'They like to have fun and race top-class horses' - Juddmonte's champion Idiomatic to race on in 2024

Idiomatic, Juddmonte's homebred multiple Grade 1 winner and the leading candidate for 2023 champion older dirt female honours, will return to racing this year at the age of five.

"Prince Khalid was never averse to racing on. He was always very sporting and his three sons are sporting as well," said Garrett O'Rourke, general manager for Juddmonte USA, referring to the late Khalid Abdullah, who founded Juddmonte and died in 2021. "They like to have fun and race top-class horses.

"After the Breeders' Cup she got a nice break. We then did a full checkout of her, and she got a clean bill of health. We are putting the tack back on her at the moment and will give her a couple of weeks and then send her back to [trainer] Brad [Cox]."

Recognising how difficult it is have Grade 1-calibre horses in the racing stable, Abdullah would enjoy watching his top athletes compete as long as they were healthy, sound and engaged in racing, according to O'Rourke. Abdullah raced his multiple European champion mare Enable at five and six to see if she could capture a third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victory. 

Prince Saud Abdullah: in charge of Juddmonte alongside his two brothers Credit: Mark Cranham

"The first thing you have to answer is from a soundness and competitive nature point of view. Is the horse still at the absolute top of its game?" said O'Rourke. "This is where the elite horses separate themselves. The reason they are so good is that they are so sound, so competitive, and so talented."

Also with mares, O'Rourke said, there is less pressure to retire them at the top of their game, as is the case with stallion prospects. 

"Financially it makes sense to retire stallions when they are at their most revered," he said. "You can make a bigger financial splash their first year. 

"With fillies, they can produce at most one foal a year – you hope. When they are as good as Idiomatic or Enable, what is the likelihood that first foal is going to be as good as them? And even if the foal is that good, that is not going to be for another four years down the line. Most of them will not produce something as good as themselves, so if they can race another year, why not?"

O'Rourke said he anticipate Idiomatic's schedule will be more selective than it was last year.

Idiomatic: "With every single one, she surprised and outperformed our expectations for the year"Credit: Sean M. Haffey

"I don't think we'll plan to race her nine times like we did last year, but we did that because every step was a pleasant surprise," he said. "We were trying to win an allowance race, then trying to win a stakes race, and then trying to win a Grade 3, up to a Grade 2 to a Grade 1. With every single one, she surprised and outperformed our expectations for the year."

Idiomatic won five consecutive stakes last year, from the Shawnee Stakes at Churchill Downs in June through to the Breeders' Cup Distaff. Along the way, she captured the Delaware Handicap, Personal Ensign Stakes and Spinster Stakes. The daughter of Curlin ended the year with an 8-1-0 record and earned $2,400,280.

O'Rourke said it is up to Cox to set the mare's schedule but the endgame would be to see her defend her Breeders' Cup title, similar to the thrill Juddmonte enjoyed last autumn when Elite Power won his second consecutive Breeders' Cup Sprint. Elite Power, also by Curlin, enters stud this year at Juddmonte at $50,000.

"For the Breeders' Cup and the sport in general, if there is good reason to keep our superstars in racing, then it is well worthwhile," said O'Rourke. "We create more heroes, get more visibility and create more fans. 

"When they are sound, they are competitive, and they are that good. This is what the sport is all about, breeding them to get to this level and enjoying them. We'll see how she handles it. It doesn't have to be as good as last year, but somewhat similar would be very satisfying."

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