by winning the Royal Lodge Stakes and finishing a neck second to Saxon Warrior in the Racing Post Trophy, and danced every dance at three.

In an unusually ambitious campaign he took third in the Craven Stakes and fifth in the 2,000 Guineas, and won the Dante before running a brave third in the Derby. He then reeled off victories in the Eclipse, Juddmonte International, Irish Champion Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

His signature triumph was the Juddmonte International, almost a year to the day before his untimely death, when he slammed runner-up Poet's Word by three and a quarter lengths in a display of raw power and sheer class.

Roaring Lion offered breeders something a little different from a pedigree perspective, too. Yes, he was a male-line descendant of the ubiquitous Sadler's Wells, but in his case he was by El Prado's North American champion sire son Kitten's Joy. He was also out of Vionnet, a Grade 1-placed Street Sense half-sister to Grade 2 winners Moulin De Mougin and Schiaparelli.

The team at Tweenhills Stud in Gloucestershire took enormous pleasure in showing off Roaring Lion to mare owners and his many fans once he had arrived at his new home after an abortive trip to the Breeders' Cup, and they should be commended for their generosity in keeping the public informed and entertained at each step of the stallion starting his second career.

For his part Roaring Lion, an absurdly photogenic dapple grey, conducted himself with complete professionalism as he was paraded on open days; with the imperious air of an entire horse who knows he is special and the centre of attention, but ever the gentleman in his manners. We should be cautious of anthropomorphising horses, but the young sire had charisma in spades.

Unsurprisingly, Qatar Racing and outside breeders greeted Roaring Lion enthusiastically in his first season this year standing at a fee of £40,000, and Weatherbys records him as having covered 133 mares.

The book includes Group/Grade 1 winners Bateel, Giofra, Golden Lilac, Lightening Pearl, Molly Malone, Seal Of Approval, Shonan Adela and Simple Verse, and the dams of celebrities Dolniya, Kitten's Dumplings, Marmelo and Poet's Word.

Roaring Lion would no doubt have received another star-studded book of mares in his first season at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand, where he fell ill after leaving quarantine last month.

His premature death will leave connections heartbroken. If there is one small sliver of consolation, it lies in the stud records of those other stallions who left a sole crop of foals.

Dubai Millennium gave his owner Sheikh Mohammed a Classic winner and outstanding sire in Dubawi, while Mozart supplied such high-class talents as Amadeus Wolf and Dandy Man. Over in America, Saint Liam achieved no less than a Horse of the Year in Havre De Grace.

Then there is George Washington, who sired only one foal, let alone one crop. Despite such a fragile legacy, he has managed to keep his name in notable pedigrees as his daughter Date With Destiny became dam of Group 3 winner Beautiful Morning.

The Roaring Lion cubs will now find themselves in the limelight when they arrive early next year, when they head to the sales and when they first appear on the track. It would be fitting if the pride contained a champion bred and raced by Qatar Racing.

After such a rotten turn of luck, it is the least they deserve.

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