Khalid Abdullah deserves the credit for Bluestocking’s Arc victory - and what a legacy Juddmonte's founder left

The fact Juddmonte’s celebrated silks were carried to a record seventh Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday was duly mentioned in dispatches, but the notable feat deserves to be chronicled at greater length.

It was poignant that Bluestocking’s victory took Juddmonte beyond the six Arcs won by Marcel Boussac, who was a titan of the French turf for five decades from the 1930s. That detail alone pays generous tribute to Juddmonte’s creator, the late Prince Khalid Abdullah. While Abdullah’s standing among the elite was already secure, this was a bewitching way to gild the lily.

There is a pleasing symmetry to the fact that Abdullah’s infatuation with the sport coincided with a bankrupt Boussac selling what was left of his prized bloodstock in 1980. The baton passed metaphorically from one to the other. Although saturated by a combination of close inbreeding and the use of lesser sires, Boussac’s broodmare band retained its potency. It would later become pivotal to the success of the Aga Khan’s Studs.